Revisiting the ‘Magic’ of the Grateful Dead ’85
A must-own new box showcases the band’s best live run of the decade
The Grateful Dead might have celebrated their 60th anniversary last year, but as the saying goes, the music never stops.
In addition to the release of a special 50th anniversary vinyl edition of their beloved 1976 live album Steal Your Face, which chronicled the group’s short-lived farewell run at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom in 1974, we got this incredible box set anthologizing one of their best tours ever.
Everyone has got their favorite era of the Dead, right? But where more experienced Deadheads than myself might cite the Pigpen or Godcheaux eras as their go-to periods, I actually prefer the ’80s when Brent Mydland was behind the keys.
The band only released three studio albums with Mydland — who joined the Dead in 1979 following his tenure in Bob Weir’s side project Bobby and the Midnites with jazz titans Alphonso Johnson on bass and drummer extraordinaire Billy Cobham — all of which are well worth revisiting (1981’s Go To Heaven, 1987’s In The Dark and 1989’s Built to Last) if only to remind yourself just what a force this guy was among their ranks.
I mean, Brent sang better than any of them, arguably speaking, and took over lead vocals more than any other keyboardist in the band’s history at the time. He also brought synthesizers into the group’s arsenal, bringing them into the ’80s without compromising their collective soul. Among the tools in his arsenal included a Minimoog, and a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5. In 1983, he replaced his analog synthesizers and electric piano with a Yamaha GS-1 digital piano, which was only one of 100 ever produced. He also added an E-mu Emulator II to his rig.
However, it was live on the concert stage where Brent’s input in The Grateful Dead really took precedence, which is why this gorgeous box set Summer Magic 1985 is such a treat for longtime fans upon its recent release on Sept. 18. The 20-CD collection chronicles seven previously unreleased shows from the band’s Twenty Years So Far Tour, including all three official Grateful Dead 20th Anniversary shows at Berkeley, California’s Greek Theatre (6/14-6/16/85); Saratoga Performing Arts Center (6/27/85); Hershey Park Stadium (6/28/85); and the Merriweather Post Pavilion (6/30/85), which is also released as a standalone set in addition to the box, which is limited to 10,000 individually numbered copies and available only on Dead.net. All performances were recorded by the band’s longtime sound engineer Dan Healy and mastered by Grammy Award-winning engineer David Glasser at Airshow Mastering.
“The seven shows this box presents…offer a snapshot of the artistic process that was the Grateful Dead, making a powerful statement of the band’s project as they marked their 20th anniversary,” writes Grateful Dead Studies Association Executive Director Nicholas G. Meriwether writes in the Summer Magic 1985 liner notes. “This box not only lets us revisit what these shows sounded like at a peak of the band’s PA prowess, it lets us finally hear what these shows meant, the alchemy of time and memory finally revealing the gold of those concerts.”
Even if you can’t cough up the loot for the whole box set, it is well worth picking up the standalone Merriweather show on CD or vinyl, which is highlighted by an absolutely epic version of “Shakedown Street” that clocks in at 15 minutes and — despite the annoying burping at the start — begins with some real futuristic synth shit from Brent that sounds like proto-Beck before digging deep into that signature groove everyone knows and loves: Disco Dead!
Other highlights from the Merriweather show include a vibrant rendition of the Dead workhorse “C.C. Rider” with Mydland on vocals, “Looks Like Rain” from Bob’s 1972 solo album Ace, “Cryptical Development” going into a truly otherworldly “Drums,” “Space” > “The Other One” > a gorgeous “Stella Blue” featuring Jerry at his best > Chuck Berry’s “Around and Around,” which Weir always does a great job interpreting. “Brown-Eyed Woman” sounds particularly lively here as well.
If you have the means, definitely pick up one of those 10,000 copies of the Summer Magic 1985 box set. But if not, the Merriweather show is definitely essential to any Dead fan’s CD or vinyl collection.
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