POLL: Best Grateful Dead release

Clearly, a well thought-out poll...

The Golden Road (1965-1973), Grateful Dead, 2001
DVDAudio Surround Sound Music Sampler, Grateful Dead, 2003?
American Beauty (Dualdisc), Grateful Dead, 2004

from '68 through Europe '72 i don't think they did much wrong. Workingman's got my vote, but anything from that era is pretty sublime in my big dead book

This is tough. Workingman's it is!
Although I'm a sucker for Live/Dead era and have multiple disc sets of
concert recordings with remarkably similar sets.

damn this is hard. i picked blues for allah.

Two from the vault is pretty awesome, I think. It has some of my favorite Dead stuff from what I think is their prime era.

Yeah, Two from the Vault was what roped me into the Dead.
I shoulda picked it!

this poll is lame. it should be dicks picks or studio albums or something.

You want 2 separate polls?

I don't think I'll ever stop finding great Dead jams. A friend of mine just sent me four, five discs of live stuff I've never heard. I'm going to go with what I listened to last: Live Europe 72.

It's really not that tough a choice. You see, even if there were 500 studio albums and 5 billion Dick's Picks, the answer would still be Workingman's Dead. Know what I mean?

But American Beauty?

I almost chose Live Europe 72, though.

man i hate blues for allah, u mad chaki

no way. the help/slipknot/franklins tower is so awesome!
don't remember the rest of the record except for crazy finger.
those are good jams though.

but yeah Blues for Allah kind of blows its wad on help/slipknot/franklins tower, from what I remember.

I usually lean towards Workingman's, but I've been playing s/t a lot lately.

AMerican Beauty is better than Workingman's

can you add a Cornell '77 option?

Reckoning -- Great acoustic set(s)

basically the first 5 studio records are all I really love, but there's a couple of tunes on each one up through Shakedown Street (or Go to Heaven maybe) that I like.

I'm really only familiar with the first few big live records they put out (Live/ Dead, Skull & Roses, Euro '72, Bear's Choice, etc,) and enjoy them occasionally. College really killed any desire for me to hear any of their millions of 'sick' live comps or bootlegs or whatever ever again.

I actually really like Live Without A Net, even though it is so incredibly smooth jazz muzak compared to classic Dead and Jerry runs out of breath a lot.

Of the two obvious choices, I would go with American Beauty instead of Workingman's Dead. The latter is a classic. No doubt. But I think several songs on it were far better in the live setting. "Cumberland Blues" turned into an epic fusion of bluegrass, backwoods rock, and cracked improv. "New Speedway Boogie" turned into a slow-burn drone. "Easy Wind" became this epic stuttering funk.

American Beauty is a bit more unique because it doesn't have as many songs that were improved in the live setting, which is what happened with the majority of the Dead's studio recordings. "Truckin," of course, became a standard show stopper. And "Operator" became a Pigpen spotlight. But stuff like "Ripple," "Friend of the Devil," "Candyman," and "Brokedown Palace" just might be the band's peak in the studio -- perfect pop music. "Friend of the Devil" is also up there because Lesh couldn't sing it live for years.

incredibly smooth jazz muzak

speaking of which, i just saw Ratdog, and I was pleasantly surprised. Some heady moments for sure.

Operator >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Easy Wind
Candyman >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> every track on Workingman's

anyway it was covered here-

Taking Sides: Workingman's Dead vs American Beauty

I don't know the GD that well but:

Studio - Anthem of the Sun

Live - Two from the Vault 1968/08/23-24

I like about half of American Beauty a lot. The other half not so much. I like ALL of Workingman's Dead and whether or not the songs were improved upon later doesn't feel like it "computes" with me. I definitely prefer listening to bootlegs and Dick's Picks, but when I put on the studio albums, of them all, Workingman's Dead is the one that really kicks my ass. It's nice to hear those studio versions, actually, for me anyway. American Beauty is just a little higher up on my list than Wake of The Flood.

I guess I feel like WD had the best songs they ever made. Like every other song they ever made, though, they sound better live, generally speaking.

Whatever happened to Suzy Creamcheese, who used to post on the Dead threads etc? I remember DP 12 (1974) was a favourite of hers.

'Friend of the Devil' was always sung by Garcia - it's 'Box of Rain' that's the Lesh song (and yeah, most of the live versions sung by Phil are HORRIBLE)

AMERICAN BEAUTY is easily my favourite Dead studio alb - 'Box of Rain', 'Friend of the Devil', 'Ripple' and esp. 'Brokedown Palace' - Robt Hunter was really on a roll roundabout that time. I think Chaki's right to give props to BLUES FOR ALLAH, tho' - really works as an organic, metallic funk whole, sorta reminds me of Weather Report in places

I love pretty much all Dead live or studio recordings up to abt '78, but that four CD set of highlights from their 72 UK shows - STEPPIN' OUT WITH THE GRATEFUL DEAD - has got supersolid versions of all their 'hits' (a really good long Dark Star, a heavily psych Other One) plus the odd suprise - a version of 'Comes A Time' that's just pure downer heartbreak. So that gets my vote. The last 72 show they played at the London Lyceum might just be my all-time fave Dead show, god knows why it's never had a legit release

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN THE GRATEFUL DEAD, another 4 disc of recordings from a 71 Fillmore run, is also pretty special - def. contains my favourite 'Not Fade Away'/'Going Down the Road Feeling Bad' Jam, Garcia total liquid fingers and country yodel passion

yeah I love Ladies and Gents ... may even might get my vote! (haven't decided yet.) I love the "Bird Song" on there

Bob Six-- that's me (sadly, more testosterone than estrogen)! Changed my name along w/ ILM 2.0.1.

It'll be impossible for consensus, esp. with all of those Dick's Picks on there. Of course, I can't really see myself picking any studio album over the tons and tons of great live releases; at the same time, I bet American Beauty takes this poll. Live ... geez, I don't even know. I'm used to picking favorite years, not favorite releases! I'll probably end up going w/ Euro '72-- lots of definitive versions of tracks (tastefully "corrected" in-studio)-- "Jack Straw," "Cumberland Blues," "Brown-eyed Women," etc. We'll see.

I'll have to give this a little thought (gonna have to put the egg-timer on for this one so I don't take too much time).

(nice to see the Grayfoldeds on there!)

dean ge, from Dean's World? I smell a fishy poll coming after this one!

Can I vote for that first Jerry Garcia Band live one? -- 'cause I've listened that way more than any Dead disc.

we have some experts on this thread. awesome. i need help tracking down any live stuff from the Dead/New Riders joint concerts: 70-72. Do full recordings of these concerts exist? Dicks Picks 11 is from that era, but it doesn't contain the New Riders portion.

For sure-- that first JGB live album (appropriately, Jerry Garcia Band Live is a killer. Shockingly good, and def. stands up against any Grateful Dead (although it doesn't have much cohesive wandering). Senor, The Night They Drove ..., Deal, Tangled Up in Blue, etc.-- all amazing versions.

Friend of the Devil' was always sung by Garcia - it's 'Box of Rain' that's the Lesh song (and yeah, most of the live versions sung by Phil are HORRIBLE)

Indeed. I accidentally typed the song title twice.

Quantum, you might want to thread search over here. People still do daily sendspaces/discussions of GD shows, and there are quite a few people who downloaded every single archive.org GD show before they took the SBDs off.

where is the love for Anthem of the Sun?

x-post

thanks!

I always loved Born Cross-eyed from AotSun.

I may as well take this opportunity (since I'm listening to it right now) to exhort everyone to check out (Superchunk/indie touring drummer) Jon Wurster's "Bryce" calls from Tom Scharpling's The Best Show on WFMU. Info on the character here and show archives here. It's one of Wurster's best characters. All of the Bryce calls are great and all are GD-related (Ex -- Bryce buys Jerry Garcia's toilet). I'm listening to this one right now, and it's great (the "Bryce" call is about 32 minutes in; it's probably about 30 minutes long, and Bryce goads Schapling into playing some GD. Fun stuff.).

Voted "Aoxomoxoa". Their hippie era was slightly better than their country rock one (although both were great at times) and that album is the best out of their hippie age albums.

Let's be serious Geir-- it was one looooooooooong hippie era. Even if they were wearing stetsons on the Workingman's Dead album cover and Jerry was playing a slide geetar, it's still hippie.

man, Candyman is really fucking good... & Brokedown Palace. & Til the Morning Comes.

I always forget how great AB truly is.

Anthem of the Sun

http://www.gbdesigns.com/freaksandgeeks/photos/misc/Rosso.jpg
"But what do you want me to do? To do for you to see you through?"

went with Europe '72, because I have a particular affinity for that year (the Dead's playing that year, not the actual year itself) and it has the definitive versions of so many of their best tunes. "Tennessee Jed"! The solo on that rocks my bells. goddamn they were great.

goddamn they were great.

Occasionally, a hater has told me that they were nothing special, just a basic bar band and a pretty bad one at that. And I always wonder where I can hear any of these other lameass bands and get my hands on some of their mediocre albums. To date, I haven't heard anything like the Grateful Dead from anyone but a member of the Grateful Dead. I'd love to be exposed to more of this type of music, but I don't think there's anyone that sounds like them.

Really I voted studio here. Anthem is my fave.

Three votes for Shakedown Street?

I've been listening to this lately. It's a slog. Mickey has made some choice comments about Lowell George. Nevertheless, all parties involved were not in good shape.

Without a Net

but srsly, Dozin' at the Knick

I would have gone with Dozin' at the Knick had this been limited to live albums, but I went with A.B. The March 1990 shows from which Dozin' was pulled together show Brent at his best and most confident, which I think gave Jerry a renewed vigor as well.

feeling kinda Dead today

"Sage & Spirit" is where it's at

Someone should put a Dick's Picks poll together.

just dl'd the 1972 pacific high garcia set here: http://titosdead.blogspot.com/2010/02/jerry-garcia-band-most-soundboards.html
heard the "paint my masterpiece" on a blog and had to track it down! i guess i need more solo garcia in my life.

Garcia's cover of what I'd always thought of as a pretty average Dylan song, "Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)," from the Jerry Garcia Band S/T live release, is one of the best things I've ever heard JGB do.

Someone should put a Dick's Picks poll together.

― CompuPost, Wednesday, September 22, 2010 5:42 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Herm Neuname, famed poster on various metal and funk threads, would be your go-to guy here.

garcia band's live "baby blue" is pretty awesome too, early 80s maybe?...i guess there's a comp of dead dylan covers out there somewhere?

I bought the Garcia albums box a few years back, but ended up selling it b/c besides Garcia things are a bit too loosy-goosy for me. But I'm gonna try to listen through the post Blues For Allah records pretty soon & maybe I'll then go back to the latter-day Garcia records too.

listened to Aoxomoxoa today too...pretty distracted album, unsurprisingly. When we were kids we'd put on "What's Become Of The Baby" for haunted house-type play & it still works for that. But o/w I'll take live versions of these songs.

oh i guess this exists too
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YB6O1HJjQ1I/R6SU31nRnbI/AAAAAAAAASc/d-HKb-DYNw0/s400/garcia-plays-dylan.jpg

Not sure why Garcia's Dylan output never worked that well w/ GD. All of the best stuff seems to be w/ JGB instead; lord knows GD did a ton of Dylan tunes regardless, though. That Garcia Plays Dylan comp is a pretty good example-- don't think that there are more than three or four GD-performed songs on there.

yeah the dead murder some dylan tunes, that's for sure. i saw them do the worst version of "all along the watchtower" ever.

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

but they had a way with the Hag, at least with this song: vid's a little wonky but what a sweet jam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1T3UE-kw_w

Was so pumped as a kid to find out that there was a live album featuring Bob Dylan with the Grateful Dead, together. Hearing it was one of the more traumatic musical experiences of my youth. What's sadder is that the stuff on that album collected the highlights of the tour. Depressing.

Grateful Dead live, Dick's Picks etc - S&D

yeah the dead murder some dylan tunes, that's for sure. i saw them do the worst version of "all along the watchtower" ever.

― tylerw
a friend told me about the Dylan/Dead rehearsals, before they went on tour, that are supposedly the best part of that period. wonderin' if anybody else can confirm this?
xpost

IIRC there was an interview with Bob Weir where he talked about the Dylan tour. He said the tone was set on the first night. They'd worked up like a hundred songs in rehearsal, and first thing on stage Dylan called out something they didn't know.

yeah, i've heard about those Dylan/Dead rehearsals, but never actually heard them. I think it's a lot of garcia and dylan fiddling around with folk tunes -- probably easily findable on the net?

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