Finally! My favorite proper album!

On Reddit - unofficial comments attributed to David Lemieux
To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Grateful Dead's ambitious 1975 album Blues For Allah, we have produced what we feel is the most eclectic 50th anniversary reissue since this series began in 2017. The 3-disc special release features the original album on Disc 1, remastered by David Glasser at Airshow Mastering, with tape restoration and speed correction by Plangent Processes. On Disc 2, we have nearly 45 minutes of nearly-live material from August 12, 1975 at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, the soundcheck the day before the Dead's famous show at the venue on August 13, 1975, all mixed from the 16-track analog masters. Additionally, we have included the full Blues For Allah suite from the March 23, 1975 SNACK Benefit at Kezar Stadium, where the Dead played their first of four 1975 shows by debuting one of their most wild pieces of music they'd ever composed. Disc 3 features 75 minutes of live material recorded in June 1976 at the Tower Theatre in Upper Darby, PA, on the Dead's first tour after the release of Blues For Allah, and features all five of the Blues For Allah songs the Dead were performing live at the time: "The Music Never Stopped," "Help On The Way>Slipknot!>Franklin's Tower," and "Crazy Fingers," along with a half hour of additional material from the shows. This 50th anniversary reissue is packed with three hours of studio, soundcheck, and live material. It's a reissue unlike any other, just as Blues For Allah is an album unlike any other."

ALSO - I was annoyed that the Steve Wilson Atmos mix appears not to be included, however there is an exclusive physical release - scheduled for same day. It is not on dead.net but partner company, Rhino.
https://store.rhino.com/en/rhino-store/ ... 13483.html

Finally - I was surprised that they could not resolve whatever licensing issues they had with Philip Garris, artist responsible for the iconic - and best IMO - cover. It has been years since one could find official merch, and apparently they did not resolve for this release, as there is no 50th Anniversary T-shirts with the cover art, and the other t-shirts assocaietd with the release at Dead.net is more in line with the relatively crappy artwork of late.

i feel for all the dead completists out there.........the dead have about 5000 albums and i'm guessing every single one of them will get a super-duper deluxe anniversary treatment every 5 or 10 years or so..............what a money maker.......simply amazing.

their childrens childrens children will make money off of that band.

and yes i know that no one is making anyone buy them..........

Yup, very excited about this.

The one small bummer about this release is that, for whatever reason they are not releasing the 6/17/75 Bob Fried Memorial Boogie. I'm guessing either the tapes they have are unreleasable or the show is planned for a box or separate release. The SNACK material was part of the bonus disc for the Beyond Description box. That's a small carp though. This will be a great release.

Now I can't wait for the Angel's Share with all of the rehearsals and jams.

Weird you mention the licensing. I had two GD t-shirts in the 70s. One with the Skeletons from the Closet cover and one with a BFA cover. Have to wonder if they were bootlegs....

Yeah, I have the Beyond Description bonus, so a little bummed.
I also had a BFA shirt back in the 80's.
Usually, looking around for them now, they are like on Etsy with a slight defiation of the artwork. I did find one recently that was 'identical' (or close enough) in the last year or so that I bought. I just wanted to pick up the official 50 year if they had one. Oh well.
I also picked up the Atmos blu

Speaking for myself, I guess you don't understand Dead Completists. Otherwise, you would feel nothing but joy for us as we happily collect as many versions of every Dead song known to mankind.

Amen.

I would consider myself a completist* - Just about everything they officially released. Every Dicks Picks, Road Trips, Dave's Picks...every damn bonus disc... And while they did remaster the albums for their two box sets Beyond Description and Golden Road, the 50th Anniversaries have been done extremely well. Considering they have kept to the 50th anniversary timeline, they will be slowing down with some gap years soon. They have not been re-releasing every 5 to 10 years. I don't necessarily see it as milking, and frankly they price their items extremely well. But it is a commitment, to be sure.

* There are a few exceptions: off the top of my head:
Infrared Rose
Ready Or Not
The first Spring 90 box set (though I rectified the music part)
This years 60 anniversary box set (frankly too much 80's and 90's and the overall focus of the box did not do it for me for the price - though I felt it was a fair price for the size of the box set, and in line with the amounts for the Complete 72 and 50 years box).

you are correct i do not understand........but i do know that i am glad that i am not one!

I often think of when Jimbo told me "I must have 50 or 60 Dead CDs and I don't even really like the Grateful Dead."

"The Music Never Stopped (2025 Remaster)"

I’m in for the Atmos blu. Btw they are saying only 3,000 blu’s available.

There's a limited edition Rhino Exclusive blu-ray version of this album available for preorder at the label's website, with the same release date as the 3-CD set. For some reason it's limited to 3,000 copies, which seems pretty low considering the size of the Dead's fanbase. It includes Steven Wilson remixed stereo, instrumental, 5.1 and Atmos mixes. I ordered my copy as soon as I read about it this morning. Here's what Steven Wilson wrote on his Facebook page, which also mentions similar work he did on American Beauty and Europe 72.

Yeah, when the release was in advanced rumor mode yesterday a.m. - and the bonus material was being kicked around, and no SW atmos mix was included, I did a quick google - as I knew he had done one a couple years ago. Was pleasantly surprised about the Rhino release. I may have been one of the first to order, as it became official news an hour or so later - no mention on dead.net at the time. I had no idea it was going to only be 3K copies, so glad I took care of that.

The USA pre-order price has dropped by $4, down to $30.99:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FJ8TLVR1/?tag=imwan-20