POLL: Best Grateful Dead release

yeah, i did see it once about a year ago, but it was like 8 cd's worth and didn't know how much, or even if, i really wanted to check

heyyy you can actually stream it here: http://www.archive.org/details/gd1987-06-01.sbd-rehearsals.fraser.97489.shnf

Jesus, those are rough, too. Rehearsals and everything, shouldn't be a surprise. The harmonica on Senor (#49 on that stream) is probably the most offensive musical sound I've ever heard.

Shakedown Street has a weak rep but "France" is a dope tune; they're cribbing the Dan & The Hissing of Summer Lawns & while this may not be what you're looking for in the Dead, I think it works well.

Somebody put in a shoutout for Infrared Roses in the big orange SPIN Alternative Guide. Don't remember who, but they also ranked The Slits' Cut & Capt. Beefheart's Lick My Decals Off, Baby.

But anyways I really want to hear Infrared Roses.

That's like a SPACE album or something, right?

I dunno, i think it's kind of like some echoey drum-and-crowd-noise sound collage? like the Dead's Arc or something, maybe???

oh, wait...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_Roses

Infrared Roses is a live compilation album by the Grateful Dead. It is a conglomeration of their famous improvisational segments "Drums" and "Space."

Somewhere in the middle of the second set of a Grateful Dead concert came a period of musical improvisation. This part of the concert is commonly referred to as "Space," and came right after a drum solo or duet. Infrared Roses is a compilation of these performances. There are no recognizable songs from the band's repertoire on this release. Robert Hunter, probably best known for his numerous collaborations as lyricist with the Grateful Dead, created the names of the tracks for the album.

has anyone heard this? do they like it?

I've never heard it but it sounds interesting!

Some of my dead head friends in HS liked it...I don't remember it. I like Grayfolded.

Infrared Roses is reminiscent of Grayfolded, but only in that extended-jam way. If you're a fan of early '90s "Drums -> Space" -- MIDI guitar/drums, cleaner sound, Bruce Hornsby, etc. -- then you'll probably like Infrared Roses. Comparing it to Grayfolded is a little unfair-- Oswald took real artistic license recombining whatever he wanted from thirty years of "Dark Star," which means that there's a bit of everything. Infrared Roses sounds more like Mickey Hart's wet dream. Nice to have and hear, but nowhere near as much fun as Grayfolded.

Reckoning is pretty great! I'd never heard it before a few days ago---I'm talking about the 2-cd reissue btw; the second disk really shines, esp. on the Radio City Music Hall songs. I can't get enough of "Dark Hollow" these days, & the "Cassidy" on the second disk is delightful. Dead Set is comparably minor.

But as my Dead kick winds down (I've been listening through the two Rhino boxes plus a few other live sets), I'm reminded of how great Europe 72 is. I love that sunwashed feel the Dead hit so often that year, by which I mean that the songs sound like they're been played after some summer apocalypse of heat, & now we are just coming down gently together. There is nothing but love here: that goofy picture on the cover gets that right; but the record aches of loss---he's gone, indeed.

rolling thunder vs. ace iyo???

you mean the Mickey Hart alb vs the Weir alb?? pfffft, the Weir all the way

I know Ace brings more to the Dead repertoire & "Mexicali Blues" is a straight jam but I love Rolling Thunder more. Cipollina! It's got that PERRO band, the one on If I Could Only Remember My Name, Blows Against the Empire. & it has such a strange sound, like it's recorded inside Hart's bass drum, like the songs are among those you know from the Dead but here they sound inside out...love that album.

OTOH, I think it was Dave Marsh that wrote The Dead should never be allowed near a Chuck Berry song ever again.

so so otm

i'm in a rental car w/ satellite radio for the next month. quality-wise, the dead station is just the most wildy, exasperatingly vacillating listening experience going.

Only two votes for Blues For Allah? That album rules. Dead studio albums, while not as good as the live stuff obviously, are typically underrated imo. I jam Wake Of The Flood, Shakedown Street, Terrapin Station, Mars Hotel and especially Blues For Allah on a regular basis. In The Dark is surprisingly good too.

We should have a poll with just studio albums (though it's hard to believe studio albums won this poll - maybe we should limit the poll to people who, you know, actually listen to the Grateful Dead?).

Was looking at the Jays schedule for a game in July, and there's an Angels date where it's "Grateful Dead Day." Jerry Garcia bobblehead, tie-dyed T-shirt, dosed as you enter? I don't know, but I'm intrigued.

So many teams are doing this, the Islanders just did one:

Grab your tie-dye t-shirts and aviator shades and join us on 4/8 for Jerry Garcia Night. 🐻

Purchase a special ticket and receive a one-of-a-kind Jerry Garcia bobblehead. With every ticket purchased, $10 will be donated to the Rex Foundation.

— x - New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) March 12, 2023

Yankees did one last year:

Join us at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 5 for Jerry Garcia Bobblehead Day! A portion of every ticket sold will support the @RexFoundation.

Tickets 🎟️: https://t.co/bwTnZk154d pic.twitter.com/MyC3V2QITq

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) August 24, 2022

If I could vote over, it would be Aoxomoxoa. I wonder to what extent people shy away from talking about it because they don't know how to pronounce it. A record store owner I knew in the 90s pronounced it "ahhg-ZON-dra" and pretty soon he had several of his hangers-on doing it too.

Ah, didn't realize it was a new thing--maybe my bobblehead guess is right. (Maybe the Jays will mix things up and make it a Pigpen bobblehead.)

I can't pronounce Aoxomoxoa either, but I do like it.

Lol I might have to start saying "ahhg-ZON-dra".

If I could only pick one release I'd probably go for Steppin' Out, the comp of UK material from the Europe 72 tour. Studio, either American Beauty or Anthem of the Sun.

Agree that Steppin' Out is very fine - beautiful version of Comes a Time, red hot Greatest Story Ever Told etc. I also really like the 71 Fillmore East comp, Ladies and Gentleman ... the Grateful Dead, especially the whole of disc three.

Years ago, Dave Gibbons told me he referenced Aoxomoxoa in issue five of Watchmen because the whole comic is filled with palindromes, doubles, mirror images etc. You can just about make it out on the first and last panel of this page:

https://preview.redd.it/e5bq0fgzpqsa1.jpg?width=1066&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=052ea61be0b58228bd8843bd4a3c16ff25bd7bb9

Our local AA team - the Bowie Baysox - has been doing Grateful Dead nights in the past few years as well.

https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/301663697_10160287791379675_2630031181872030361_n.jpg

Lots of potential for overlap between Dead and baseball audiences - long, boring-to-outsiders events in huge stadiums with the possibility of nerding out over deep minutia and stats.

https://i.redd.it/qfdgc2qqdvs41.jpg

https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/301663697_10160287791379675_2630031181872030361_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=n52-zLgLu4cAX_TdC6m&_nc_ht=scontent-atl3-1.xx&oh=00_AfDi0niQL6e-mCujZYHGlN2QodL6iFkwWyjsG7Lum64EVA&oe=6442F222

God, I love Mickey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWvEh-oSk_8

https://i.imgur.io/jYdzon9_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium