The Good Ol’ Grateful Dead - 'Veterans Memorial Coliseum, New Haven, CT 5/5/77'

I've been on a Grateful Dead kick of late.  That said, I've been on a Grateful Dead kick since the summer of 1968, when 'Anthem of the Sun' was released, but for the last few weeks, even more so.  For whatever the reason, over the past few weeks, I keep reaching for The Dead.

Many members of Terrapin Nation consider the 60 shows The Dead played in 1977 to be some of the finest of their career.  

Over the years, I've literally seen hundreds of Dead shows, but due to the responsibilities of raising children, and navigating the politics of being a woman on Wall Street, I only saw one show in 1977.  It was at Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey, on the Labor Day weekend.  Not that I would change a thing.

'Veterans Memorial Coliseum, New Haven, CT 5/5/77' was released on November 29th, for Record Store Day Black Friday 2024.  It's a 4LP, 180-gram vinyl box set, and is a limited edition of 8,000.

The recording is what Dead tape traders called, back in the day, a "Betty Board", meaning it was recorded by the Dead's sound engineer Betty Cantor-Jackson, which always translates into high quality.  Tape restoration and speed correction was done by Jamie Howarth at Plangent Processes.  David Lemieux (of Dave's Pics fame) produced this splendid release.  The lacquer was cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering.

I've combined the 4 LPs into the two sets the Dead played for the freeload.

First Set:
 1. Promised Land
 2. Sugaree
 3. Mama Tried > 
 4. El Paso
 5. Tennessee Jed
 6. Looks Like Rain
 7. Deal
 8. Lazy Lightning >
 9. Supplication
10. Peggy-O
11. The Music Never Stopped

Second Set
 1. Bertha
 2. Estimated Prophet
 3. Scarlet Begonias > 
 4. Fire On The Mountain
 5. Good Lovin'
 6. St. Stephen > 
 7. Sugar Magnolia
(Encore)
 8. Johnny B. Goode

The freeload is a 24bit/96kHz vinyl rip, that has flat, clean and amazing sonics. 

For the freeload, ask a question, there's no answer to.