Grateful Dead archivist and legacy manager, David Lemieux.

June 30th, I think it's got the highest points in this box set with the Shakedown Street.

[upbeat music] First set has some incredible music.

It's got a great Keep On Growin'.

Oh-

Oh-Let It Grow soared in 1985.

That's a tough song to play, and it's a tough song to play when you up the tempo of it.

And in '85, they really upped the tempo of Let It Grow, and they nailed it.

Grateful Dead archivist and legacy manager, David Lemieux.

There's a lot of good music in Hershey Park.

Maybe subconsciously the reason SPAC and the Hershey Park never came out is 'cause I could never decide which of the two, because many times when we went to the mid-'80s to come up with a Dead show that ended up being an '85, an '84 or an '83 or an '88, um, a lot of times SPAC and Hershey Park were given serious consideration, and it just never happened.

[Don't Cry Anymore] Don't cry now.

Don't you cry.

Don't you cry anymore.

La, da, da, da.

Fish are rising up like birds.

They manage the Dick's Picks series, the Road Trip series, and now Dave's Picks, which comes out quarterly in a limited number of releases that come out every year.

I can honestly say that after 36 Dick's Picks and 17 Road Trips and now 59 Dave's Picks and countless box sets and on and on

In 1984, Weir jettisoned Lazy Lightning, but looked for a way to keep Supplication in action.

In the spring of '85, they started experimenting with using the Supplication jam, and it was always really good.

And the nice thing was it was sort of like a Playing in the Band jam, but one that didn't resolve, so you're not getting the ending of the song.

[jam playing] I love the Supplication jam.

They build on it like it's a regular Supplication coming out of, out of, uh, Lazy Lightning, and it's very 1985-ish.

They, they weren't doing it in '87 onward.

[jam playing]

Playing in the Band generally had a few places to go.

David Lemieux set the controls for the heart of the band's 20th anniversary year of 1985.

There are a number of shows from 1985, in particular this summer, that I've always had my eye on for a Dave's Picks for a box set.

The Greek '85, um, has in- sort of intentionally never been released as a Dave's Picks out of the thought of doing either a three-show nine CD box from the Greek shows or possibly something bigger with the Greek from other years all combined, the way we do that sometimes.

It...

We kinda settled on doing it, and then I figured, let's do the, the Greek, and then I started, um, thinking, well, you know, in typical Lemieux fashion of, well, let's get more music out to people, how about a 20 CD box, uh, 20 CDs for 20 years? [upbeat music] It's summer 1985.

It's the 20th anniversary of the Grateful Dead, but within that are these seven very distinct shows that tell the story of the three nights at the Greek that open up the summer of 1985, and then later on in the tour, four shows, uh, towards the end of the tour.

chocolateAnd two at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland, and maybe a few places between.

It's incredibly high energy Grateful Dead that they were also taking chances on.

[upbeat music] Grateful Dead archivist and legacy manager, David Lemieux.

Around 2002, when Phil and Bobby and Mickey and Billy went to Alpine and did those Terrapin Station family reunion shows, Bear came over for it, and he came back to the Bay Area to see his friends and family, and he came into the vault one day.

And I spent a day with him.

It, it was so much great insight and conversation, and then as he was leaving, he pointed and he said, "Hey, that box..." 'Cause Bear had his whole section of non-Grateful Dead, uh, which was all the things he recorded, which I never touched.

We stored it.

We took good care of it, but it wasn't ours to touch and listen to, so that was off limits.

But Bear said, "Oh, that box there, I know what's in there.

They're dancing in Chicago.

[timer ticking] [timer dings] David Lemieux.

I got one here.

We all now refer to the skull and lightning bolt as the Steal Your Face.

Bear and Bob Thomas actually had a different name, but it's become known as that.

So, like, when you see that little logo on my shirt right now, it's, "Oh, that's a Steal Your Face." Well, it's not.

It's the album that's called Steal Your Face with that on the cover.

So, yeah, it's, it's interesting how that became that.

David Lemieux.

Grateful Dead archivist and legacy manager David Lemieux.

At the end of May, they did, uh, some, uh, sessions.

Yeah, and that's when they were really testing out the new material, the Lazy Lightning supplications, but also trying, "Let's give, uh, Attics of My Life a try." [gentle music]

[singing] In the attics of my life

lifeAnd I think that would have been a great addition in 76, primarily because of how well Donna Jean was singing.

I think they really could have blown the roof off the place with That X of My Life.

A broken angel sings from a guitar.

To me, the big glaring thing is I'd become so used to the Dead's live albums having at least one big jam.

So you have Dark Star plus the 11 and Lovely, but you got, Live Dead is one big jam across the four sides.

And then, uh, Skull, uh, Skull and Roses has a whole side of The Other One, plus that great Wharf Rat and the not Fig.

Even Dead Set a few years later had Space into Fire on the Mountain.

It was short, but still was a bit of a spacey thing.

[music playing] I had to get past this mental block of Grateful Dead live albums had to have some major jam sequence, and it didn't have that.

For that matter, the tapes had served for the Grateful Dead movie, too.

David Lemieux.

I'd heard it before with Bob and Rob, and I did, but then in '93, I saw the Dead play it, I think, only once.

And I remember telling a friend at the hotel after the show, I said, "It's like Weir's Bird Song.

It's like a first set song that has a huge jam in the middle where the band can really go places before bringing it back." And, uh, I think it would clock in at, what, nine or 10 minutes? [rock music] Summer '89 to spring of '93, I think he was playing some of his most powerful and driven music.

Estimated Prophet, I go to.

Um, I find that it's, w- first of all, one of his most interesting songs.

Um, but I also feel he delivers it virtually every single time with a huge amount of passion.

David Demere.

Grateful Dead archivist and legacy manager, David Lemieux.

But one thing I always felt with the Dead, before I even saw them live, is that it wasn't anyone's band.

I always saw it as this unique summation of these players, and Bobby was clearly exactly one portion of that.

And when I've heard Grateful Dead music without Bobby, which is to say when we've been in the studio and we've muted Bobby's guitar track, it is no longer Grateful Dead music.

[guitar playing] I, I don't think a day has gone by in the last 42, 41 or 42 years that I haven't listened to him.

I mean, here we're recording this at 9:00 AM my time.

I've been listening to him for two and a half hours this morning.