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Take one of the most frequently played and revered Grateful Dead venues in one of the greatest of Dead Head cities. Add one of the best years in the Dead's history and you've got a surefire formula for yet another superb release in the Dick's Picks series. The Dead Head stronghold in question was Philadelphia; the venue was The Spectrum, at which the band played 53 shows over the course of its career; The year was 1972 - need we say more? Recorded at the second of the band's Spectrum gigs and their first as a headliner, Dick's Picks 36 is typical of the Dead in that era, meaning that they played with just the right balance of precision and abandon, delivering tight performances of the roots-oriented rock, blues and country-flavored tunes they favored at the time, but still able to take things to the free-jazz stratosphere whenever the improvisational spirit moved them.

The Dead delivered in a big way in terms of both quality and quantity on this night: the show clocked in at four hours and change, and every blessed note of it is right here on DP36. As a harbinger of things to come, they toss some generous hunks of expansive exploration (such as a 15-minute "Bird Song") into the early going, interspersed with some of the shorter tunes in the repertoire, and finishing off the first set with a far-ranging 17-minute "Playing In The Band." Then they really let fly in the second half, the stunning centerpiece of which is a massive "Dark Star" which takes intrepid listeners hurtling into some very deep space before landing them safely into an exquisite "Morning Dew."

This particular Pick has been an especially long time coming: when Dick's Picks was created in 1993, series founder and guiding spirit Dick Latvala had the 9/21/72 Philly show very high on his short list of candidates for the first release. Dick departed from this world some six years ago, but the gifts he left to this community just keep on coming.

Disc One
1. Promised Land (Berry)
2. Bird Song (Garcia, Hunter)
3. El Paso (Robbins)
4. China Cat Sunflower > (Garcia, Hunter)
5. I Know You Rider (Trad. Arr. By Grateful Dead)
6. Black-Throated Wind (Weir, Barlow)
7 Big Railroad Blues (Lewis, Arr. By Grateful Dead)
8. Jack Straw (Weir, Hunter)
9. Loser (Garcia, Hunter)
10. Big River (Cash)

Disc Two
1. Ramble On Rose (Garcia, Hunter)
2. Cumberland Blues (Garcia, Lesh, Hunter)
3. Playing In The Band (Weir, Hart, Hunter)
set 2:
4. He's Gone > (Garcia, Hunter)
5. Truckin' (Garcia, Lesh, Weir, Hunter)
6. Black Peter (Garcia, Hunter)
7. Mexicali Blues (Weir, Barlow)

Disc Three
1. Dark Star > (Garcia, Hart, Kreutzmann, Lesh, McKernan, Weir, Hunter)
2. Morning Dew (Dobson, Rose)
3. Beat It On Down The Line (Fuller)
4. Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo (Garcia, Hunter)
5. Sugar Magnolia (Weir, Hunter)
6. Friend Of The Devil (Garcia, Dawson, Hunter)

Disc Four
1. Not Fade Away > (Hardin, Petty)
2. Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad > (Trad. Arr. by Grateful Dead)
3. Not Fade Away (Hardin, Petty)
4. One More Saturday Night (Weir)

Bonus Tracks: 9/3/72 Folsom Field, Boulder, CO
5. He's Gone > (Garcia, Hunter)
6. The Other One > (Weir, Kreutzmann)
7. Wharf Rat (Garcia, Hunter)