Dick's Picks Volume 31
| Dick's Picks Volume 31 | ||||
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| Live album by Grateful Dead | ||||
| Released | March 2004 | |||
| Recorded | August 4–6, 1974 | |||
| Genre | Folk rock, jam | |||
| Label | Grateful Dead Records | |||
| Grateful Dead chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| The Music Box | |
Dick's Picks Volume 31 is the 31st installment in the Grateful Dead's archival live album series. It was recorded on August 4 and 5, 1974 at the Philadelphia Civic Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and on August 6, 1974 at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was released as a four-disc CD in March 2004.
On Allmusic, Lindsay Planer said, "Incrementally, this [lineup of the Grateful Dead] began distancing the band's sound from the R&B-meets-psychedelia of the Ron "Pigpen" McKernan years, as well as the more recent rural twang heard on Workingman's Dead (1970) and American Beauty (1970). Instead, their collective fusion-based explorations continually challenge the musicians, while simultaneously providing fresh extensions and visages on familiar favorites. Nowhere is this more evident than on "Playing in the Band". After introducing the number in their repertoire (circa February of 1971), they cultivated it from a fairly rote and otherwise typical rendering into an unexpurgated show-stopping centerpiece — as shown by the pair of 20-plus minute excursions on Dick's Picks Volume 31. They not only clock in at nearly half an hour apiece, but each is distinctive and examines the Grateful Dead's ability to end up at different places, despite the similarities in the point(s) of departure."
In The Music Box, John Metzger wrote, "Just days before Richard Nixon resigned his position as President of the United States to avoid impeachment, the Grateful Dead unleashed a trio of exhilarating performances in the mid-Atlantic. For certain, 1974 was a magnificent year for the band — even if it was the end of a rather disgraceful era for the country at large — for its mad-scientist amalgamation of country, rock, jazz, and blues blossomed beautifully, and although it soon would take a 20-month sabbatical from touring, its energy remained remarkably high. Indeed, the 31st edition of the esteemed Dick's Picks series culls material from the early August conclusion of the Grateful Dead's summer tour, and although it mixes and matches among the concerts to form what is essentially two shows, it does so in a seamless fashion, providing an intriguing and frequently mind-bending blast through the group's much treasured canon."
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