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The Grateful Dead Announce Massive Limited Edition 80-Disc Box Set

06/03/2015
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(Radio.com) No one would ever accuse the Grateful Dead of brevity, but their new box set takes things to an altogether new level. Grateful Dead: 30 Trips Around the Sun is an 80-disc box set commemorating the band's 50th anniversary; it's filled with 30 unreleased concert recordings spanning the band's entire career.

In case you don't have the shelf space, it will also be available as a USB drive. The collection will include one show from each year of the band's existence, starting in 1966 and ending in 1995.

From start to finish, the box set will be 73 hours long. Perhaps 73 hours isn't quite enough for you. Well, hopefully you have a turntable, because the box set will also include a gold-colored 7-inch vinyl single. The A-side is "Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks)" from the band's earliest recording sessions in 1965; the B-side is the last song the band ever performed together live, "Box of Rain" recorded during their final encore at Soldier Field in Chicago on July 9, 1995.

All of the shows included on the box have not yet been announced; but Rhino Records have revealed that the set will include a 1967 show at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and a 1987 show at New York's Madison Square Garden. However, they note that none of the unreleased shows in will be available for individual purchase on CD "at any time in the future."

The box also comes with a 288-page book featuring an presumably long essay written by Nick Meriwether, who oversees the Dead archives at the University of California, Santa Cruz, along with special remembrances of the band submitted by fans. It will also include a scroll with a visual representation of how the band's live repertoire evolved through the years. Read more here.

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