This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Grateful Dead and they’ve got a huge treat in store for fans.
The legendary band is set to release a 60-CD collection, Enjoying the Ride, featuring recordings from 25 years of live shows, spanning 1969 to 1994, with recordings from 20 different venues.
The collection includes 450 tracks, most of them previously unreleased, which translates into more than 60 hours of music. Of the 20 shows, 17 are presented in full, with the other three containing songs curated from multiple performances at San Francisco’s Fillmore West, New York’s Fillmore East and Boston Music Hall.
“Going to see the Grateful Dead, following them from city to city, was likened to the modern equivalent of running away and joining the circus,” Dead archivist David Lemieux shares. “These 20 venues are where the circus took us, and the show was something we never wanted to miss.”
As a preview, Grateful Dead has shared three previously unreleased live performances – “Scarlet Begonias,” “Touch of Grey” and “Fire on the Mountain” – recorded July 13, 1984 at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California. They’re available now via digital outlets.
Enjoying the Ride will be released May 30, although the set is limited to 6,000 individually numbered copies. The set comes in a custom keepsake box “inspired by the experience of traveling from city to city to see the Dead at legendary venues across America.”
It is available exclusively on Dead.net, and can be preordered now.
If that seems like a bit too much music, Rhino is also set to release a smaller compilation, The Music Never Stopped, on May 30. The 3-CD or 6-LP set is described as a “shorter route through the band’s diamond anniversary celebration.” It is also available for preorder now.
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