Dick's Picks Volume 2 is the second live album in the Dick's Picks series of releases by the Grateful Dead. It was recorded on Halloween night in 1971 at the Ohio Theatre in Columbus, Ohio. The album consists of the second set of the concert. It was released in March 1995, the last Grateful Dead album to be released before the death of Jerry Garcia.
Dick's Picks Volume 2 is the only one of the Dick's Picks that is a single CD. The other albums in the series have either two, three, or four CDs, except for Dick's Picks Volume 29, which contains six CDs.
Set list
The complete concert set list for the 10/31/71 show at the Ohio Theatre was:[6]
The jam that appears on the set list after "Dark Star" is generally referred to as "Tighten Up Jam" by collectors due to its similarities to the Archie Bell & the Drells tune "Tighten Up". The Grateful Dead would jam on the theme only a handful of times, mostly from 1969 until 1971.
Also notably rare is a "Cold Rain and Snow" tease on the way back into playing "Not Fade Away" from "Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad". The Grateful Dead were known for teasing bits of songs, often they would play a song they teased at a different show.
Caveat emptor
Each volume of Dick's Picks has its own "caveat emptor" label, advising the listener of the sound quality of the recording. The label for Volume 2 reads:
"This compact disc has been digitally remastered directly from the original quarter track 7½ ips analog tape. It is a snapshot of history, not a modern professional recording, and may therefore exhibit some technical anomalies and the unavoidable effects of the ravages of time."
