News

"Experiential" Grateful Dead 14 LP All-Analog Box Set in "Acid Flashback" Colors From Vinyl Me, Please

Michael Fremer  |  May 18, 2020

Denver CO—Vinyl Me, Please today announced The Story of the Grateful Dead, a limited-edition 8 album, 14-disc deluxe box set featuring 4 studio albums and four "essential" live albums all cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering using the original analog master tapes, housed in "Tip-on" jackets and pressed at QRP on colored vinyl. ("Acid Flashback" color characterization, AnalogPlanet's description, not VMP's).

The deluxe set comes packaged in a custom, Jeremy Dean-designed box complete with a 12X12 booklet printed on thick matte stock with photos and essays written by My Morning Jacket's Jim James, Animal Collective's Avery Tare, Dirty Projector's Dave Longstreth, Hiss Golden Messenger's MC Taylor, the National's Scott Devendorf, the Mountain Goat's John Darnielle, the Decemberist's Jenny Conlee, STS9's Hunter Brown and singer Margo Price.

The deep Dead catalog makes it difficult for the newly acquainted to find a way in so this set provides not just a path, but what should be a sonic blockbuster of an entry way into the music and cultural heritage of the iconic band. Limited to 7500 copies.

The albums included are:

1) Workingman's Dead (1970
2) American Beauty (1970)
3) Live/Dead (Fillmore West 1969)
4) Europe '72 Vol. 1 (1972)
5) Wake of the Flood (1973)
6) Terrapin Station (1977)
7) Reckoning (1981)
8)Without a Net (1989-90)

To learn more and/or to "secure a spot" visit the Vinyl Me, Please Anthology page (link fixed)

COMMENTS
creativepart's picture
Submitted by creativepart on Mon, 2020-05-18 16:21

Link didn't work for me. AND, the set is not on Vinyl Me's website as of 5/18 6:22 CDT.

MalachiLui's picture
Submitted by MalachiLui on Mon, 2020-05-18 16:52

got the email for it, try this link:

https://anthology.vinylmeplease.com/products/vmp-anthology-grateful-dead...

Michael Fremer's picture
Submitted by Michael Fremer on Tue, 2020-05-19 06:49
repaired
mndoss99's picture
Submitted by mndoss99 on Mon, 2020-05-18 20:12

$449 for 8 albums/14 LPs. Works out to average of $56 per album, or $32 per LP, meaning triple LP like Europe '72 costs $96. I understand this is a limited edition, collector's item. I am a Deadhead, and love that it's all-analog mastering. I'm sure it'll sound great, and I still might breakdown and buy it, but that price is hard to swallow. Would be nice to pick up Without A Net on vinyl, as original pressings are scarce and expensive.

PeterPani's picture
Submitted by PeterPani on Mon, 2020-05-18 21:56

it says "using the original analog master tapes". That does not tell us, whether an all anaolg chain is used.

Michael Fremer's picture
Submitted by Michael Fremer on Tue, 2020-05-19 06:47
cut all analog by Chris Bellman from the analog tapes
PeterPani's picture
Submitted by PeterPani on Tue, 2020-05-19 07:14

All titles were cut 'AAA' from the original analog tapes, with the exception of Without a Net coming from the original master digital audio.

Duke86fan's picture
Submitted by Duke86fan on Wed, 2020-05-20 19:05

there is ONE of the albums that was cut digitally... specifically the final live album because there weren't doing master tapes as much in the 90s

Happy Will's picture
Submitted by Happy Will on Tue, 2020-05-19 07:08

and the only unrealeased "HQ" re-issue is Without At Net. All the others have had Chris Bellman/Rhino/RTI, and/or Mo-Fi or Analogue Production treatment in the last 10 years - will they be any better ???

Possibly? The 2017 Rhino set that contained Wake of the Flood was apparently digitally treated fo "wow and flutter", while personally i didn't care for the Mo-Fi releases. Help

dschian's picture
Submitted by dschian on Thu, 2020-05-21 23:03

Given your concern, and given the uneven selection among the mid later recordings (as well as one or two amazing early ones missing), I'd say this is for the completist and/or the deep-pocketed, and/or a deep-pocketed newbie to the band who wants to dive deep into the pool.
Hard to imagine that the individual albums in here would be much better than (or even perhaps better at all than the best of) the earlier re-releases you've mentioned. If you're like me and you have multiple releases of some of these, plus tons of their other stuff, it just might be an expense too far at this point, unless you're willing to sell off any or all of the ones that don't break new audiophile ground.

avanti1960's picture
Submitted by avanti1960 on Tue, 2020-05-19 10:51

acid flashback in quotes? am i missing something .....

Bigmule1972's picture
Submitted by Bigmule1972 on Tue, 2020-05-19 16:59

Just so played out... an easy target from Fremer...Some people cannot speak of the Dead without mentioning some sort of drug reference. As well as some cannot relate to the power/meaning of the song “Estimated Prophet”

Conversely, I doubt Fremer would promote a Whitney Houston album colored in “Cocaine White”...or a Tom Petty album colored in “Prescription bottle tan”

To each their own...his site, his words...

analogdw's picture
Submitted by analogdw on Wed, 2020-05-20 06:17

Never been able to get into the Dead. This seems like an excellent opportunity to do so!

Tom L's picture
Submitted by Tom L on Wed, 2020-05-20 09:32

Acid flashback colors?
Seems like an appropriate and humorous description to me.

swimming1's picture
Submitted by swimming1 on Wed, 2020-05-20 17:49

Shouldn't Live/Dead be episode 1?

dschian's picture
Submitted by dschian on Thu, 2020-05-21 22:52

First of all, I'm a huge deadhead, and have and enjoy the bulk of their releases.
While Chris Bellman's involvement, the AAA-process, QRP involvement, colored heavy vinyl, and box and booklets all look wonderful and could easily be, audio-wise, the best vinyl releases of some or all of these albums, the actual title selection presents some problems as an overview- there's some relative deadweight (no pun intended) for an expensive, limited survey such as this one.
First, as mentioned above, Live-Dead should come first among these choices, but that's no biggie. Worse, however, while albums 1-4 and arguably 7 (though not really IMO) should be in an essential collection, Wake of the Flood is really the weakest of the three released (that, Mars Hotel, and Blues for Allah) under the band's own (brief) label- the other two would be much more deserving of places in the release. Terrapin is a weak album (Garcia actually referred to the production/arrangement of the actual Terrapin suite on the album as the Grateful Dead in a Dress- no offense to dress wearers, but it aptly describes a real recording miss for them- lousy production); Without a Net is 'okay' but Anthem is not there! Criminal! No Mars Hotel or Blues for Allah, as mentioned. Others, like Aoxomoxoa, In the Dark and even Go to Heaven, are simply more enjoyable and/or representative of the Dead than the remainder. So a big chunk of it is second-tier Dead recordings.
I dunno, maybe I'll buy it and sell off the weaker half- but will Workingman's and Beauty really sound better than Mofi's latest lp versions of them?

jkingtut's picture
Submitted by jkingtut on Thu, 2020-05-28 21:25

Glad I spent a lot of time finding certain pressings of cheap originals of Wake, Mars, and Blues for Allah and Terrapin. They all sound great on my little rig. The 2 Lesh songs on Mars make an incredibly large soundstage. I still don't own the others (anymore, sold them off of my country wide travelling van in Berkeley back in the mid 80's). That said, keep all of the frew frew and give me the records on black vinyl with generic white covers at a reasonable price and I might go for it.

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