May 1977: Get Shown the Light


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.
The album was produced as a box set, in a numbered limited edition of 15,000 copies, and includes the previously unpublished book Cornell '77: The Music, the Myth and the Magnificence of the Grateful Dead's Concert at Barton Hall, by Peter Conners.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. The May 9 concert at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium and the May 7 concert at Boston Garden 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.

Concerts

The album includes these concerts:

Critical reception

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 are excellent places for newbie listeners to start."

Track listing

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

Disc 1
  1. "Promised Land"
  2. "Sugaree"
  3. "Mama Tried"
  4. "El Paso"
  5. "Tennessee Jed"
  6. "Looks Like Rain"
  7. "Deal"
  8. "Lazy Lightning" >
  9. "Supplication"
  10. "Peggy-O"
  11. "The Music Never Stopped"
Disc 2
  1. "Bertha"
  2. "Estimated Prophet"
  3. "Scarlet Begonias" >
  4. "Fire on the Mountain" >
  5. "Good Lovin'"
  6. "St. Stephen" >
  7. "Sugar Magnolia"
  9. "Johnny B. Goode"

May 7, 1977 – Boston Garden, Boston, Massachusetts

Disc 1
  1. "Bertha"
  2. "Cassidy"
  3. "Deal"
  4. "Jack Straw"
  5. "Peggy-O"
  6. "New Minglewood Blues"
  7. "Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo" >
  8. "Big River"
  9. "Tennessee Jed"
  10. "The Music Never Stopped"
Disc 2
  1. "Terrapin Station"
  2. "Samson and Delilah"
  3. "Friend of the Devil"
  4. "Estimated Prophet"
Disc 3
  1. "Eyes of the World" >
  2. "Drums" >
  3. "The Wheel" >
  4. "Wharf Rat" >
  5. "Around and Around"
  7. "U.S. Blues"

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

Disc 1
  1. "New Minglewood Blues" – 5:34
  2. "Loser" – 7:58
  3. "El Paso" – 4:51
  4. "They Love Each Other" – 7:29
  5. "Jack Straw" – 6:29
  6. "Deal" – 6:10
  7. "Lazy Lightning" > – 3:26
  8. "Supplication" – 4:48
  9. "Brown-Eyed Women" – 5:49
  10. "Mama Tried" – 3:12
  11. "Row Jimmy" – 11:14
Disc 2
  1. "Dancing in the Street" – 16:32
  3. "Scarlet Begonias" > – 11:15
  4. "Fire on the Mountain" – 15:40
  5. "Estimated Prophet" – 8:49
Disc 3
  1. "St. Stephen" > – 5:03
  2. "Not Fade Away" > – 16:20
  3. "St. Stephen" > – 1:54
  4. "Morning Dew" – 14:17
  6. "One More Saturday Night" – 5:10

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

Disc 1
  1. "Help On the Way" >
  2. "Slipknot!" >
  3. "Franklin's Tower"
  4. "Cassidy"
  5. "Brown-Eyed Women"
  6. "Mexicali Blues"
  7. "Tennessee Jed"
  8. "Big River"
  9. "Peggy-O"
  10. "Sunrise"
  11. "The Music Never Stopped"
Disc 2
  1. "Bertha" >
  2. "Good Lovin'"
  3. "Ship of Fools"
Disc 3
  1. "Estimated Prophet" >
  2. "The Other One" >
  3. "Drums" >
  4. "Not Fade Away" >
  5. "Comes a Time" >
  6. "Sugar Magnolia"
  8. "Uncle John's Band"

Personnel

Grateful Dead
Production