I think this is a Dick or a Dave. Phil saves it by his big beefy tone and dropping heavy thud curtains. Me and Pie Rat and the Gooch were at this show and Gooch totally freaked because he thought he realized everryone at the show was some kind of demon and they were going to kill us. Pie Rat freaked cause he saw ants and spiders crawling all over the place, which may have been true, actually. From Jack to Eyes I was seeing the stage like a giant book with the lyrics on each page like I was reading it. On the way home I got out my notebook and wrote a humungous epic poem Scorched Earth Lullaby. I later gave it to this girl I liked but she lost it that year at the Cobo show. Everytime I hear Stella Blue I think of her, even though her name was Margie.

Smoker of a show, the 2nd set is the shit that legends are made of. The Estimated>Eyes is one the benchmarks that others try to compete with. I am amazed that these almost five decade analog tapes sound as good as they do.

Did anyone else hear that pin drop during Stella? Talk about mesmorizing a crowd!! Everyone focused on Jerry, not a fucking peep...
Kudos to all involved making this incredible time capsule available to us all. A true blessing we should all never take for granted. I for one are externally grateful...

And by the way, Betty Cantor is a goddess and eternal hottie...
Will you marry me, Betty? ; )

I can't believe what I am reading here. Some people are actually debating the merits of one over the other? THIS is what is worth discussing? There is absolutely no lack of credit for what Betty did. She has been iconic for decades. I started trading tapes in 85 and I soon learned about Bettyboards just like how anyone today who immerses themselves into the archives learn about Betty. That does not mean that the work of Charlie Miller is any less important in the effort to deliver sound as clean and crisp as possible. Many people whose names we don't all easily recognize deserve praise. How about those people who make perfect patches for missing parts of songs? I used to splice cassette tapes back when there was no digital programs to use, but no way I won't give credit to all the work everyone puts in to these ventures. Betty rules! Charlie rules! The end.

Oh and everything about this show smokes. 5 stars to my ears.

None better

I grew up in Atlanta & there is no doubt that anyone that showed up to this show had a wonderful time!!! The Fox is probably one of the best venues to arrive at tripping. I only WISH I had gotten to see the Grateful Dead play there. I got to see many shows at the Fox. And I got to see the Grateful Dead about 70 times from '88 to '95 but I would have dearly loved to have been present for these 2 shows. Or the 2 in '85 as well. I'm not sure exactly how many times the Dead played at the Fox in Atlanta but I do know they played at the Omni 36 times and I was at 22 of them. But I will say the Dead ALWAYS played great shows in Atlanta. Be it the Fox or the Omni you will never run across a bad show that was played in Atlanta!

Thank you Betty for doing an immaculate job on the capture. Silky smooth show here and @Lakeland on the 21st.

Always thought seventy eight was the last good year
Jerry’s voice was still sweet, not scratching yet.
The band blew up after Egypt
Jerry was going downhill
Too bad

Can't get more special than that! Wait, yes it can--it's also my birthday! I'm only up to Ship of Fools but I can already rate this a 5 star show. Very fine recording, to boot. Happy Birthday to me!

First Of All No Offense To Charlie,...But, The Sentiments Of Previous Reviewers Are Well Founded. Betty Is a Maestro,Charlie's An Engineer. Augustus Stanley, Bob Matthews And Betty Cantor Jackson The Trinity Of The Sonic Temple. Her Work With The Dead And To Me The Garcia Band Is The Best Field Work To Date. Technology Has Made Things Easier But Not Better. Listen To Her Work With Chris Robinson Brotherhood For What A "Master" (No Pun Intended) Can Still Do. The Betty's Blends Series Is Fine Work And Well Worth A Listen (Or Two...) Thanks Betty, We Love You And Always Will. (We Love You Too Charlie, But Blood Is Thicker Than Water And Betty Be Family.)

It says transferred by Charlie Miller and that's what he did. Betty deserves to receive more or "the" credit and certainly to be named as the recorder of these shows. She recorded it. End.

Yes I'm one of those lazy assholes who has not been part of the active GD community. After reading the review about the 35 year old who has not seen the Dead.I felt obligated to comment. Not sure where to begin. Haven't been to 359 shows. First show 3-24-73 Last show 3-19-95. This show is real quality. Only saw a hand full this good in audio. IT WAS ALWAYS ABOUT THE ATMOSPHERE, DEADHEADS UNITE. Will try to go back and add color to all the shows I've been to.

I saw the review of the guy that said "no one under the age of 35 has ever seen the dead" - TDCarowindz You wanted to hear stories about road trips from those who actually saw the Grateful Dead with Jerry. Well here goes......I started in 1973 when the Grateful Dead came to the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. In high school, I kept hearing about the 3 older students who became famous but went to our school. Michael Hartman was one of those students (Mickey Hart). I won a raffle that year and the prize was Europe 72 so when the Grateful Dead came to the Nassau Coliseum I went to see them.....they appeared with NRPS on March 19th 1973 and the rest was history. I spent 22 years on tour and 357 shows later with the full band in the USA - CANADA - AND THE SURROUNDING UNIVERSE. The one thing I loved to do was to go see them on New Years in San Francisco. I went every year during the Christmas and New Year's season in the 1980s. I went for 5 years. used to go whale watching first in Monterrey Bay for 3 days and then head to San Francisco for the shows. In 22 years I have a lot of road trips stories (Hells Angels, Dead Heads out on parole from Folsom, Cheysa Cheysa smokers from Shanghai, hot surfers from Monterrey Bay) Next story.....I added 2 other concerts over-seas 20 years after Jerry died....so my grand total is 359 concerts in 43 years......one of the 2 concerts was Mickey Hart and his band and then I saw a screening of the June 28th show from Santa Clara, California Fare Thee Well 2015

Without trying to sound too sour grapes, I wish the actual person who mixed and recorded these shows actually got the credit for doing so. I go through TONS of these amazing sounding shows from this period Dead [quite a bit of the 70's] and often notice that a pertinent name is missing. That person who's name is missing is also a friend and it just bums me out a little bit because I know that friend's road has not been an easy one. I wonder how Betty Cantor-Jackson feels about being obscure to many of those other than the hard-core who know these recordings are hers - the "Betty-boards" - and not "Charlie boards"? I dare not share this with her for nothing positive comes from sharing her obscurity on these pages yet Charlie is revered. Sad... [and yes, I am expecting to be lambasted here for posting this and so be it. I'm happy to share my response if so...] :P

UN-FREAKING-REAL.

An excellent show & great recording.

I attended a show 10/25/85 when Deal was the opener although nowhere close to this Deal. this is a solid May 77 fare but not epic or even close really but I sure love this version of Jack-A-Roe. the Eyes here is pretty tasty too and the High Time is one for the ages. Good solid show but in a month made of classics gotta go with a 4

Well this show is epic!!! It really splits my hairs that this show is taped over another or the download is faulty because between songs you can hear different music in the white noise. Sad --- The show still kills

i've been hitting "this day in history" for quit a while now, its a great way to systematically stock your library, and has given me more insight into the tours and apparent cycles. the boys really hit the road hard in spring, maybe with renewed energy and excitement, anyway it seems to me that the sweet months are april and may, but then again, like we all know the band could pull a rabbit outta their hat any time and weave that special magic that make them who they are. i can't say anything more about the honey dripping from these legendary shows, bc i wasnt there and all this touches us individually on intimate planes that mold, shape and change us, but i can say something about the recording and transfer. first of all its a "Mr. Charlie" that commands that you have to lend an ear, but this is just studio quality, for that i give it five stars. i am sure it didn't need an engineer to clean it up when they packaged and released it in the new box set, at least they got it right finally and put out the whole shows and didnt chop them up....so these boards are probably coming down soon, although i have noticed some commercial releases have remained posted, with that said, stream now.

to all the heads that attended a show, when you download one, please leave a comment in the reviews, so many were there but not that many leave a testimony to their road trips, tells us what happened that day, its always great to hear the stories. regrettably, almost no one under the age of 35 has ever seen the dead, so please add a little of your own color to the fabric here on the archive....time to donate!

the estimated>eyes is so damn groovy
tight show overall, like most shows in this era of the dead

This whole concert is very good also. Hard to believe considering the shows around it. They sound tight straight through. Supplication, High Time, Eyes Of Th World and The Other One are excellent. There are not many superb Other One's post '73, so this is another testament to how well Grateful Dead performed in the spring of 1977.

One of the best '77 versions. Sweet Eyes and Stella too...a very good second set.

This show has always had me come back for a listen. Whether the reggae-twanged early version of Jack A Roe, the soulful High Time, that bumpity Mexicali with Jerry philling in for Phil's backup vocals, or that intro jam into Eyes, this show is noteworthy for many reasons.

To add my two cents to whatever was being argued or debated about Donna and Ketih's contributions verses Brent era stuff, I really think its futile to try say that either era was "better or worse".

There are many gems hidden throughout the 80s that many 70s lovers would have dismissed and not listened to. 85', 87', 89', and 90' are all peak years and feature undeniably strong performances. But anybody who says that the Brent band was better than the Keith and Donna band is smoking too much DMT. It's just not a worthy tit-for-tat. The band was younger, more ambitious, and playing longer, more drawn-out jams in the 70s.

If you don't like Donna's off-key vocals, then there is an argument to be made about how every member of the Dead really actually sucks at singing (none of them have traditional on-key vocals). And Keith did go downhill no-doubt (some shows from this month even display sloppy fills on his part) but listening to his contributions throughout the 70s, and the fact that Jerry had him as part of his band, show that they were integral to the scene, and not to be undermined.

I almost like Keith's often submissive approach to playing, because it allows Garcia, Lesh, and drummers to play more furiously, and as for "From the Heart of Me", I think we all deserved a bathroom break at some point, same goes for "I Will Take You Home". Snoooze.

this show is amazing and it is saddening to me that people feel so all dead powerful that they can say "donna sounds garbage and the band is out of sync, sorry but i call it like it is" and feel like that is that, anyone who saw a dead show cant be that stuck up, can they?

great recording amazing sound, dick picked the night before, listened to that show to many times and am very happy to happy to find this

Everyone has a favorite and this one is mine. In my opinion there isnt one misplaced note, not one lyric flub and the band plays together with a wonderful intense chemistry. The transition is smooth and effortless. This one is the best I have ever heard and my next favorite is 6-8-1977. The show is a 5 star as most of the May run is....the music played the band and the band kept playing on!!!

Not sure how to search for that, but I think so.

Great CM sound, what else could you want?

Peace,

Bob

My favorite Eyes, along with 3/29/90. Not too fast. Not too thin. Just exactly PERFECT. Jerry floats like a butterfly through the first 5 minutes. 9/3/77 and 11/5/77 do not hold a candle to this one. Check it out...

Is it possible to get an audio hard-on ?

Yeah, I think it might be. :-)

Recordings of this quality spoil you for everything else.

Thank you, Charlie. (And thanks for rattling the dust off the top of my sub woofer as well ! ) ;-)

Such a phenomenal show, I love all of April-May '77 like most of you and this is a personal favorite. This show has 2 of the all-time great versions of Stella and High Time for sure. I mean you got hot versions of MNS, Deal, Estimated>Eyes and the last sequence revolving around TOO is amazing. Whenever they played certain songs in '77 that were rare (TOO, PITB) they always played it with that extra oomph.

And also I know what you guys are saying - I'm a huge Keith fan (not so much Donna) and the 70's are definitely their best decade, but I actually love at least a few shows every year, up until 1994 at least. Honestly I don't think these guys were ever weak at all. Certain times they were more on-point but literally every show I've ever heard, even the ones that overall weren't that great, still had at least one special moment.

You expressed in your words what i have always thought. This is a great show. I could never warm up to the sound of Brent's keyboard

I just had to chime in on the review regarding 80s dead vs. this show. While there are good shows from the 80s, especially 1980-1982, I just don't see how that period can even be compared to this stuff.

Brent was definitely a talented player and singer but frankly the setlists suffered shortly after he joined the band and a couple years into the 80s Jerry went downhill (some combination of substance abuse and enjoying JGB more than the Dead I would guess). Add the presence of Drums/Space in every show instead of good songs and they lost me for sure. I always find myself skipping though shows after 1981 to find the "good stuff" while 70s shows I listen to all the way through.

I know there's an element of to each his own but you have to recognize that the furious pace of some early 80s shows was a result of cocaine and often times they were playing way too fast on some songs..so much so that they lost some of the feeling and Jerry 's throat was so numb he couldn't even sing a lot of the time.

This show is classic, tight, excellent Grateful Dead. I generally prefer 1972-1975 but there is no doubting that the band was in a peak in 1977 and some of the shows are just unreal...including this one.

Just an unbelievable Stella Blue. I loooooove how slow it is that allows Jerry to really dig in. Okay, the final notes aren't there as they're ready to transition into A&A but still this has to be a top 5 performance of this song. Just beautiful. RIP Jerry

up till 2:30 in Deal phil bobby and keith are all but wholly missing from the mix. once they kick in, you'll twist in your seat. Its a spectacular little mess-up in the recording, really showing off what every member of this band brings to the table.

PS not a shabby show either :)

i'm getting ready for work, can't wait for the second set when i can partake of some kind buds this afternoon. my first show at the captial center was TOO>Stella. and I agree, it feels so good to feel 20 agian

During all Jerry jams it is wild bill K that goes right with Jerry on the rythym and the pace, Phil and Bobby will always come in at the perfect moment as the Dead had a way of intermind relay between each other, that is what makes the dead special in my mind, my 1st show was Providence in 73 or 74, the police ask me to leave when they found a brandy bottle in my flannel shirt pocket, left the bag of herb though, who would thunk it, saw scattered shows in 70's william and mary college is a fond remembrance then saw every show within 5 hours of dc in the 80-88 range, the dead were so awesome at knowing what each was playing and thinking, the band beyond desription, Jehohovah's favotoite choir, thanks to Charlie Miller, I only listen and dl his remasters, wonderful Thanks

how great is the internet, i can surf willy nilly and come across music like this, this show is great, content-wise and sound-wise, god bless everyone who made this happen, where i can listen to this stuff

Besides disagreeing with the whole view that Brent brought more to the band than Keith and Donna, I find it most interesting that so many of us think the 1977 period was when the Dead were at their best. Certainly, a good argument can be made that other periods were better, and I fully respect that position. From my perspective, both musicians offered an important complementary role to the vocals, Jerry's guitar and the rhythm section of the band. Logically, they had to have if you focus in on how good the Dead were throughout the entire time these two were in the band. I saw some great show in the 1980's but, without a doubt, the concerts I went to in the 70's were the best. I've said this before on these pages.....Donna added something to many of the tunes Jerry and Bob sung. That female voice, when it was calm and softly sitting in the background, was an important element of what was going on throughout the bands prime years.

Eyes through Stella is pure gold. Jerry is on a mission. A stand-out, middle-of-the-second-set jam from an overlooked show during month of stand-out shows.

I really can't say enough about the Stella Blue from this show. The transition from the Other One and the excruciatingly slow and luscious pace make this 15+ minute Stella an all-timer.

Very nice. Great sound quality as you would expect from a Charlie remaster. It is thin on bass for those of you who have wimpy stereos like I do.

Can someone please tell me how to download this show please

5 stars to the tapers and Charlie for an excellent job.

i love the bass tone and the overall brightness of their sound during this period... having grown up on 80s GD though, the tempo just seems so sluggish to me; Keith is on autopilot most of these jams and Donna is just awful, very rarely singing in pitch -- if the band is on top of its game it is despite of keith & donna. (sorry for the harsh assessment but my ears don't deceive me.)

guess you had to be there?

really trying to branch out beyond Brent but w/ very few exceptions the rest of it doesn't really ever measure up.
what's a good starting point?

wish there was a way to zero out Donna's sucky vocals, lame.
does anybody honestly think she was a value-add at any time in this band?
i think "from the heart of me" and "france" might be as much as i can stomach from her; "passenger" backups perhaps.

What a wonderful Eyes! I have been listening to it several times over sitting here in my office grading papers. I have no idea what I would to without the Dead Archive each day. Thanks so much!

An excellent offering from the spring of 1977, a period when the band was in sublime form. The highlight to me was the exquisite 10 minute jam out of Estimated that segues into a joyful Eyes intro jam, which clocks 5 minutes even before Jerry sings the first verse. The recording: crisp and effervescent. The band took off at he end of 1974, and came back leaner with a faster tempo and less of the jazzy feel of 1974, yet they never forgot what they were great at.
Thanks Dead, thanks Carlie Miller, thanks Archive!!

Hey! Check out the "Jack-a-Reggae".

A nice little '77 trip here. Thanks for the journey down memory lane.

Best Jack I've heard in recent memory. Great sounding Miller! Eyes is great as well, but still, none but Jack a-Sailor!

I'm giving 5 stars just for the "EYES", alone. This sound is super-crispy-CLEAN. Jerry just rips it up, as he usally does. I have heard some pretty good EYES jams and this one is definately in my top 10. THIS STUFF IS SICK!!!!!