May 1977: Get Shown the Light
A green geometric pattern with a skull in the middle
Live album by
Grateful Dead
ReleasedMay 5, 2017
RecordedMay 5–9, 1977
GenreRock
LabelRhino
ProducerGrateful Dead
Grateful Dead chronology
Dave's Picks Volume 22
(2017) 		May 1977: Get Shown the Light
(2017) 		Cornell 5/8/77
(2017)

May 1977: Get Shown the Light is a live album by the American rock band the Grateful Dead. It contains four consecutive complete concerts, recorded on May 5, 7, 8, and 9, 1977, on eleven CDs. It was released on May 5, 2017.[1][2][3][4]

The album was produced as a box set, in a numbered limited edition of 15,000 copies, and includes the previously unpublished book Cornell '77: The Music, the Myth and the Magnificence of the Grateful Dead's Concert at Barton Hall, by Peter Conners. It was also produced as an "all music edition" without the book.

The May 8 show, recorded at Barton Hall in Ithaca, New York, was also released on May 5, 2017 as a stand-alone album called Cornell 5/8/77.[5][6][7] The May 9 concert at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium[8] and the May 7 concert at Boston Garden[9] were released separately on vinyl for Record Store Day in 2020 and 2023 respectively.

May 1977: Get Shown the Light was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package. The artwork and package design are by Masaki Koike.[10]

Concerts

The album includes these concerts:

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Pitchfork9.0/10[11]

On Pitchfork, Jesse Jarnow said, "Though Cornell '77 is neither the Dead's most adventurous nor creative performance, it also remains arguably the Best Ever for several enduring reasons. Perhaps chief among them is that it is live Grateful Dead at its most accessible, with the Dead sounding vivid and tight and full of pep, characteristics shared by all four shows on May 1977: Get Shown the Light. Compared to most Grateful Dead shows, Cornell '77 (and its chronological neighbors) are excellent places for (some) newbie listeners to start."[11]

Track listing

May 5, 1977 – Veterans Memorial Coliseum, New Haven, Connecticut

Disc 1

First set:
  1. "Promised Land" (Chuck Berry)
  2. "Sugaree" (Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter)
  3. "Mama Tried" (Merle Haggard)
  4. "El Paso" (Marty Robbins)
  5. "Tennessee Jed" (Garcia, Hunter)
  6. "Looks Like Rain" (Bob Weir, John Perry Barlow)
  7. "Deal" (Garcia, Hunter)
  8. "Lazy Lightning" > (Weir, Barlow)
  9. "Supplication" (Weir, Barlow)
  10. "Peggy-O" (traditional, arranged by Grateful Dead)
  11. "The Music Never Stopped" (Weir, Barlow)

Disc 2

Second set:
  1. "Bertha" (Garcia, Hunter)
  2. "Estimated Prophet" (Weir, Barlow)
  3. "Scarlet Begonias" > (Garcia, Hunter)
  4. "Fire on the Mountain" > (Mickey Hart, Hunter)
  5. "Good Lovin'" (Rudy Clark, Arthur Resnick)
  6. "St. Stephen" > (Garcia, Phil Lesh, Hunter)
  7. "Sugar Magnolia" (Weir, Hunter)
Encore:
  2. "Johnny B. Goode" (Berry)

May 7, 1977 – Boston Garden, Boston, Massachusetts

Disc 1

First set:
  1. "Bertha" (Garcia, Hunter)
  2. "Cassidy" (Weir, Barlow)
  3. "Deal" (Garcia, Hunter)
  4. "Jack Straw" (Weir, Hunter)
  5. "Peggy-O" (traditional, arranged by Grateful Dead)
  6. "New Minglewood Blues" (traditional, arranged by Grateful Dead)
  7. "Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo" > (Garcia, Hunter)
  8. "Big River" (Johnny Cash)
  9. "Tennessee Jed" (Garcia, Hunter)
  10. "The Music Never Stopped" (Weir, Barlow)

Disc 2

Second set:
  1. "Terrapin Station" (Garcia, Hunter)
  2. "Samson and Delilah" (traditional, arranged by Weir)
  3. "Friend of the Devil" (Garcia, John Dawson, Hunter)
  4. "Estimated Prophet" (Weir, Barlow)

Disc 3

  1. "Eyes of the World" > (Garcia, Hunter)
  2. "Drums" > (Hart, Bill Kreutzmann)
  3. "The Wheel" > (Garcia, Hunter, Kreutzmann)
  4. "Wharf Rat" > (Garcia, Hunter)
  5. "Around and Around" (Berry)
Encore:
  2. "U.S. Blues" (Garcia, Hunter)

May 8, 1977 – Barton Hall, Ithaca, New York

Disc 1

First set:
  1. "New Minglewood Blues" (traditional, arranged by Grateful Dead)
  2. "Loser" (Garcia, Hunter)
  3. "El Paso" (Marty Robbins)
  4. "They Love Each Other" (Garcia, Hunter)
  5. "Jack Straw" (Weir, Hunter)
  6. "Deal" (Garcia, Hunter)
  7. "Lazy Lightning" > (Weir, Barlow)
  8. "Supplication" (Weir, Barlow)
  9. "Brown-Eyed Women" (Garcia, Hunter)
  10. "Mama Tried" (Haggard)
  11. "Row Jimmy" (Garcia, Hunter)

Disc 2

  1. "Dancing in the Street" (William Stevenson, Marvin Gaye, Ivy Jo Hunter)
Second set:
  2. "Scarlet Begonias" > (Garcia, Hunter)
  3. "Fire on the Mountain" (Hart, Hunter)
  4. "Estimated Prophet" (Weir, Barlow)

Disc 3

  1. "St. Stephen" > (Garcia, Lesh, Hunter)
  2. "Not Fade Away" > (Norman Petty, Charles Hardin)
  3. "St. Stephen" > (Garcia, Lesh, Hunter)
  4. "Morning Dew" (Bonnie Dobson, Tim Rose)
Encore:
  2. "One More Saturday Night" (Weir)

May 9, 1977 – Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, Buffalo, New York

Disc 1

First set:
  1. "Help On the Way" > (Garcia, Hunter)
  2. "Slipknot!" > (Garcia, Keith Godchaux, Kreutzmann, Lesh, Weir)
  3. "Franklin's Tower" (Garcia, Hunter)
  4. "Cassidy" (Weir, Barlow)
  5. "Brown-Eyed Women" (Garcia, Hunter)
  6. "Mexicali Blues" (Weir, Barlow)
  7. "Tennessee Jed" (Garcia, Hunter)
  8. "Big River" (Cash)
  9. "Peggy-O" (traditional, arranged by Grateful Dead)
  10. "Sunrise" (Donna Jean Godchaux)
  11. "The Music Never Stopped" (Weir, Barlow)

Disc 2

Second set:
  1. "Bertha" > (Garcia, Hunter)
  2. "Good Lovin'" (Clark, Resnick)
  3. "Ship of Fools" (Garcia, Hunter)

Disc 3

  1. "Estimated Prophet" > (Weir, Barlow)
  2. "The Other One" > (Weir, Kreutzmann)
  3. "Drums" > (Hart, Kreutzmann)
  4. "Not Fade Away" > (Petty, Hardin)
  5. "Comes a Time" > (Garcia, Hunter)
  6. "Sugar Magnolia" (Weir, Hunter)
Encore:
  2. "Uncle John's Band" (Garcia, Hunter)

Personnel

Grateful Dead

Production

Charts

Chart (2017) Peak
position
US Billboard 200[12] 33

References

  1. ^ Fairman, Randy (February 21, 2017). "Not Fade Away: Grateful Dead's Legendary 1977 Cornell Concert to Get Official Release On Its Own and As Part of 11-Disc May 1977 Concert Box". The Second Disc. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  2. ^ Bernstein, Scott (February 16, 2017). "Grateful Dead to Release Legendary Cornell 1977 Show and May 1977: Get Shown the Light Box Set". JamBase. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  3. ^ Reed, Ryan (February 16, 2017). "Hear Grateful Dead's Epic "Morning Dew" from Legendary Cornell Show". Rolling Stone. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  4. ^ Budnick, Dean (February 16, 2017). "The Betty Boards Are Now in the Grateful Dead Vault". Relix. Retrieved January 28, 2018.
  5. ^ Deflin, Kendall (February 16, 2017). "Grateful Dead Are Planning 40th Anniversary Release of Cornell 5/8/77 on Vinyl". Live for Live Music. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  6. ^ Hopkins, Scott (February 18, 2017). "Cornell 5/8/77 Celebrates the 40th Anniversary of This Much-Revered Dead Show". MusicFestNews. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  7. ^ "The Grateful Dead's Famed Cornell '77 Show to be Released on Vinyl". Jambands.com. February 16, 2017. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  8. ^ "Grateful Dead: Buffalo 5/9/77". Record Store Day. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  9. ^ "Grateful Dead: Boston Garden, Boston, MA 5/7/77 (Live)". Record Store Day. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  10. ^ Kahn, Andy (November 28, 2017). "Gregg Allman, War on Drugs, Infamous Stringdusters, Tedeschi Trucks Band Among Grammy Award Nominees". JamBase. Retrieved November 29, 2017.
  11. ^ a b Jarnow, Jesse. "Grateful Dead: May 1977: Get Shown the Light Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  12. ^ "Grateful Dead Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
Categories