In one way, 1973 was a terrible year for the Grateful Dead. Keyboard player Ron ‘Pigpen’ McKernan died in March, and without him their blues side would shrivel. In October, the jazz-tinged album Wake Of The Flood was their first visit to the US Top 20 since 1970’s American Beauty.
In between, with the new material recorded, they returned to the road. Recorded with exceptional clarity by famed Dead sound engineer Owsley ‘Bear’ Stanley, Here Comes Sunshine 1973 features five concerts from May and June. Its centrepiece, the second of two Robert F Kennedy Stadium concerts, is also released on its own as RFK Stadium, Washington, D.C. 6/10/73, (9/10).
