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2-CD/1-DVD Collection Rocking The Cradle: Egypt 1978 Celebrates The 30th Anniversary of the Band's Historic Concerts at Giza With Previously Unreleased Audio and Video

Fans Who Pre-Order on Dead.net Will Receive an Exclusive Bonus Disc Containing Additional Egypt Performances

Available September 30 from Grateful Dead Productions and Rhino

http://www.dead.net/features/news/dead-rock-cradle-civilization

In the fall of 1978, author and counterculture icon Ken Kesey reported to a close friend that he had recently witnessed “the latest Rocking of the Cradle of Civilization.” The course of events that he went on to recall was the Grateful Dead’s assorted family, friends and fellow Pranksters—“Pyramidiots” of various origins—descent upon Egypt’s Nile Valley that culminated in three legendary concerts performed at the foot of the Great Pyramid in Giza. Although perhaps unintentionally, the entire adventure might have been easily seen, as Kesey did, as one very special contribution to the then-critical Middle Eastern peace effort. To commemorate the 30-year anniversary of this cosmic convergence of sound and sphinx, Grateful Dead Productions and Rhino will release ROCKING THE CRADLE: EGYPT 1978, a collection of highlights from this historic three-night stand. The 2-CD/1-DVD set will be available September 30 at regular retail outlets and www.dead.net for a suggested list price of $34.98. Fans who pre-order the set from Dead.net will receive an exclusive eight-song bonus disc that includes additional unreleased performances from the Egypt run. A digital version that includes all the CD content will also be also available.

Recorded September 15-16, 1978 at the Gizah Sound and Light Theater, the original 24-track recordings have been mixed and mastered for this set in HDCD by Jeffrey Norman for optimal sound quality. The two CDs contain 18 tracks featuring more than two and a half hours of music. Except for three performances that appeared on 2004’s Beyond Description boxed set, the tracks on ROCKING THE CRADLE have never been released. The accompanying DVD features more than 100 minutes of footage, including 13 songs from the third and final Egypt show, which took place during a rare lunar eclipse.It is misxed in 5.1 surround sound and presented in DTS surround and PCM stereo sound. Legendary promoter Bill Graham called this show “one of the great experiences of my life.” The DVD also includes a featurette titled “The Vacation Tapes” which catches never-before-seen candid band footage from the trip. The set comes in pyramid-inspired packaging and features rare photos from the trip and liner notes by longtime Dead associate Alan Trist, who was pivotal in making the trek to Egypt happen.

Trist recalls that “the Dead long dreamed of playing at the foot of the Great Pyramid.” However, pulling off this dream proved to be a monumental task as no other American band had ever performed there. The band spent months planning and making arrangements with the Egyptian Ministry of Culture. The band agreed to pay all of its own expenses for the trip and donated all of the proceeds from ticket sales to several Egyptian charities, as well as the Department of Antiquities, which preserves the country’s ancient treasures. Another major challenge was the minimal amount of power available at Gizah, which required the band to bring in an enormous generator to power its state-of-the-art sound and recording equipment. In the end, the massive effort paid off. The shows were spectacular successes, attracting a mix of world cultures including American Dead Heads and European fans as well as curious Egyptians and Bedouins on camels drawn by the unusual spectacle.

Unbeknownst to the band at the time, these shows would soon have a remarkable historical context. On September 17, the day after the last show, the Camp David Peace Accords were signed after nearly two weeks of secret negotiations. The Accords lead to the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty, which made Egypt the first Arab country to officially recognize Israel and ended a near 30-year state of war between the two countries. One has to wonder if the Dead’s message of peace and love might have had some sort of impact on the negotiations.

ROCKING THE CRADLE features Jerry Garcia (guitar, vocals), Donna Jean Godchaux (vocals), Keith Godchaux (keyboards), Mickey Hart (drums), Bill Kreutzmann (drums), Phil Lesh (electric bass, vocals), and Bob Weir (rhythm guitar, vocals). These performances took place just a few months before the band released Shakedown Street, its tenth studio album. The shows featured performances of several songs from the upcoming album, including the title track, “I Need A Miracle,” “Fire On The Mountain,” and an updated take on the blues standard, “Stagger Lee.” The band also peppered its Egyptian setlists with classics like “Deal,” “Truckin’” and “Stella Blue.”

ROCKING THE CRADLE: EGYPT 1978

Track Listing

Disc 1
1. “Jack Straw”
2. “Row Jimmy”
3. “New, New Minglewood Blues”
4. “Candyman”
5. “Looks Like Rain”
6. “Stagger Lee”
7. “I Need A Miracle”
8. “It’s All Over Now”
9. “Deal”

Disc 2
1. “Ollin Arageed”
2. “Fire On The Mountain”
3. “Iko Iko”
4. “Shakedown Street”
5. “Drums”
6. “Space”
7. “Truckin’”
8. “Stella Blue”
9. “Around And Around”

DVD Track Listing
1. “Bertha”
2. “Good Lovin’”
3. “Row Jimmy”
4. “New, Minglewood Blues”
5. “Candyman”
6. “Looks Like Rain”
7. “Deal”
8. “Ollin Arageed”
9. “Fire On The Mountain”
10. “Iko Iko”
11. “I Need A Miracle”
12. “It’s All Over Now”
13. “Truckin’”
Featurette: “The Vacation Tapes”

Dead.net Exclusive Bonus CD
1. “Bertha”
2. “Good Lovin’”
3. “El Paso”
4. “Ramble On Rose”
5. “Estimated Prophet”
6. “Eyes Of The World”
7. “Terrapin Station”
8. “Sugar Magnolia”

[DPR]

Tis is a must have!!!!
_________________
At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality

[BornAgainDead]

Is anyone out there familiar with these performances? I vaguely recall reading that these shows were disappointing, but maybe I'm confused.
_________________
Shall we go, you and I, while we can?
Through the transitive nightfall of diamonds

[SailorSaint]

From what I've heard about these shows the disappointment was not in the quality of the music but instead that they played standard sets, which didn't include some of the powerhouses like Dark Star and St. Stephen.

The highlight of this trip was the total lunar eclipse of a full moon while they played the 3rd night. It must have been amazing! As well, they planted a SYF flag on the top of the head of the sphynx. These shows are in the top 10 that I would have wanted to attend.

The "Grateful Dead Family Album" has a nice long write up about this trip. Definitely worth the read, with some wonderful pictures.

$34.98 is a steal for a CD/DVD package. My birthday is in September and I now know what I'll be asking for.
_________________
Wind inside & the wind outside
Tangled in the window blind
Tell me why you treat me so unkind

[SailorSaint]

After reading up on these shows a little bit I'm getting mixed reviews. Some say they were very good, but didn't quite meet the huge expectations, while other say they weren't anything to drool over.

According to "The Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip" the band planned on paying for this trip by releasing the shows as a live album. Jerry, however, was unhappy with the performances so he refused to let them be released and the band ended up $500,000 in the red. Jerry is quoted that "everything was perfect and we went and played shitty".

Explainations for the poor performances, according to The Illustrated Trip include Billy drumming with only one hand due to breaking the other playing basketball (possibly with Bill Walton, who tagged along on the trip), Keith's piano was out of tune and that Jerry's playing wasn't helped by the fact that he was coping with separation from Persian by gulping prescription painkillers.

Regardless, I'm still excited to check these shows out.
_________________
Wind inside & the wind outside
Tangled in the window blind
Tell me why you treat me so unkind

[nickelless]

I've always loved the Olin Agereed > Fire on the Mt. along with the story

of Hamza and a bunch of other drummers being slowly replaced on stage

until the drummers disappeared and the band replaced them,

the transition from Olin into Fire will be worth the price alone, just to check it out

on DVD.

That video Justin K. (Billys son) put out a few years back had

footage of Kessey and a couple of other pranksters climbing up to

attach the SYF flag to the top. sigh, wish I was there....
_________________
They're telling me forgiveness is the key to every door.........

[Morey]

Jerry decided not to release these w=shows for a reason. Keith's piano was out of tune. Billy was playing with a broken wrist. What should have been the highlight of their career ended up being mediocre. It's a real shame. I suggest listening to the last show that they played before going to Egypt to hear how they should have sounded there. The 2nd set is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G-!

Giants Stadium
September 02, 1978
East Rutherford, NJ US

Also: New Riders of the Purple Sage; Willie Nelson.
Set List:

Jack Straw
Friend of the Devil
New Minglewood Blues
Dire Wolf
Looks Like Rain
Stagger Lee
I Need a Miracle
Peggy-O
Lazy Lightnin'
Supplication

Good Lovin'
Scarlet Begonias
Fire on the Mountain
Estimated Prophet
Eyes of the World
drums
Sugar Magnolia

One More Saturday Night

[SailorSaint]

Got to love those late 70's set lists.
_________________
Wind inside & the wind outside
Tangled in the window blind
Tell me why you treat me so unkind

[VermontDeadHead]

I've been watching the marketing trends of Dead.net and figured that this would be one of the next packages to come out...NICE!!!
It is always a super bonus to get video too!
I went to the store but don't see the package available there yet, you mentioned prebuy... Any Idea when that will become available?
To have gotten this news on Jerry's birthday yeaterday made me smile smile smile!
Peace
Kevin Anderson
(VermontDeadhead)
_________________
Kevin Anderson, Windsor, VT...by way of central Massachusetts

[HappyFriday]

Vermont,

here is a more direct link to the "Rock The Cradle" CD/DVD for sale.

http://www.dead.net/features/news/dead-rock-cradle-civilization
_________________
Share A Smile With A Stranger, After All, We Are All Neighbors!

[VermontDeadHead]

I still don't see the preorder link????
On a similar topic...I was watching "Sunshine Daydream" last night (Keseys Creamery ) and was thinking that as the years go by it would be great to see more video of the band like this. My VHS tape of this is good but I'd love to see this show cleaned up and on a disc. ...now mind you I don't mean chopped up,leave it as produced, just audio/video digital quality rather than VHS quality.. I love all the spliced in pieces from the acid tests and the overdubbed stage banter...keep it intact, add bonus material to it if you want but put it out on DVD disc.
Anyone familiar with band know how much video is available for release some day? It would be cool to see the full trip from the "Dead Movie" shows too, one pckage with all those shows complete. I was listening to some of the Sirius interviews this week and Jerry was talking about this project. If the film is still in a can somewhere these 5 shows would be a nice DVD package too.
_________________
Kevin Anderson, Windsor, VT...by way of central Massachusetts

[My_Oh_My]

Oh boohoo-- they didn't play a powerhouse like Darkstar or St Stephen....what a crock!!! Look, I have very much enjoyed those tunes too, but please you are really raining on the whole frekin parade when you act like some pseudo critic in this arena. Did you ever see any live shows? Ever see them hittin on all cylinders? Then shut up and enjoy those memories!!! Your perception sounds more like a BeeGees fan.,..
_________________
There are things you can replace,
and others you cannot.
The time has come to weigh those things...
this space is gettin hot...
you know this space is gettin hot...
Baby I hope you don't get burned.

[SailorSaint]

[HappyFriday]

[BornAgainDead]