Grateful Dead's Dick's Picks Vol. 3: Pembroke Pines, Florida 1977 on Numbered Limited Edition 180g 4LP Box Set. Limited to 2000 Copies. Remastered by Jeffrey Norman. Lacquers Cut by Clint Holley & Dave Polster at Well Made Music. Pressed at Gotta Groove Records.

Grateful Dead archivist Dick Latvala considered this show to be the finest outing on the entire Spring 1977 tour, and, as any Dead Head knows, that is high praise indeed! At the time this was released on CD, the Dead weren't sure a market existed (ha!) for three and four-CD packages, so this four-LP set leaves off eight songs from the show, but consider what songs are here: a phenomenal "Help on the Way"/"Slipknot!"/"Franklin's Tower" comes after one of the definitive renditions of "Sugaree" and a terrific "The Music Never Stopped," with the late, great Phil Lesh's slithering bass leading the way in recording engineer's Betty Cantor-Jackson's mix. But sides E, F and G offer one of those sublime (and, in this case, never to be repeated) sequences of songs that only the Dead could pull off in concert; after the rarely-performed "Sunrise," a medley of "Estimated Prophet"/"Eyes of the World"/"Wharf Rat"/"Terrapin Station" (a truncated version two months before its official release)/"Morning Dew" brings the show home, as Jerry Garcia's soloing on "Morning Dew" reaches heights seldom attained even by him.

This was a knockout release on its first very limited vinyl run (check out those resale prices), and Real Gone Music have improved on it with a fresh mastering job by Jeffrey Norman (in his own words, "the sound is better than the original heard on the Brookvale release"), and lacquer cutting by Clint Holley and Dave Polster at Well Made Music. Pressed on 180-gram black vinyl at the plant they've been using to great acclaim for all of their Grateful Dead releases, Gotta Groove Records, and limited to 2,000 hand-numbered copies!