Grateful Dead Releases a Massive 17-CD Live Box Set

Grateful Dead CDs

Photo Credit: Chris Stone / CC by 2.0

Grateful Dead is releasing a massive 17-CD limited-edition box set of previously unreleased concerts from 1973. The $190 box set will be limited to 10,000 copies.

Here Comes Sunshine 1973 features audio from the group’s San Francisco and Santa Barbara shows and two performances in Washington, D.C., between May 13 and June 10 that remained unreleased until now.

“In my early tape-trading days, I only had a few 1973 shows, but my goodness, did I ever love them,” says legacy manager David Lemieux. “There was a fresh, nimble feel that was entirely different from the 1972 Dead sound taking all of the great elements of the Year of Europe and building upon that excellence.”

“Even with hundreds of tapes at my fingertips, I returned to these 1973 shows frequently,” he continues. “That old saying, ‘I listened to that show so often, I wore the tape out’? It was created because of shows like this.”

Among the songs featured on each tracklist are “Looks Like Rain,” “Loser,” “China Cat Sunflower,” “Bertha,” “Mexicali Blues,” “Tennessee Jed,” and “Wharf Rat.” The release also includes live performances of songs taken from Wake of the Flood, which the band wouldn’t officially release until the following year. 

The box set will cost $190, limited to 10,000 copies which, along with digital versions of the release, will be available on The Grateful Dead’s website. Each physical copy will feature vibrant artwork by Masaki Koike, liner notes contributed by Ray Robertson, and an illustration poster created by Mary Ann Mayer, with each live show in its own custom-designed segment.

The band is also preparing to release a 4-CD, 8-LP set of their show at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. The “Ramble On Rose” performance from that show will see release as a digital single.

Last month, The Grateful Dead became the latest legendary group to create an official TikTok presence, posting a 30-second compilation of archival concert footage, interviews, and more from the late ’60s to the band’s final shows in 1995. The account will “serve as an outlet to celebrate the decades of music, generations of community, and (an) endless array of creativity that has woven the band and its fans into every new era of the world’s counterculture and consciousness.”

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