Grateful Dead: October ‘85

It’s amazing how much punch mid-1980s Grateful Dead packed, when the sound guys saw fit to include Weir and Lesh in the mix. “Hey, it’s The Good Old Grateful Dead, right there!” 

The compilation pulls together hot October ’85 performances that were captured in mixes that satisfy. Even within the shows surveyed, the mix varied wildly, but when you narrow the focus to the beefy moments… Proper Grateful Dead, definitely not sucking in the Eighties.

The shows included are the first five of the tour, leading up to the famous (and officially released) 11/1/85 Richmond, VA show: Two shows in Florida, two in Atlanta, and one in Columbia, SC – 10/25 to 10/31. 

Tracks per show:

  • 10/25: 5
  • 10/26: 1
  • 10/28: 8
  • 10/29: 6
  • 10/31: 8

3h30m mp3 mix zipped up here (source dates in track names)

Disc 1:

  • Feel Like a Stranger
  • Friend of the Devil
  • Dire Wolf
  • Mississippi Half-Step >
  • Franklin’s Tower
  • Peggy-O
  • Scarlet Begonias >
  • Touch of Grey
  • Black Peter
  • Looks Like Rain

Disc 2:

  • Werewolves of London
  • Shakedown Street >
  • Playin’ in the Band >
  • Ship of Fools >
  • Jam >
  • Drums >
  • Space > Jam
  • Comes a Time

Disc 3:

  • Morning Dew >
  • Estimated Prophet >
  • Eyes of the World (instr. edit)
  • Man Smart, Woman Smarter
  • Terrapin Station
  • Jam
  • The Other One
  • Stella Blue
  • Brokedown Palace
  • Day Job
Upvote Upvoted 13
19 responses
Nice job! Thank you very much!
— Micheal Maxwell
I have always really enjoyed my Dick's Picks 21 from 1985 in Richmond, and it made me wonder what exactly was so wrong with the year...although I have read plenty about the various problems with the music. Ultimately, the problem was: it needed an editor like you! I know that sounds blasphemous to some people, but this kind of project gets the actual good Dead music to the fans. Listen, it takes me 3 months to listen through my entire Dead collection (right now I am lucky enough to be able to listen all day, while full time at the computer, working on graphic projects that don't distract from the music, or vice versa). So that's a LOT of time, listening to all EXCELLENT Dead from their 30-year career...I simply don't have time to listen to more than a couple mediocre shows leading up to the many, many great ones...great ones that have been left pure and untouched, comparatively. You explained something about early-80s Dead recordings, something I had noticed subconsciously but never put into words: when the listener encounters a glaring problem with the sound mix, what it does is IT KILLS THE MOMENTUM. And that means boredom. That feeling, unfortunately, is something that lingers, even after the soundman fixes the problem. Incessant vocal/lyrical screwups cause the same loss of flow...and you'll imagine the slight boredom and embarrassment of 20,000 people losing their momentum too...and that's not a big deal, but it's BORING, and boredom is NOT something I associate with the Dead. The good (well, brilliantly good!) music from the mediocre shows CAN and SHOULD be treated EXACTLY like this! You have concocted an extra-good, extra-long 1985 Dead show experience that really augments my well-loved Dick's Picks 21, 1985 Richmond Coliseum show. I can hear the similarities in Jerry's energetic guitar playing, where he is using a lot of very quick bends within his patterns, and hitting the notes cleanly using a thick strong tone. Hearing another 1985 Comes a Time is very nice (to complement that extra-great one from Richmond, which drifts away at the end...only to drift back in, and land effortlessly into "Lost Sailor"...ahhhh). People should know the Dead's story, and be aware of what was often happening to the music in the mid-80s as a result of Jerry's self-destructive nosedive. But from out of that time came a lot of soulful singing and playing. Forget about the bad song performances--or the bad moments within song performances--they don't deserve their chance to distract us from the fact that 1985 is awesome! Thanks again Mr. Hilgart!
— Ryan Bouchard
Ryan! Wow, what a great compliment - thank you! You've described exactly why I make these mixes FOR MYSELF, first of all. Staying away from eras or years because they don't provide reliable whole-show (or whole-tape) experiences is just depriving yourself of good Dead, different Dead, Dead you'd be excited to listen to repeatedly, if you had it one place. I'm especially appreciative of this analysis: "when the listener encounters a glaring problem with the sound mix, what it does is IT KILLS THE MOMENTUM. And that means boredom. That feeling, unfortunately, is something that lingers, even after the soundman fixes the problem. Incessant vocal/lyrical screwups cause the same loss of flow..." If there are two great songs in an otherwise lame first set, you can hardly tell how great they are. Pull them aside with other tracks in that situation, and they stand right up. Listening to mediocre Dead numbs your Dead receptors.
— John Hilgart @4CPcomics
I attempt to make cool lettering on the CDs I've burned for my collection, simply by drawing on their printable white surfaces with Sharpie markers. Generally my attempts succeed at conveying the title of the disc, and fail to actually look cool. But I made a semi-artistic-looking graphic on the three CDs of this 1985 project. I was thinking to post the photo here, forgetting that that can't be done. If you have the time at some point, email me and then I'll see a return email address, to which I'll send the photo.
— Ryan Bouchard
Ryan, I'd love to see your covers, but I don't know how to find your email address in the blog's subscribers. I think it's great that people repackage the mixes the same way people did with tape trading.
— John Hilgart @4CPcomics
Well, I'm at info@mushroomhunting.org. (My fiancee and I live in southern Rhode Island, and we run The Mushroom Hunting Foundation, a nonprofit that teaches people how to do safe, science-based wild mushroom hunting, mostly teaching in the New Enland and NY area).
— Ryan Bouchard
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