Cornell 5/8/77

Cornell 5/8/77
Cornell 5/8/77 CD cover
Live album by
Grateful Dead
ReleasedMay 5, 2017
RecordedMay 8, 1977
VenueBarton Hall (Ithaca, New York)
GenreRock
Length154:56
LabelRhino
ProducerGrateful Dead
Grateful Dead chronology
May 1977: Get Shown the Light
(2017) 		Cornell 5/8/77
(2017) 		Long Strange Trip
(2017)

Cornell 5/8/77 is a live album by the American rock band the Grateful Dead, recorded on May 8, 1977, at Barton Hall, Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York. In 2011, the recording was selected for inclusion in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.[1][2]

Background

The May 8, 1977, show is a fan favorite, and is widely considered to be one of the band's best performances.[3] Tickets to attend the general admission concert cost $7.50 (equivalent to $38 in 2023),[4] and the soundboard recording was made by longtime Grateful Dead audio engineer Betty Cantor-Jackson. During this tour, the Grateful Dead visited Ithaca's Moosewood Restaurant, "only to go unrecognized by the members of the collective."[5]

The album of the show was released as a three-disc CD and as a five-disc LP on May 5, 2017, three days shy of the 40th anniversary of the original performance.[6][7][8][9] The same recording was also released on May 5, 2017 as part of the four-concert, eleven-CD box set May 1977: Get Shown the Light.[10][11]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[12]
Jazzwise[13]

Stephen Thomas Erlewine on AllMusic wrote, "Sourced from the original soundboard recordings by Betty Cantor-Jackson, the sound is colorful and vivid, an excellent complement to a prime Dead performance. What makes this such an exceptional performance isn't that it's the Grateful Dead at their most experimental... but at their warmest.... If this isn't the best Grateful Dead show ever – a hard thing to quantify – it's nevertheless at the sweet spot of providing hardcore Deadheads with plenty to savor while offering a good introduction for neophytes, which is more than enough to make it essential."[12]

Track listing

Disc 1

First set:
  1. "New Minglewood Blues" (traditional, arranged by Grateful Dead) – 5:34
  2. "Loser" (Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter) – 7:58
  3. "El Paso" (Marty Robbins) – 4:51
  4. "They Love Each Other" (Garcia, Hunter) – 7:29
  5. "Jack Straw" (Bob Weir, Hunter) – 6:29
  6. "Deal" (Garcia, Hunter) – 6:10
  7. "Lazy Lightning" > (Weir, John Perry Barlow) – 3:26
  8. "Supplication" (Weir, Barlow) – 4:48
  9. "Brown-Eyed Women" (Garcia, Hunter) – 5:49
  10. "Mama Tried" (Merle Haggard) – 3:12
  11. "Row Jimmy" (Garcia, Hunter) – 11:14

Disc 2

  1. "Dancing in the Street" (William Stevenson, Marvin Gaye, Ivy Jo Hunter) – 16:32
Second set:
  2. "Scarlet Begonias" > (Garcia, Hunter) – 11:15
  3. "Fire on the Mountain" (Mickey Hart, Hunter) – 15:40
  4. "Estimated Prophet" (Weir, Barlow) – 8:49

Disc 3

  1. "St. Stephen" > (Garcia, Phil Lesh, Hunter) – 5:03
  2. "Not Fade Away" > (Norman Petty, Charles Hardin) – 16:20
  3. "St. Stephen" > (Garcia, Lesh, Hunter) – 1:54
  4. "Morning Dew" (Bonnie Dobson, Tim Rose) – 14:17
Encore:
  2. "One More Saturday Night" (Weir) – 5:10

Personnel

Grateful Dead

Production

  • Produced by Grateful Dead
  • Produced for release by David Lemieux
  • Recording: Betty Cantor-Jackson
  • Mastering: Jeffrey Norman
  • Tape restoration and speed correction: Jamie Howarth, John Chester
  • Packaging manager: Shannon Ward
  • Poster art: Jay Mabrey
  • Art direction, design: Masaki Koike
  • Photos: John Reis, Doran Tyson, Michael Wesley Johnson, Lawrence Reichman
  • Liner notes essay "Myth, Memory, Mystery, and the History of Cornell '77": Nicholas G. Meriwether
  • Executive producer: Mark Pinkus
  • Associate producers: Doran Tyson, Ivette Ramos
  • Tapes provided through the assistance of: ABCD Enterprises, LLC
  • Tape research: Michael Wesley Johnson
  • Archival research: UC Santa Cruz Grateful Dead Archive

Charts

Chart (2017) Peak
position
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[14] 121
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[15] 35
Italian Albums (FIMI)[16] 83
Scottish Albums (OCC)[17] 67
US Billboard 200[18] 25

See also

References

  1. ^ Norman, Michael (May 23, 2012). "Library of Congress Taps 25 Sounds for National Recording Registry". The Plain Dealer. Cleveland. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  2. ^ Jackson, Blair (May 25, 2012). "Cornell '77 Enshrined for the Ages". dead.net. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  3. ^ "Why Is 5/8/77 Considered the Grateful Dead's Best Performance?". Live for Live Music. May 8, 2016. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  4. ^ Scott, John W.; Dolgushkin, Mike; Nixon, Stu. (1999). DeadBase XI: The Complete Guide to Grateful Dead Song Lists. Cornish, NH: DeadBase. p. 38. ISBN 1-877657-22-0.
  5. ^ Carney, Brennan (April 20, 2022). "Nearing Its 50th Anniversary, Moosewood Reopens Under New Ownership". Ithaca Week. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
  6. ^ Reed, Ryan (February 16, 2017). "Hear Grateful Dead's Epic "Morning Dew" from Legendary Cornell Show". Rolling Stone. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  7. ^ Deflin, Kendall (February 16, 2017). "Grateful Dead Are Planning 40th Anniversary Release of Cornell 5/8/77 on Vinyl". Live for Live Music. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  8. ^ Hopkins, Scott (February 18, 2017). "Cornell 5/8/77 Celebrates the 40th Anniversary of This Much-Revered Dead Show". MusicFestNews. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  9. ^ "The Grateful Dead's Famed Cornell '77 Show to be Released on Vinyl". Jambands.com. February 16, 2017. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  10. ^ Fairman, Randy (February 21, 2017). "Not Fade Away: Grateful Dead's Legendary 1977 Cornell Concert to Get Official Release On Its Own and As Part of 11-Disc May 1977 Concert Box". The Second Disc. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  11. ^ Bernstein, Scott (February 16, 2017). "Grateful Dead to Release Legendary Cornell 1977 Show and May 1977: Get Shown the Light Box Set". JamBase. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  12. ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Cornell 5/8/77". AllMusic. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
  13. ^ Hunt, Ken. "Grateful Dead: Cornell 5/8/77". Jazzwise. Retrieved May 18, 2023.
  14. ^ "Ultratop.be – Grateful Dead – Cornell 5/8/77" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved May 20, 2017.
  15. ^ "Album Top 40 slágerlista – 2017. 21. hét" (in Hungarian). MAHASZ. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
  16. ^ "Album – Classifica settimanale WK 19 (dal 2017-05-05 al 2017-05-11)" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. Retrieved May 13, 2017.
  17. ^ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved May 13, 2017.
  18. ^ "Grateful Dead Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved May 16, 2017.