Snack Benefit Concert, San Francisco 1975

Another nice musical time capsule (unavailable in the U.S.) from those long ago days in S.F. this time from the mid '70s. Beginning with a ten minute or so long interview with Jerry Garcia, and then Bill Graham introducing the Dead (with Merl Saunders and Ned Lagin on keyboards, and (supposedly but I don't hear him) David Crosby), the band shifts into a good "Blues For Allah". The set centers around "...Allah" and "Stronger Than Dirt", with an encore of "Johnny B. Goode", which gets this collection off to a good start.Disc 2 is Tower of Power. I still remember seeing T o P in earlier times and, (not being a "horn guy" at the time), was blown away at their funky soulfulness. This set features their (then) new singer Hubert Tubbs. They play some typically fine, soulful tunes like "What Is Hip", "Down To The Nightclub", and "You're Still A Young Man". Santana changes things up with "Black Magic Woman", "Gypsy Queen", and "Soul Sacrifice" among other tunes, and the jamming is worth hearing.Disc 3 begins with the Doobie Brothers (with Skunk Baxter on steel guitar) playing things like "Jesus Is Just Alright" (a personal favorite), "Black Water", "Long Train Runnin'>Jam", "China Grove", and other tunes in a nice set. Also here is Jefferson Starship playing "Ride The Tiger", "Git Fiddle", "Play On Love" and older things like "Volunteers", and (of course) "Somebody To Love".Disc 4 begins with two Starship tunes which ends their set and then is filled with Joan Baez, whose voice held the crowd's attention with songs like "I Shall Be Released", "Joe Hill", "Amazing Grace", and other tunes.Disc 5 is Neil Young-vocals/guitar/harp, Bob Dylan-guitar/piano/vocals, Ben Keith-steel guitar, along with Levon Helm, Rick Danko, and Garth Hudson ( members of The Band) playing songs like "Are You Ready For The Country", "Looking For A Love", "I Want You", "The Weight", "Helpless", and a few other tunes. But a bad vocal mic on Dylan mars his vocals, which sound distant. So if you're purchasing this for the Young/Dylan set--beware the dodgy Dylan sound.There's a 10 page booklet with some pertinent period articles about the concert along with several b&w photos of some of the performers. Each disc slips into a cardboard sleeve with a track list on the back cover. Everything fits into a thick-ish cardboard clam shell box with a complete track list on the back. The (I think) cool cover graphic is carried over on the front of each sleeve. The variable sound (especially Dylan) is decent/pretty good overall considering the original source.Unless you're an audiophile this box set can sit next to other similar live sets from a time now long since passed. Some of the performances are better than others so this set floats somewhere between three and four "stars". But I rated it four "stars" because nostalgia reared it's head and reminded me of my college days in the Bay Area in the late '60s/early '70s when I was lucky enough to see so many great bands. Other people will hear their own favorites in this concert.

This review refers to the Grateful Dead set of the SNACK benefit concert from 1975. The full concert (five discs) is available as well.First off, Garcia's interviewer is not, unfortunately, Paul Kantner, and although scheduled to play with the Dead, David Crosby's daughter started to be born, so he was unable to perform at this show.Augmented by Ned Lagin and Merl Saunders, both on keyboards, The Grateful Dead open up a musical and sonic wonderland of tight, committed and completely 'out there' original music right from the first note. 'Blues for Allah' >'Stronger Than Dirt or Milking the Turkey '>'Drums' >'Stronger Than Dirt...' >'Blues for Allah' is played almost entirely as an instrumental piece, but with some lovely harmony singing at the end. This tour de force set of arraigned and improvised playing is completed by the encore, an enthusiastically shambolic 'Johnny B. Goode'; but considering the weight and gravity of what they had just played, I'm surprised that they made it back on stage at all!The recording quality is thoroughly acceptable, and is very good for a 1975 FM radio broadcast, although I always feel that there is generally not enough 'bottom end' in Dead recordings in general, so a bit more of Phil's unique bass playing, as well as the bottom end of the two drum kits, wouldhave been welcome.So far as I am aware, the 'Stadium Rock' phenomena was in its infancy in 1975, so a gig like the Keza Stadium that seated 60,000, was still quite an unusual venue at the time - a very big gig. As a statement of artistic commitment, endeavour, individual and collective skill and expertise, and especially, freedom, this piece by the Grateful Dead is second to none. The Dead come on stage, and they don't play anything familiar, rocking, or 'easy'. or even something slightly similar; let alone the fact that they don't play 'hits' anyway. The music they play is, from its first beat and note, serious, weird, intense and focused, and as such, it makes absolutely no concessions, and takes no prisoners; it tells no lies. I mean, I just can't believe it; what a thing to do, particularly as they were the first act on stage at a prestigious all-day mega-event. Hats Off! Superb, absolutely superb.

I could have done without the interview,as that type of track I would probably never listen to again...the rest...excellent

Although this cd has some interesting music on it,especially the Grateful dead jam which is very jazzy in a bitches brew way, it is seriously let down by the sound quality. Although the other reviewers found the sound acceptable I cannot say the same (I am no stranger to live recordings from this era and have lots of Grateful dead and Santana radio broadcasts) if I had known how poor the sound is I would have avoided it

Not the best

love it