Tag: 30 trips around the sun

I don’t know if I can write any more.

Finally admitting you’ve exhausted the topic?

Oh, no: this dead horse can be kicked for a good deal longer. I was talking about the music.

Huh?

The 30 Trips sampler. It goes chronologically, one song per year.

What’s the problem?

This is not how the Grateful Dead goes. The Dead goes “little song, little song, loud song, Scarlet>Fire, drummers do stuff, long bunch of bullshit, US Blues.”

Take this as an opportunity to relisten to the songs in a different context.

I don’t want to. I want the thing I like to be the way I like it.

Would it make you happy to watch a mustache with a guy attached do one of those “unpacking” videos for the box set?

Personally, I’m ambivalent, but maybe someone else might.

Okay, champ.

Reports about the box set are flooding in and the news is that a small number of Enthusiasts will have a “golden ticket” that wins them a gold record. Like, an actual gold record from the Dead? A replica like those plastic batting helmets popular in the 80’s? I don’t know: there is a contest and the winner will receive “a personalized Grateful Dead 30 Trips RIAA-certified Gold Record plaque”.

What does that mean?

No idea. A geegaw of some sort.

Shiny?

Gold. So, yeah.

Y’know what would’ve been better?

What?

If they did it like at hockey games. A few box sets would have Phil’s signature and if you got one of those, you got a shot on goal from center ice, but there was a plexiglass shielld over it that left a tiny little opening

Score-o?

The contest has different names regionally, I believe.

The New Jersey Devils called it Score-O. Where would you even do this?

Sharks game?

And what would be the prize?

For guys: dinner at Phil’s place, half-off excluding drinks and dessert.

What if a woman wins?

Billy sticks it in her for a few minutes.

We’re done.

The 30 Trips box sets are arriving at Enthusiasts’ homes, and I’m sure it will be available illicitly soon, but the Dead may have hit on a preventative measure against piracy: spread the thing out over 80 discs. Just the physical act of putting the things in the computer, and taking them out, and putting them back, and getting a new one, and writing things down: this is exhausting to write about, I cannot believe someone would actually do such a thing. Cheers to you, internet pirate.

I feel that there’s some cover–morally–in the fact that the box set sold out (as did the recently announced Dave’s Pick 16 in, like, 24 hours) and it could even be argued that had I wanted to purchase one, I would have been unable to. They would not take my money, it could be argued. That is obviously a terrible argument (I knew the box set was available for purchase) and a lie (torrenting it was the plan all along.)

There will be discussion of the highs (’68) and lows (one of the shows from the 90’s I will not be listening to ever) in the box, but until it comes onto the torrent sites, I’ll be spending the evening with the sampler, 30 Trips Around The Sun – The Definitive Live Story, which is not sold out and is available wherever fine leather goods are sold.

So: if you have money, and enjoy the Grateful Dead, and don’t freak out when the wrong songs follow each other, go buy one of these suckers.

As opposed to the 80 CDs, commemorative crate, and full-color book, this version of 30 Trips Around the Sun can be keistered.

So, if you’re the type of consumer who includes “Can I smuggle this product in and out of locations via my butthole?” as a metric in your purchasing decisions, this is the thing for you.