“It is said that, if you lined up all those who have ever been to a Grateful Dead concert head-to-toe, the line would stretch around the moon, and about halfway back. And nobody would complain!”
WSLR is slowly coming back with a very sparse number of live studio programmers, albeit with very specific
instructions as to how to protect both ourselves and our fellow WSLR volunteers.
Grateful Dead
Orpheum Theatre, San Francisco CA
July 13, 1976
SBD>MR>Reel>Reel>Reel>Dat>CDA>DAW(Bertha)>CDA – Sound B
Bertha Remaster of Multi-Gen Reel source, using a custom built, Dual-DAW, nicknamed Bertha, by jay ashley
Warts and all!
Disc 1 – Set1:
- Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
- Big River
- Peggy-O
- Cassidy
- Crazy Fingers >
- Let It Grow >
- Drums >
- Let It Grow
- Might As Well
- The Music Never Stopped
Disc 2 – Set 2:
- It Must Have Been The Roses
- Samson And Delilah
- High Time
- Saint Stephen >
- Not Fade Away >
- Saint Stephen >
- Sugar Magnolia
- Stella Blue >
- Sunshine Daydream
Encore:
- Dancing In The Street
Reviews from this recording:
REVIEW: Jerry Jerry Jerry
another nice show. i’m a fan of the slow paced nature of 76. The Dancin bounces a bit though. SBD is pretty
clear.
REVIEW: cuts cuts cuts
the board is fluffy and a bit hissy…..cuts here and there…ouch
REVIEW: Sound not the best
Let it grow is great and in general this is a solid show from this great run.
REVIEW: Terrific
Classic ’76, thick and magic. one of my favorite mississippi half steps. Once across the rio-grandeo they bounce
on down the big river and float through wonderland…stella goes on a staircase of keiths chords through a starry
darkness… ignore me. dig it.
REVIEW: Bicentennial Jerry!
Highlights from set 1 are “Cassidy” w/ actually nice harmony vocals from Donna, as has been pointed out. I get
into the habit of not listening for this because she is mostly way off. “Crazy Fingers” is wonderful and stretches
into a nice little epilogue. Sound is Ok. Jerry’s TB guitar is a little thin on top and sounds like it wants to crack
my tweeters, but I kind of like this. Bass is nice and deep and rich throuhgout basically. 76′ features a nice clear
and sweet voice from Jerry and this is a plus from the Hiatus perhaps? The “High Time” and “Stella” are indeed
highlights from set 2, they are almost coma inducing in their subtleness, w/ Jerry’s guitar piercing and stabbing
in the solos. I happen to like this aspect quite a bit. Can’t think of many rock bands that can produce this effect
as a unit. 4 stars because of the flubs and cuts, keeps this from being a completely satisfying date.
REVIEW: I was there
I attended all seven shows of this run. As the week went by the shows got better. Friday night they left Donna
home and it was great. Sundya was the peak. This was when they just came out of retirement and they needed
no practice.
One review from all the other other recordings. They all complain about sound qualities throughout:
REVIEW: this show is a blinder. At least check out this Let It Grow, or the Stella! St. Stephen has some wicked
slick mellow licks. A nice night 2 in one of the greatest post-retirement runs in GD history: Orpheum ’76!!
From Jay:
“The cuts and imperfections that were on the original source remain.
I took this project on for two reasons, because the Orpheum 76 run is one of my favorites, and because I wanted
to see if Bertha was capable of handling a source in such a condition. This is by far, the most deteriorated
source I have ever worked on. The results surprised even me. A source that was barely listenable is now not
only listenable, but actually enjoyable.
I hope those who have low gen sources for the Orpheum run will release them some day soon! Enjoy, jay”
