Customer Reviews

grateful dead: fillmore west 1969, the complete recordings, limited ed, 10-cd

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This was released as a 10,000 limited edition set. Sales had fallen off the last couple of years on Grateful Dead releases before this was released and it was thought that 10,000 would be enough for everyone who wanted one to be able to get one. Unfortunately, this was not the case. At the time, the Dead still hadn't entered into a full time contract with Rhino/Warner Bros and this box was sold by the Dead without Rhino's help as Rhino choose to go with a three cd edit believing that people wouldn't be buying different versions of the same song. There currently is a push by some inside GD folks to get this rereleased in some form. Part of the hold up seems to be something to do with the artwork. The Dead are currently about halfway into their contract with Rhino/Warner Bros. at the end of which alo the rights will return to the band. I think that this will more than likely be rereleased with slimmed down artwork and/or rereleased at the end of the Dead's current contract with Rhino/Warner Brothers.


By late '68, the Dead had become in debt to their then record company Warner Brothers. The band had begun recording their third album for the label and were experimenting with the then new 16 track recorder. It was during this period that an idea arose, "why not use the 16 track tape recorder to record live shows and make a live album?". This also meant that, since making an live album was relatively inexpensive, they could pay off some of the debt. The band originally tried recording the New Year's Eve show but as is the case with new recording gear, it didn't go well. The band give it another try, recording several runs starting in January and running into March (1-24, 25, 26-69 Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco, 2-11, 12-69 Fillmore East in New York City and 2-27, 28/3-1, 2-69 at the Fillmore West.


2-27-69 (Thursday):

The first set opens but the band seems a bit distracted and, while there are moments, the first set is only so so. The band comes out for the second set and whatever the problems were in the first set have been worked out by now. The band starts with a nice Dupree's Diamond Blues before leading into an even better jam of Mountains Of The Moon->Dark Star->Saint Stephen->The Eleven->Turn On Your Lovelight for the ages. The Cosmic Charlie enocre is the icing on the cake.


2-28-69 (Friday):

The first set tonight gets off to a much better start with a great Morning Dew and features A quality versions of songs like Doin' That Rag and I'm A King Bee among others. The second set starts with a great That's It For The Other One->Dark Star->Saint Stephen->The Eleven->Death Don't Have No Mercy which must have had steam coming off the stage. That's It For The Other One is better than yesterday's first set version while the rest isn't quite as good as yesterday's second set but good nonetheless. The show ends with an explosive rendition of Alligator->Caution (Do Not Step On Tracks)->Feedback->We Bid You Goodnight.


3-1-69 (Saturday):

The first set starts off with a jam of That's It For The Other One->New Potato Caboose->Doin' That Rag-> Cosmic Charlie. That's It For the Other One, Doin' That Rag and Cosmic Charlie are hot while the New Potato Caboose was already becoming a bit of a rarity by this point in time as the band is somewhat rusty on it. The second set starts with good versions of Dupree's Diamond Blues->Mountains Of The Moon. Dark Star->Saint Stephen->The Eleven->Turn On Your Lovelight is downright blistering. The encore is a terrible version of Hey Jude.


3-2-69 (Sunday):

The first set stars with a classic fantastic take on Dark Star->Saint Stephen->The Eleven->Turn On Your Lovelight. The second set opens with a nice Doin' That Rag. That's It For The Other One->Death Don't Have No Mercy is a mindblower while a great Morning Dew gives us a chance to recover.The show ends with another blistering run through of Alligator->Caution (Do Not Step On Tracks)->Feedback->We Bid You Goodnight.

Obviously, you can't buy this. You know that if you're here looking. Maybe if you're lucky Amazon will point up a few used copies for sale. If there are any, be aggressive and get one. If there aren't, go to ebay and do a search. Because frankly, my friend, if you are a deadhead, there is no greater grail than this. Only 10,000 copies were originally issued and they are now very eagerly sought after. I had to pony up more than $200 for my copy, and it doesn't have a case, a bonus disc, or particularly good packaging (the booklet is falling apart). But ya know what? I don't care. I'm ecstatically happy, because I have two versions of "Dark Star" (February 1 and 2, 1969) that you can't get anywhere else. For those alone, this was worth it. And the topper: Those weren't even the best part. The highlight was hearing the "Dark Star" that we all know so well from 'Live/Dead' in the fresh context of coming out of "Mountains of the Moon." I mean, I knew that in these early sessions "Mountains" tended to precede DS, but it wasn't until I heard this rendition, with newly remastered sound, that I was able to rediscover my all-time favorite piece of music in a thrilling new way. The evocation of the intro is different, the sound of the guitars is different (it has to do with reverb)...

I really can't be much more specific. All I can say is: If "Dark Star" is as fundamentally essential a piece of music to you as it is to me, you HAVE TO track this down. Not: You ought to. Not: Hey, it would be a good idea. No. You: HAVE TO.

Regardless of cost. Whatever you pay, it will be worth it.

A marvel to hear, you get every note recorded in state of the art (for that time) sound, which means it sounds amazing.

If you can get your hands on this set in a reasonable way please do so but over $600 is too much.

I was lucky enough to get one back in 2005, really is a treasure to my collection. I wish now I had got a few, never thought they would be so hot, get it. It's more valuable then gold.

This 10 cd boxed set provides a unique, all-encompassing, aural insight into the historic 4 show feb/march 1969 Fillmore West run that spawned "Live Dead".

I didn't get into the Grateful Dead until 2007, long after this set was sold out for good. Over the last 3 years I have eagerly snapped up whatever recordings i could find, but this one had ALWAYS been out of my reach. I was NOT going to pay more than $200 for this set for the simple fact that it isn't worth it. Not that the music isn't good (believe me, it's beyond great!) but because having to pay exorbitant sums for these recordings is just plain stupid and completely the fault of the record company. There is absolutely no reason that all of these "limited pressing" box sets and "bonus discs" have to be released like this. For guys late to the game, like me, that got into the Dead well after releases from the Vault started coming out and WAAAAY after the original albums were released (i wasn't even born when my favorite period of the Dead occurred...) what are we supposed to do if we want to hear this music? I suggest that you do what i have done: Find a torrent website and download them for free. I now can listen to any and all of the bonus discs that came with various releases from [...] whenever i please. I have listened to this run of shows from 69 for 2 weeks straight now and it is a mind blowing experience to hear this stuff. The worst part of all this is I WOULD have paid for all of this "out of print" material if the record company had only given me an option to do so. There's no reason they can't offer all of the bonus discs and this 1969 box set as digital downloads, they do for the Winterland box sets. But they won't, they want to be greedy, so to hell with them. I hate doing it, but i'll rip them off in a heartbeat before i let their greedy practices enable someone to rip me off. I have seen this set posted for over $2,000!!! Allow me to repeat that because it is pretty important. I HAVE SEEN THIS COMPLETE FILLMORE 1969 BOX SET POSTED FOR OVER $2,000!!!! $2,000 is absolutely criminal for some greedy @$$-hole to charge. It's ridiculous that a person would charge that much, but it happens. It's ridiculous that a person would pay that much for it, but it happens. It shouldn't happen, ever, but it does. It really sucks that by downloading it you don't get the physical cds or the booklet and pictures and all of the good stuff that comes with physically purchasing a box set. I don't have the opportunity to hold this set in my hands or set it on the mantle and show it off with my Winterland '73 and '77 box sets, (which i not only DID buy from [...], but purchased early enough on both to get the bonus discs with them.) but i can listen to this truly amazing music and that is the important part. Until [...] changes their practices and allows all of their music to be purchased by anyone at anytime, this is what i'll continue to do if i can't come up with the money early enough to order their releases with a bonus disc. To hell with them.

This rare and quite astounding 10 disc collection (eleven if you count the bonus disc given by Grateful Dead Productions) is the consummate Grateful Dead offering to date.
The set captures the historic run of shows at the legendary Fillmore West in San Francisco giving us both shows of each night. In the 60's and 70's Bill Graham would have his acts play two shows, early and a late show. This is the first time that GDP has multi-show run and released that run in it's entirety. It is amazing...

The set is limited to 10,000 worldwide and Grateful Dead Productions has stated that "when they are gone they're gone" and will never be reissued.
Get one while you can. You will hear the Dead at the height of one of their musical peaks.