Dick’s Picks: The Grateful Dead’s ultimate archivist
The Grateful Dead is a band that is still loved by many to this day. Widely recognised for their ability as a live band instead of a studio outfit, they became the in-house act for the Acid Tests and were open to various sounds, which meant they soon evolved into improvisational masters whose live gigs were a totally unique experience every night.
They could feed off the crowd and one another. They knew when to speed things up, slow down, and phase one song out and another; imagine a modern-day DJ set performed by a full band in a unique live experience. It’s no surprise they managed to build such a devoted following, and fans worldwide still listen to their live recordings today.
The Grateful Dead were aware they thrived as a live band and, as such, put a lot of effort into capturing their live sound with various recordings. This was done in-house and by fans given space in each venue to set up their taping equipment. People wanted to capture their live show so much that it’s not wholly unrealistic to assume that the Grateful Dead could be the most recorded band in history.
The Grateful Dead performed together for three decades, initially forming on December 4th, 1965, before calling it a day on July 9th, 1995, after the death of Jerry Garcia. During that time, the band performed a vast number of shows, some more legendary than others. Still, all of the most important was captured by one of their biggest fanatics and the ultimate archivist, Dick Latvala.
Latvala wrote a brief autobiography before the first time he tried LSD, in which he spoke about his basic philosophy on life, his relationship with his parents, and the fact he preferred being friends with black people over white people. That also resonated in his music taste, and it wasn’t until he heard the Grateful Dead in 1965 that he said he first heard music from white people that began to approach the power of gospel.
With that, a new obsession was born, and Latvala became one of the driving factors in capturing the Grateful Dead’s live performances; this gave rise to the Dick’s Picks series. It was launched on October 31st, 1993, and has become one of the live collections of Grateful Dead recordings that fans turn to the most. Some of the most storied concerts the band ever played were contained within, all the way back from February 1968 to December 1992.
Latvala curated the series until he passed away in 1999. After that, his successor, David Lemieux, picked up curation responsibilities until 2005. The collection was up to 36 volumes, and after seven years, Lemieux decided to begin curating his very own Daves Picks.
The two series compile over 100 hours of Grateful Dead recordings, all of which harness the power of their live performance without sacrificing audio quality. They are an absolute must-listen for all fans of The Dead and lovers of the power of live music in general.
