Around and Around: Grateful Dead Celebrate “Summer Magic 1985” with Massive Box Set, Standalone Concert Release
Rhino and Grateful Dead are celebrating a 40th (+1) anniversary with a new concert compendium due from Dead.net on September 18. Summer Magic 1985 is a 20CD collection featuring seven previously unreleased concerts from the legendary band’s 20 Years So Far tour. It’s limited to 10,000 numbered copies (while also arriving in high-resolution digital formats). But that’s not all; the Merriweather Post Pavilion show of June 30, 1985 will be broken out for 3CD and 4LP standalone release on the same day.
The Dead’s magic in the summer of ’85 was plentiful, and the large box will include all three of the band’s 20th anniversary concerts at Berkeley, California’s Greek Theater (6/14-6/16/85) which kicked off the tour, as well as dates from Saratoga Performing Arts Center (6/27/85); Hersheypark Stadium (6/28/85); and Merriweather Post Pavilion (6/30/85). All of the gigs were recorded by the Dead’s longtime sound engineer Dan Healy and mastered for this release by David Glasser at Airshow Mastering. Typical for the Dead sets of this magnitude, it’s a lavish affair with original artwork by Marcos Alvarado and design by Pablo Valdez and Steve Vance; and a 96-page book boasting new essays by Nicholas G. Meriwether and archivist David Lemieux plus photos and more original artwork by Alvarado.
This set has particular meaning for Lemieux. He explains in the press release that he became a deadicated fan of the ’85 summer tour during his teenaged years when he traded for a copy of the June 15 second set at the Greek: “I had a few tapes by this time from 1983 and 1984, but this 1985 Grateful Dead was something entirely different, a freshness that sounded like a band now celebrating 20 years (!), but still just getting started. From that moment on, I was on a mission to collect as much 1985 Dead as possible.” He says that the evening’s performance of “Shakedown Street” is “widely considered one of the greatest single performances of any song by the Grateful Dead, up there with the ‘Dew’ from Europe ’72, ‘Viola Lee Blues’ from Harpur College, and ‘Eyes of the World’ from 3/29/90. Yes, it’s that good.”
The opening Greek show offers the band’s rendition of Eric Clapton’s “Keep on Growing” with Phil Lesh and Brent Mydland on vocals, while the second concert opened with “Touch of Grey.” Its subsequent runaway success would see the Dead move away from relatively smaller venues such as the Greek. The final show found them playing “Cryptical Envelopment” for the first time in 13 years.
The Saratoga Springs show of June 27, 1985 was famously overcrowded, but that didn’t stop the band from delivering another standout performance complete with “Turn on Your Lovelight,” originally a specialty for the late Ron “Pigpen” McKernan. The next night, the Dead headed to Pennsylvania for a concert at Hersheypark Stadium adjacent to the famed theme park. Two nights later, they took the stage at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. The second show there closed with a rip-roaring dual encore of The Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.” Lemieux comments of the pairing, “Certain things are indicative of the Grateful Dead being ‘on,’ and a rare double encore always means they’re having a blast and don’t want the show to end. This boxed set’s seven gigs feature THREE double encores, and it’s those ‘little things’ that reveal a band still having more fun than a frog in a glass of milk.”
“Sugar Magnolia” is currently streaming from the Merriweather Post Pavilion show of June 30, 1985 as a preview of the 20CD Summer Magic 1985 box and the 3CD Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD (6/30/85) set. They’re both due on September 18 from Rhino/Grateful Dead. You’ll find pre-order links and the track listing for the smaller set below. (As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.)
Summer Magic 1985 (Dead.net)
- Greek Theatre, University of California, Berkeley, CA (6/14/85)
- Greek Theatre, University of California, Berkeley, CA (6/15/85)
- Greek Theatre, University of California, Berkeley, CA (6/16/85)
- Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY (6/27/85)
- Hershey Park Stadium, Hershey, PA (6/28/85)
- Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD (6/30/85)
- Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD (7/1/85)
- Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD (6/30/85)
Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD (6/30/85) 3CD Edition (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
CD 1
“Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo”>
“C.C. Rider”>
“Brown-Eyed Women”
“Mama Tried”>
“Mexicali Blues”
“Keep On Growing”
“Big Railroad Blues”
“Looks Like Rain”>
“Don’t Ease Me In”
CD 2
“Shakedown Street”>
“Samson And Delilah”
“Gimme Some Lovin’”>
“He’s Gone”>
“Cryptical Envelopment”>
“Drums”
CD 3
“Space”>
“The Other One”>
“Stella Blue”>
“Around And Around”>
“Sugar Magnolia”
“U.S. Blues”
Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD (6/30/85) 4LP Edition (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Side A
“Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo”>
“C.C. Rider”>
“Brown-Eyed Women”
Side B
“Mama Tried”>
“Mexicali Blues”
“Keep On Growing”
Side C
“Big Railroad Blues”
“Looks Like Rain”>
“Don’t Ease Me In”
Side D
“Shakedown Street”>
“Samson And Delilah”
Side E
“Gimme Some Lovin’”>
“He’s Gone”>
“Cryptical Envelopment”
Side F
“Drums”
“Space”>
Side G
“The Other One”>
“Stella Blue”>
Side H
“Around And Around”
“Sugar Magnolia”
“U.S. Blues”
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Totally in for this. Summer 85 is before I got on the bus (I was a bit young) but these are really good, really fun shows with some of the most diverse, eclectic setlists in the band’s history.
If anyone knows of any active Warner/Rhino discount codes, please share. There usually is one, but I haven’t found a valid, active one yet.