Sunshine Daydream


Sunshine Daydream is a music documentary film starring the rock band the Grateful Dead. It was shot at their August 27, 1972 concert at the Old Renaissance Faire Grounds in Veneta, Oregon. Unreleased for many years, the movie was sometimes shown at small film festivals, and bootleg recordings of it circulated on VHS and DVD, and as digital downloads. A digitally remastered and reedited official version of the film was released on August 1, 2013, showing only one time in selected theaters as that year's edition of the Grateful Dead Meet-Up at the Movies. It was screened with Grateful Days, a new documentary short that includes interviews with some of the concert attendees. Sunshine Daydream was released on DVD and Blu-ray on September 17, 2013.
Sunshine Daydream is also a live album containing the complete August 27, 1972 Grateful Dead concert. Produced as a 3-disc CD and as a 4-disc LP, it was released by Rhino Records on September 17, 2013.
The name Sunshine Daydream is taken from the coda section of the Dead song "Sugar Magnolia".

Concert

The lineup of the Grateful Dead for this concert—and for all their concerts from July 1972 to October 1974—was Jerry Garcia on guitar and vocals, Bob Weir on guitar and vocals, Phil Lesh on bass and vocals, Keith Godchaux on keyboards, Donna Jean Godchaux on vocals, and Bill Kreutzmann on drums.
The show was a benefit for the Springfield Creamery in nearby Springfield, Oregon. Merry Pranksters Ken Kesey and Ken Babbs emceed the concert. The Dead played all afternoon and into the dark after an opening set by the New Riders of the Purple Sage. In 2004, the New Riders' performance was released as an album called Veneta, Oregon, 8/27/72.

Film

Production

The concert was filmed using four 16 mm cameras, in the woods of the Oregon Coast Range foothills, on the grounds of the Oregon Country Fair. Originally even more cameras had been planned, under an ambitious scheme: "The plot was to develop a signature visual style of representing the band: a camera for each of the 16 channels emphasizing the visual kinetics of the music making itself as well as the enormous open communication within the band."

Songs in the film

Sunshine Daydream is a live album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. It contains the complete concert recorded on August 27, 1972 at the Old Renaissance Faire Grounds in Veneta, Oregon. Produced as a 3–disc CD and as a 4-disc LP, it was released by Rhino Records on September 17, 2013. Unlike Dick's Picks, Road Trips, Dave's Picks, and certain other of the band's archival series of live album releases, which are simply two-track stereo recordings made from the soundboard during the concert, the show on the album was recorded on a 16-track multitrack recorder and was mixed down to stereo just prior to the album's 2013 release.
The album debuted at #19 on the Billboard 200 on October 5, 2013. It was the Grateful Dead's second top 20 album, after In the Dark, which reached #6 in 1987.

Critical reception

On AllMusic, Fred Thomas said, "The three sets here have everything that made this one of the most colorful and captivating eras of the Dead's live playing. Somewhere between the caveman psychedelia of their beginnings and the bluegrass-steeped folk-rock of their most popular studio albums American Beauty and Workingman's Dead, Garcia and company refined their live jamming skills into something that seemed almost like a mental synchronization at its best.... A long-traded fan favorite, Sunshine Daydream finally sees a properly mixed presentation of the 16-track master tapes of nearly three hours of one of the Grateful Dead's finest concert moments. It's essential listening for Deadheads and possibly the best place for the curious to jump in."

Track listing

Disc 1
  1. Introduction – 4:01
  2. "Promised Land" – 3:24
  3. "Sugaree" – 7:30
  4. "Me and My Uncle" – 3:16
  5. "Deal" – 4:55
  6. "Black-Throated Wind" – 7:01
  7. "China Cat Sunflower" – 7:58
  8. "I Know You Rider" – 7:03
  9. "Mexicali Blues" – 3:49
  10. "Bertha" – 5:59
Disc 2
  1. "Playing in the Band" – 19:57
  2. "He's Gone" – 9:32
  3. "Jack Straw" – 5:06
  4. "Bird Song" – 13:17
  5. "Greatest Story Ever Told" – 5:36
Disc 3
  1. "Dark Star" – 31:28
  2. "El Paso" – 5:04
  3. "Sing Me Back Home" – 10:51
  4. "Sugar Magnolia" – 8:45
  5. "Casey Jones" – 6:25
  6. "One More Saturday Night" – 5:03
Notes

Personnel

;Grateful Dead
;Production