Out Now: Grateful Dead, CORNELL 3-CD (retail) 5-LP (exclusive to Dead.net)

Order Now - MAY 1977: GET SHOWN THE LIGHT

Order Now - CORNELL 5/8/77 on 5LP

Order Now - CORNELL 5/8/77 on 3CD

There are concerts, and then there are live performances so epic that they are still spoken of in hushed tones several decades after the fact. In the latter category: the Grateful Dead’s performance at Cornell University’s Barton Hall on May 8, 1977.

Yes, we know, this is exactly the sort of praise that you’d expect Rhino Records to lavish on the Dead, but it’s not just us: a recording of the concert in question was added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry in 2011.

Do we have your attention now? Here’s hoping so, because we’re here to tell you that Rhino has just released CORNELL: 5/8/77, which offers this famous performance as a three-CD set, a limited edition five-LP set (only 7,700 copies will be pressed), and as a digital download.

“During the 18+ years I’ve worked with the Grateful Dead, no concert has garnered as much attention and as many requests for release as Cornell,” said David Lemieux, Grateful Dead archivist and the set’s producer.

In addition, Dead.net – The Grateful Dead’s official website – has released MAY 1977: GET SHOWN THE LIGHT, an 11-disc boxed set which includes not only the Cornell show but also three other previously-unreleased concerts: Veterans’ Memorial Coliseum, New Haven, CT (5/5/77), Boston Garden, Boston, MA (5/7/77), and Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, Buffalo, NY (5/9/77). The source for these recordings is Betty Cantor-Jackson's legendary boards (Dead Heads know what we’re talking about), so they’ve been mastered in HDCD, and the transfers from the master tapes were produced by Plangent Processes.

Long story short, you won’t find these concerts sounding any better than they do here. Period.

In addition, MAY 1977 comes in an ornate box crafted by Grammy-winning graphic artist Masaki Koike and includes an in-depth essay by noted Dead scholar Nicholas G. Meriwether as well as the book Cornell ‘77: The Music, The Myth And The Magnificence Of The Grateful Dead’s Concert At Barton Hall, by Peter Conners. And don’t worry, fans: if you can’t plunk down the bucks for this set, the book is available for purchase separately.

Here’s the full track listing for all of these performances. They’re available now. Go forth and make yourself or the Dead Head in your life very, very happy.

Veterans’ Memorial Coliseum
New Haven, CT (5/5/77)

Disc One
“Promised Land”
“Sugaree”
“Mama Tried”
“El Paso”
“Tennessee Jed”
“Looks Like Rain”
“Deal”
“Lazy Lightning”
“Supplication”
“Peggy-O”
“The Music Never Stopped”

Disc Two
“Bertha”
“Estimated Prophet”
“Scarlet Begonias”
“Fire On The Mountain”
“Good Lovin’”
“St. Stephen”
“Sugar Magnolia”
“Johnny B. Goode”

Boston Garden
Boston, MA (5/7/77)

Disc Three
“Bertha”
“Cassidy”
“Deal”
“Jack Straw”
“Peggy-O”
“New Minglewood Blues”
“Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo”
“Big River”
“Tennessee Jed”
“The Music Never Stopped”

Disc Four
“Terrapin Station”
“Samson and Delilah”
“Friend Of The Devil”
“Estimated Prophet”

Disc Five
“Eyes Of The World”
Drums
“The Wheel”
“Wharf Rat”
“Around and Around”
“U.S. Blues”

Barton Hall (Cornell University)
Ithaca, NY (5/8/77)

Disc Six
“New Minglewood Blues”
“Loser”
“El Paso”
“They Love Each Other”
“Jack Straw”
“Deal”
“Lazy Lightning”
“Supplication”
“Brown-Eyed Women”
“Mama Tried”
“Row Jimmy”

Disc Seven
“Dancing In The Street”
“Scarlet Begonias”
“Fire On The Mountain”
“Estimated Prophet”

Disc Eight
“St. Stephen”
“Not Fade Away”
“St. Stephen”
“Morning Dew”
“One More Saturday Night”

Buffalo Memorial Auditorium
Buffalo, NY (5/9/77)

Disc Nine
“Help On The Way”
“Slipknot”
“Franklin’s Tower”
“Cassidy”
“Brown-Eyed Women”
“Mexicali Blues”
“Tennessee Jed”
“Big River”
“Peggy-O”
“Sunrise”
“The Music Never Stopped”

Disc Ten
“Bertha”
“Good Lovin’”
“Ship Of Fools”

Disc Eleven
“Estimated Prophet”
“The Other One”
Drums
“Not Fade Away”
“Comes A Time”
“Sugar Magnolia”
“Uncle John’s Band”