GRATEFUL DEAD’S MAGICAL, MYTHICAL MAY ’77 TOUR
Dead.net Exclusive Limited Edition 14-Disc Boxed Set Includes Five Complete Shows Recorded During The Dead’s Revered Spring 1977 Tour
May 1977 Now Available For Pre-Order Only At Dead.net, Set For Release On June 11
LOS ANGELES –The Grateful Dead played more than 2,000 concerts over 30 years, but none has achieved a more mythical status than the May 8, 1977 show at Cornell University’s Barton Hall. It’s practically required listening for all probationary Dead Heads. While that show is well known, the astounding tour that surrounded it has flown largely under the radar due to the uneven quality of tapes in circulation. Dead.net will soon change all of that with a boxed set that zeroes in on that crucial tour, one regarded as a high-water mark from the band’s long strange trip.
On June 11, Dead.net will begin shipping MAY 1977, a 14-disc boxed set that includes five complete shows from consecutive stops on that magical spring tour, each mastered in HDCD by Jeffrey Norman at Mockingbird Mastering. The featured concerts are St. Paul Civic Center Arena, St. Paul, MN (5/11) Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, IL (5/12, 5/13), St. Louis Arena, St. Louis MO (5/15) and Coliseum at the University Of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL (5/17). The set is limited to 15,000 individually numbered copies and is available now for pre-order, exclusively from Dead.net, for $139.98. This follows the lineage of previous dead.net limited edition sets Europe ’72: The Complete Recordings (2011) and Spring 1990 (2012), which have each completely sold out in the pre-order period. The set will also be available in its entirety as a digital download in Apple Lossless and FLAC exclusively at dead.net for $99.98 beginning on June 11.
MAY 1977 will be presented in a psychedelic box that boasts an intricate die-cut design created by Grammy-winning graphic artist Masaki Koike. The set is paired with a book filled with stories about each show, as well as an in-depth essay by Dead historian Steve Silberman, who delves deep into the history behind the tour and the band’s return from its extended hiatus.
Jerry Garcia, Donna Jean Godchaux, Keith Godchaux, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir had just completed Terrapin Station, the band’s ninth studio album, when they hit the road for a spring tour leading up to the album’s release in late July. The band previewed a number of songs from the album during these shows, including the gorgeous “Terrapin Station” suite, “Sunrise,” “Passenger” and a cover of the Motown classic “Dancing In The Street.” At all five of these shows, the Dead performed “Estimated Prophet” and “Samson and Delilah” – tunes destined to become live staples until the band’s final concert in 1995.
The songs from these shows span the Grateful Dead’s career up to that point and touch on classics like “New Minglewood Blues,” “Uncle John’s Band,” “Brown-Eyed Women” (played at all five shows), “Ship Of Fools” and “St. Stephen.” There are some notable firsts captured on May 1977, including the debuts of “Passenger” (5/15), “Jack-A-Roe” (5/13), and “Iko Iko” (5/15), plus the first pairing of “Estimated Prophet” > “Eyes Of The World” (5/15). The band also played “Scarlet Begonias” > “Fire On The Mountain” (5/11, 5/13 and 5/17), a classic pairing born in March that year at the Winterland Arena in San Francisco.
Silberman distills why these shows are essential in the liner notes: “The spring tour of 1977, long and deservedly hailed as one of the most brilliant strings of shows in the band's history, represented one of those Darwinian leaps, when the Dead took a bold collective step into the future, reinventing itself for a savvy audience eager to live on that edge where something new was always waiting to be born.”
MAY 1977
Track Listing
St. Paul Civic Center Arena, St. Paul, MN (5/11/77)
Disc One
“Promised Land”
“They Love Each Other”
“Big River”
“Loser”
“Looks Like Rain”
“Ramble On Rose”
“Jack Straw”
“Peggy-O”
“El Paso”
“Deal”
Disc Two
“Lazy Lightning”>
“Supplication”
“Sugaree”
“Samson and Delilah”
“Brown-Eyed Women”
“Estimated Prophet”
Disc Three
“Scarlet Begonias”>
“Fire On The Mountain”>
“Good Lovin’”
“Uncle John's Band”>
“Space”>
“Wharf Rat”>
“Around and Around”
“Brokedown Palace”
Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, IL (5/12/77)
Disc One
“Bertha”
“Me and My Uncle”
“Tennessee Jed”
“Cassidy”
“Peggy-O”
“Jack Straw”
“They Love Each Other”
“New Minglewood Blues”
Disc Two
“Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo”>
“Dancing In The Street”
“Samson and Delilah”
“Brown-Eyed Women”
“Estimated Prophet”
“Sunrise”
Disc Three
“Terrapin Station”>
“Playing In The Band”>
“Drums”>
“Not Fade Away”>
“Comes A Time”>
“Playing In The Band”
“Johnny B. Goode”
Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, IL (5/13/77)
Disc One
“The Music Never Stopped”
“Ramble On Rose”
“Cassidy”
“Brown-Eyed Women”
“New Minglewood Blues”
“Friend Of The Devil”
“El Paso”
“Jack-A-Roe”
“Looks Like Rain”
“Scarlet Begonias”>
“Fire On The Mountain”
Disc Two
“Samson and Delilah”>
“Bertha”
“Estimated Prophet”>
“Drums”>
“The Other One”>
“Stella Blue”>
“Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad”
“One More Saturday Night”
“U.S. Blues”
St. Louis Arena, St. Louis MO (5/15/77)
Disc One
“Bertha”>
“Good Lovin’”
“Row Jimmy”
“New Minglewood Blues”
“Tennessee Jed”
“Lazy Lightning”>
“Supplication”
“Jack-A-Roe”
“Passenger”
“Brown-Eyed Women”
Disc Two
“Dancing In The Street”
“Estimated Prophet”>
“Eyes Of The World”>
“Drums”>
“Samson and Delilah”
“Ship Of Fools”
Disc Three
“St. Stephen”>
“Iko Iko”>
“Not Fade Away”>
“Sugar Magnolia”
“Uncle John's Band”
Coliseum, University Of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL (5/17/77)
Disc One
“New Minglewood Blues”
“Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo”>
“El Paso”
“They Love Each Other”
“Jack Straw”
“Jack-A-Roe”
“Looks Like Rain”
“Tennessee Jed”
“Passenger”
“High Time”
“Big River”
Disc Two
“Sunrise”
“Scarlet Begonias”>
“Fire On The Mountain”
“Samson and Delilah”>
“Bertha”>
“Good Lovin’”
“Brown-Eyed Women”
Disc Three
“Estimated Prophet”
“Terrapin Station”>
“Playing In The Band”>
“Drums”>
“Wharf Rat”>
“Playing In The Band”
“Sugar Magnolia”
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