Grateful Dead* – Steal Your Face

Mine has a misprint. Both discs labels are for disc II. Fortunately whoever used to own this before me marked it up with the correct side numbers.

I see a lot of comments about sound quality issues with the album "Steal Your Face", both originals and reissues. Discogs says this album was "Recorded October 16th through 20th, 1974 at Winterland, San Francisco."

You know what else was "Recorded October 16th through 20th, 1974 at Winterland, San Francisco"?

The 5-CD box set "Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack", and it has outstanding reviews for sound quality (4.54 out of 5 with 52 ratings).

Somehow, only 4 songs overlap between "Steal Your Face" and "The Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack" (Stella Blue, Mississippi Half - Step Uptown Toodeloo, U.S. Blues, Casey Jones).

Even so, if you are a big fan of this album, you might want to check out FORTY-FOUR more performances from the SAME shows, in what is apparently outstanding sound quality (I haven't heard it yet, but it's on the way).

It's not a perfect recording but it's far better than I expected given some of the reviews. I actually held off for a while based on the reviews but I'm glad I pulled the trigger. Great performances and I definitely have worse live Dead records in my collection. Super happy to add it to the collection. Now I'm only missing 'Dead Set' to complete their 22 album discography (including live contemporary albums like this one).

It’s documented that the microphones were out of phase to offset the wall of sound speaker system that was behind the band on the stage during these recordings. Also, this was the era of quadraphonic mixing which was started but abandoned during these master tapes being used. One can Google this info. Much of it makes sense. Unfortunately it does result in vocal sibilance. But having an understanding of why…makes this great collection more than palatable. It’s a great addition to any collection. My personal opinion is this pressing is better than the OG but not sibilance-free. The music is pretty sweet though. If one can make room for the sibilance vocals, it’s very listenable.

Mine sounds okay except for a ton of sibilance, particularly on Jerry's vocals. It's pretty bad. Anyone else have this issue or did I just get a bad copy? I have a 1976 US vinyl pressing.

I've only listened one time, but I didn't hear any issues.

No reviews on this? Is it better than the pretty awful original recording?

Fantastic fucking record!! Jerry’s guitar cuts like a knife. Nice separation and dynamics to me. Beautiful high gloss 1976 version spinning right now. I’m happy!

I own every Grateful Dead record on vinyl from 1967’s self-titled through 1991’s Built to Last, except for Steal Your Face. I saw them play Black Throated Wind at the Capital Center in 1989.

Purchased/Played new in 10/2020:
The vinyl itself is fairly quiet, flat, minor surface distortion noise... but the mastering or maybe the recording or pressing quality seem awful.

Something is off. Actually thought it might be my ears but a quick A/B with another live Dead release makes it clear - sonically, this is very lo-fi. Same result on a subsequent night of listening. It has an in/out of muffled sound, vocals occasionally come into sharp focus (Weir's mic sounds harsh at times) then back to muffled, and instruments are undefined, compressed. It's unengaging to me. Too bad. I believe these songs are from the same sets as The Grateful Dead Movie, and the tracks on the DVD are far superior in sound quality.

The gatefold jacket is a good sturdy printed boardstock (best part, lol), rich color front, and good photos inside panels, and nice poly-paper sleeves.