Description
Grateful Dead – Vintage Dead (LP)
Label: Sunflower – SUN-5001
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo
Country: US
Released: 1970
Tracklist:
A1 I Know You Rider 4:25
A2 It Hurts Me Too 4:17
A3 It’s All Over Now Baby Blue 4:50
A4 Dancing In The Street 7:55
B1 In The Midnight Hour 18:23
Recorded At – Avalon Ballroom
Notes:
Cat. Numbers: SUN-5001 on the jacket, SUN 5001 on the labels
This version is an MGM pressing.
Vinyl and Cover in very good condition. Address stamp and some sello tape inside the cover (non-visible). Addres stamp (mine) also on one side of the label. See photo’s, they are of the actual object.
Reviews:
++++++++++++++++ Two albums of unauthorisized live-recordings from the Avalon Ballroom in ’66. It’s no bootleg ‘coz the DeaD had sold the rights of the tape to Bob Cohen, who was once part-owner of the Family Dog. These selected highlights of the band’s set were prepared for release on a compilation album of bands from the era. That never came about and instead the company released the albums in 1970 to cash in on the groups 1970 successes WORKINGMAN’s DEAD and AMERICAN BEAUTY. The albums are out of print now. STEALIN’ and LINDY were remnants from the old jug band days. In fact, STEALIN’ (an old Memphis Jug Band number) was coupled with DON’T EASE ME IN for their first single release. ++++++++++++++++
nr. 1 Vintage Dead; Those performances weren’t meant to stand around forever but it has become one of the most collectible DeaD releases. Fascinating peaks into the bands early sound. Pigpen’s presence is felt as the bands original leader and BABY BLUE is a gem. GOLDMINE, JULY 1987
nr. 2 Vintage Dead; This is the better one of the two, offering passable renditions of RIDER, BABY BLUE and DANCING IN THE STREET. All of side two is given over to a rather tedious version of MIDNIGHT HOUR, a song that wasn’t that great to begin with. As a document of the DeaD before their Warners contract, the record isn’t too bad. Tape-making fans can steer you to much better performances from this era. * * BLAIR JACKSON
nr. 3 Historic Dead; With less than a half hour of music, most of it fairly undistinguished, this album is a bit of a rip-off. Still, the band shows its substancial blues chops in extended work-outs on LITTLE SCHOOL GIRL and THE SAME THING. * * BLAIR JACKSON, THE MUSIC NEVER STOPPED, 1983
nr. 4 VINTAGE DEAD An album with the same speedy energy as their debut album. This time it’s a live album and I wouldn’t have mind if all their albums were live recordings. It has their first vinyl release of the classic I KNOW YOU RIDER. An early Pigpen vocal with a whole lot of vibration and some fierce harmonica on IT HURTS ME TOO. The BABY BLUE can compete with the early Rolling Stones version and the DANCING IN THE STREET is sung with heart and soul. MIDNIGHT HOUR is a classic Pigpen tune. An unpolished album that gives a good example of the DeaD in the early days. * * * * ERIK SCHOTHANS, July 1992
nr. 5 Both VINTAGE DEAD and HISTORIC DEAD are semi-official releases, but essential for anyone who wants to know the early DeaD. GOOD MORNING LITTLE SCHOOLGIRL is quite different from the version on Bear’s Choice. On this one everyone go loose, especially Pigpen and Mr. Trips. LINDY could very well be a beautiful DeaD song, but I haven’t heard it since this album. Side two has a poor sound quality and STEALIN’ ain’t that special too, but on THE SAME THING one can hear the improvisational talent the band always had. I would call this music Rock’n’Jazz Roll. * * * (?)
nr. 6 Definitely only a collector’s item. Comparisons between I KNOW YOU RIDER on this LP and the latter day versions prove interesting and revealing, and DANCIN’ IN THE STREETS is a very acceptable piece of Dead-type ‘freaked-out’ R&B. HISTORIC DEAD last only for a miserable 29 minutes, with absolutely no information on the sleeve and I don’t think it is nearly as good as VINTAGE DEAD. These albums are a valuable part of the Dead’s recorded history, or a particularly nasty rip-off. ANDY CHILDS, ZIG ZAG Magazine
nr. 7 Despite the usual imperfections of live recordings, the album stands up strongly against its contemporaries, showing traces of things to come, particularly with the Pig’s chopping organ and Garcia’s loose, winding guitar, and that ‘it would have been a far stronger and more representative set to release than the first Warners album’. Dick Lawson, Frendz
nr. 8 Vintage Dead (Sunflower/MGM SUN 5001) 1966 Avalon Ballroom performances (possibly September 16, 1966) released in 1970. The poster, used for the cover of this album, came from the Dead’s concert at the Avalon on September 16 and 17, 1966. The “skull and roses” used for the poster was originally a black and white illustration by Edmund Sullivan which appeared in a 19th century edition of “The Rubiyat Of Omar Khayyam”. Kelly and Mouse adapted it for the poster, adding colors and lettering. Ihor W. Slabicky
nr.9 VINTAGE DEAD star rating **
(recorded 1966, issued 1971)
HISTORIC DEAD *
(recorded 1966, issued 1971)
While not part of the official Grateful Dead catalogue, these discs surfaced several years after the fact due to an early contract signed with MGM, who sneaked them out on the subsidiary Sunfiower label.
Taped at the Avalon Ballroom in 1966, the band called the performances “a source of embarrassment”, not least because much of the material was taken at a frenetic pace more typical of an amateurish garage band. But the lack of sophistication was only relative, as Garcia’s stirring reading of Dylan’s «It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue» and the psychedelicised «Dancing In The Streets» (both on “Vintage Dead») amply reveal. The recordings also highlight the central role played by Pigpen during the band’s early stages. The albums were subsequently compiled as “The History Of The Grateful Dead» on the Pride label.
Another early recording, where the group backed jazz singer Jon Hendricks on his «Fire In The City»/”Your Sons And Daughters” single, has yet to surface, quite possibly because it was withdrawn prior to its release.
GEATEFUL DEAD (1967)
from Record Collector
