Grateful Dead: Dick's Picks 20

GRATEFUL DEAD: Dick’s Picks Vol. 20—Capital Centre, Landover, MD 9/25/76 Onondaga County War Memorial, Syracuse, NY 9/28/76 (4-CD Set)

• The Legendary Series of Live Shows, Carefully Culled from the Band's Vault 

• Dick's Picks 20 Captures the Dead on the Road after a 20-Month Hiatus with Mickey Hart Back in the Band for the First Time in Five Years 

• Features the Last Performance of "Cosmic Charlie" in Concert 

• Two Whole Shows ,Each Lacking Just One Song Each 

At a mere two songs short of two complete shows—and those two songs, “Bertha” and “It’s All Over Now,” were played at both shows, so they appear on the set at least once—Dick’s Picks Vol. 20 is one of the more jam-packed (or is that packed with jams?) entries in the series. But this volume has a lot more going for it than just five hours-plus of music—1976 marked the return of the band to the road after a 20-month hiatus with Mickey Hart back in tow for the first time in five years, and it is a newly rejuvenated outfit we hear playing a mix of the new (“Lazy Lightnin’,” “Supplication”) and old (“St. Stephen” and the rare “Cosmic Charlie,” which appears on the Landover show’s set list for the last time ever). Perhaps the most sublime moment is the transition from “Comes a Time” to “Eyes of the World” (and then to the out-of-nowhere “Orange Tango Jam”) during the second set of the Syracuse show, but both shows are full of sparkling performances propelled by the newly reunited Rhythm Devils. Another keeper from the vaults. 

SONGS

Capital Centre Landover, MD 9/25/76 

Disc One

Set One

1. Bertha
2. New Minglewood Blues
3. Ramble On Rose
4. Cassidy
5. Brown-Eyed Woman
6. Mama Tried
7. Peggy-O
8. Loser
9. Let It Grow
10. Sugaree
11. Lazy Lightnin’
12. Supplication

Disc Two

Set Two

1. Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
2. Dancing in the Streets
3. Cosmic Charlie
4. Scarlet Begonias
5. St. Stephen
6. Not Fade Away
7. Drums
8. Jam
9. St. Stephen
10. Sugar Magnolia 

Onondaga County War Memorial, Syracuse, NY 9/28/76 

Disc Three

Set One

1. Cold Rain and Snow
2. Big River
3. Cassidy
4. Tennessee Jed
5. New Minglewood Blues
6. Candyman
7. It’s All Over Now
8. Friend of the Devil
9. Let It Grow
10. Goin’ Down the Road Feeling Bad

Disc Four

Set Two

1. Playing in the Band
2. The Wheel
3. Samson and Delilah
4. Jam
5. Comes a Time
6. Drums
7. Eyes of the World
8. Orange Tango Jam
9. Dancing in the Streets
10. Playing in the Band
11. Johnny B. Goode