Now Available: The Grateful Dead, Wake Up to Find Out
Every day, somewhere in the world, sleeping Grateful Dead fans in the middle of a deep sleep suddenly sit upright in bed, screaming in horror. Why? Because they’ve had the same recurring nightmare that strikes all Deadheads at some point: they’ve just bought a live concert recording from their favorite band, and as the sales clerk hands them their purchase, he offers an evil sneer and says, “I hope you enjoy it, because that’s it: there are no more Grateful Dead shows left to be released!”
Oh, we’re only kidding…or at least we think we are, anyway. (If you’ve ever had that dream, you may want to seek professional help.) But even if we’re not, today’s definitely not the day to worry about a lack of Grateful Dead shows, since it’s also the day we’ve just put out Wake Up to Find Out.
Remember the Spring 1990 box set that same out back in 2012? If not, then you’re a little late, sadly, as it’s been sold out for quite some time, but you can take solace in the fact that the band has just released a companion piece entitled Spring 1990(The Other One), a 23-disc box set that features eight shows: Capital Centre, Landover, MD (March 14); Civic Center, Hartford, CT (March 18); Copps Coliseum, Hamilton, ON (March 21); Knickerbocker Arena, Albany, NY (March 25); Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY (March 28 & 29); and The Omni, Atlanta, GA (April 1 & April 3). But here’s two things you need to know: 1) if you want it right this second, then this is where we part ways, as it’s available exclusively from Dead.net, and 2) it’s just as expensive as you’d expect a 23-disc set to be...
And that’s where we – and Wake Up to Find Out – come in.
Wake Up to Find Out may only be a three-disc set, but those three discs include the second of those two Nassau Coliseum performances, otherwise known to diehard Dead fans as the night Branford Marsalis sat in with the band. As Blair Jackson, author of Garcia: An American Life, has written, “Of all the guest musicians who shared the Dead’s stage through the years—and they were many and varied—none embodied both the Dead’s adventurous, questing spirit and their obsession with beautiful melodies and accessible structures quite like Branford did.”
In the press release we put together for Spring 1990 (The Other One) and Wake Up to Find Out, Marsalis himself reflected on the evening. “When I agreed to sit in with the Dead in 1990, I didn’t know what to expect, aurally or visually,” admitted Marsalis. “What I experienced was what I remembered music to be in my younger years, something that I'd felt was lost long ago. Process over product. No set lists, light shows and costumes required, but music first. It's an experience I will always remember with great fondness.”
And now you, friends, can experience that evening for yourself…and, better yet, you can do it without having to take out a small loan to purchase the entire Spring 1990 (The Other One) set. Not that we don’t think you’d find it a worthwhile investment, of course, but this is certainly a more cost-effective way for those on a budget to enjoy a momentous evening in Grateful Dead history.
To give you just a little bit more temptation before we go, here’s the track listing for Wake Up to Find Out, so you can see exactly what you’ll be getting:
Disc One
1. “Jack Straw”
2. “Bertha”
3. “We Can Run”
4. “Ramble On Rose”
5. “When I Paint My Masterpiece”
6. “Birdsong”
7. “Promised Land”
Disc Two
1. “Eyes Of The World”
2. “Estimated Prophet”
3. “Dark Star”
4. “Drums”
Disc Three
1. “Space”
2. “Dark Star”
3. “The Wheel”
4. “Throwing Stones”
5. “Turn On Your Lovelight”
6. “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”
