Despite whether or not you think their Cornell University show in May of 1977 was their best, the Grateful Dead had a great year in 1977 and an especially good month that May. That tour has been largely under celebrated, mostly because of variations in quality and some shoddy recordings. Rhino records will remedy that with the release of May 1977, a 14-disc box set featuring five complete shows mastered in HDCD.
After a 20-month hiatus, the Grateful Dead came back in the Spring of 1977 to play tighter sets with a handful of first-ever renditions, pairings and now staples. The box set will include their stops at Paul Civic Center Arena, St. Paul, MN (5/11) Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, IL (5/12, 5/13), St. Louis Arena, St. Louis, MO (5/15) and the Coliseum at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL (5/17). The Dead had just completed Terrapin Station, their ninth studio album, when they hit the road for a spring tour leading up to the album’s release in late July. The band previewed a number of songs from the album during these shows, including the “Terrapin Station” suite, “Sunrise,” “Passenger” and a cover of the Motown classic “Dancing in the Street.” At all five of these shows, the Dead performed “Estimated Prophet” and “Samson and Delilah,” both of which remained live staples until the band’s final concert in 1995.
The box set will be released on June 11 and is limited to 15,000 individually numbered copies. The set costs $139.98 and features all of the psychedelic trappings you would expect from the Dead, as well as an accompanying booklet comprised of stories about each show, period photos, as well as an essay by Dead historian Steve Silberman. Once the 15,000 copies are gone, the shows will not be reissued on CD, though the 111 tracks will be available as downloads.
Here’s a look at the box set’s tracks
St. Paul Civic Center Arena, St. Paul, MN (5/11/77)
Disc One
“Promised Land”
“They Love Each Other”
“Big River”
“Loser”
“Looks Like Rain”
“Ramble On Rose”
“Jack Straw”
“Peggy-O”
“El Paso”
“Deal”
Disc Two
“Lazy Lightning” >
“Supplication”
“Sugaree”
“Samson and Delilah”
“Brown-Eyed Women”
“Estimated Prophet”
Disc Three
“Scarlet Begonias” >
“Fire On The Mountain” >
“Good Lovin’”
“Uncle John’s Band” >
“Space”>
“Wharf Rat” >
“Around and Around”
“Brokedown Palace”
Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, IL (5/12/77)
Disc One
“Bertha”
“Me and My Uncle”
“Tennessee Jed”
“Cassidy”
“Peggy-O”
“Jack Straw”
“They Love Each Other”
“New Minglewood Blues”
Disc Two
“Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo” >
“Dancing In The Street”
“Samson and Delilah”
“Brown-Eyed Women”
“Estimated Prophet”
“Sunrise”
Disc Three
“Terrapin Station” >
“Playing In The Band” >
“Drums” >
“Not Fade Away” >
“Comes A Time” >
“Playing In The Band”
“Johnny B. Goode”
Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, IL (5/13/77)
Disc One
“The Music Never Stopped”
“Ramble On Rose”
“Cassidy”
“Brown-Eyed Women”
“New Minglewood Blues”
“Friend Of The Devil”
“El Paso”
“Jack-A-Roe”
“Looks Like Rain”
“Scarlet Begonias” >
“Fire On The Mountain”
Disc Two
“Samson and Delilah” >
“Bertha”
“Estimated Prophet” >
“Drums” >
“The Other One” >
“Stella Blue” >
“Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad”
“One More Saturday Night”
“U.S. Blues”
St. Louis Arena, St. Louis, MO (5/15/77)
Disc One
“Bertha” >
“Good Lovin’”
“Row Jimmy”
“New Minglewood Blues”
“Tennessee Jed”
“Lazy Lightning” >
“Supplication”
“Jack-A-Roe”
“Passenger”
“Brown-Eyed Women”
Disc Two
“Dancing In The Street”
“Estimated Prophet” >
“Eyes Of The World” >
“Drums” >
“Samson and Delilah”
“Ship Of Fools”
Disc Three
“St. Stephen” >
“Iko Iko” >
“Not Fade Away” >
“Sugar Magnolia”
“Uncle John’s Band”
Coliseum, University Of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL (5/17/77)
Disc One
“New Minglewood Blues”
“Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo” >
“El Paso”
“They Love Each Other”
“Jack Straw”
“Jack-A-Roe”
“Looks Like Rain”
“Tennessee Jed”
“Passenger”
“High Time”
“Big River”
Disc Two
“Sunrise”
“Scarlet Begonias” >
“Fire On The Mountain”
“Samson and Delilah” >
“Bertha” >
“Good Lovin’”
“Brown-Eyed Women”
Disc Three
“Estimated Prophet”
“Terrapin Station” >
“Playing In The Band” >
“Drums” >
“Wharf Rat” >
“Playing In The Band”
“Sugar Magnolia”
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