each night they have remained to dance and sway rhythmically for the duration of the show." Kreutzmann recalls "Egypt instantly became the biggest, baddest, and most legendary field trip that we took during our entire thirty years as a band. These, it turns out, are the Bedouin, the nomadic horsemen of the desert: drawn in by the music and lights. Lesh recalled that through the shows he observed "an increasing number of shadowy figures gathering just at the edge of the illuminated area surrounding the stage and audience – not locals, as they all seem to be wearing the same garment, a dark, hooded robe. El Din also appears on the Grateful Dead album Road Trips Volume 1 Number 4. He was backed by the students of his Abu Simbel school and accompanied by the Grateful Dead. The guest musician was Hamza El Din, a Nubian oudist whose "Ollin Arageed" appears on the album. The King's Chamber of the nearby Great Pyramid of Giza was rigged with a speaker and microphone in a failed attempt to live-mix acoustical echo. Drummer Bill Kreutzmann played with a cast, having broken his wrist while horseback riding. The final night's performance concurred with a total lunar eclipse. The band referred to their stage set-up as "The Gizah Sound and Light Theater". The final two, September 15 & 16, 1978, are excerpted for the album. The Dead crew set up their gear at the open-air theater on the east side of the Great Sphinx, for three nights of concerts. Rather than ship all of the required sound reinforcement equipment from the United States, the PA and a 24-track, mobile studio recording truck were borrowed from the Who, in the UK. The pyramids are like the obvious number one choice because no matter what anyone thinks they might be, there is definitely some kind of mojo about the pyramids." You know, power that's been preserved from the ancient world. Describing the planning, bassist Phil Lesh said, "It sort of became my project because I was one of the first people in the band who was on the trip of playing at places of power. Through Wallace's introduction to Joe Malone, a professor at the American University of Beirut who was formerly with the State Department, the trio had made contacts with the Egyptian government. Following some on-the-ground research by Trist's close friend Jonathan Wallace and his meeting with Jehan Sadat, the then- First Lady of Egypt, Loren returned with bassist Phil Lesh and Alan Trist to meet with officials and begin the paperwork and logistics process. The idea for the concerts had its origins in an Egyptian vacation taken by band manager Richard Loren. It also includes "The Vacation Tapes", a 15-minute feature, from footage originally shot on 8mm silent film, of band members, crew and friends visiting various Egyptian sites. The DVD contains concert footage (all of which is represented either on the two CDs or the bonus disc) from the September 16 performance. The shows on the album were recorded on a 24-track multitrack recorder and were mixed down to stereo for the album's release.Ī bonus disc of additional tracks from the dates was included with early copies of the album. This was the third continent on which the band performed, having previously performed in Europe. The album was recorded September 15 & 16, 1978, at the Giza pyramid complex in Giza, Egypt.
![dead set font grateful album dead set font grateful album](http://www.livedownloads.com/labels/gd781231_01.jpg)
It contains two CDs and one DVD and was released in 2008. Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978 is a live album by American rock band the Grateful Dead.