Grateful Dead: Dick's Picks 12

Grateful Dead: Dick's Picks Vol. 12--Providence Civic Center 6/26/74 & Boston Garden 6/28/74 (3 CD Set) Combining the second sets of two different nights is not standard operating procedure for the Dick's Picks series of live Dead shows, but this volume is the exception that proves the rule-the playing is so extraordinary, and the repertoire so unusual, that one can understand why Dick Latvala played more curator than archivist on Vol. 12. The first disc picks up the second set from Providence three songs in, featuring a short jam that leads into what many have labeled the most extraordinary live version of "China Cat Sunflower" ever recorded, complete with a sublime transition ("Mud Love Buddy Jam" a.k.a. "Mind Left Body Jam") into "I Know You Rider." The revelatory moments continue throughout the Providence set, highlighted by a dazzling, 15-minute "Spanish Jam." But the second set of the Boston show-which appears here complete, beginning on CD two after a superb encore performan