POLL: Best Grateful Dead release

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"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.

BROTHER I VOTED FOR 03/42/83

THAT WAS A KILLER NO FILLER JAMMY AT THE GREEK THEATRE I RECKON

The use of "brother" at the beginning of your sentence indicates to me that you are either a catholic priest, a mormon, hulk hogan, a hobo... or, perhaps, my brother, but you are certainly no deadhead. If there's one thing they know, it's how to work a calendar.

Really I voted studio here. Anthem is my fave.

Which, strictly speaking, is a live album. Only the audience sounds were removed.

bullshit.

no kidding anthem is a mix of live/studio/etc. geir needs to do acid :)

Live/Dead for me

Which, strictly speaking, is a live album. Only the audience sounds were removed.

That is a ridiculous assertion...The album has hidden depths from the many subtle (and not so subtle) things added to it - listen to it with a set of headphones.

you are certainly no deadhead. If there's one thing they know, it's how to work a calendar

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha....(has small stroke, dies)

The From Anthem to Beauty DVD details just how much of a studio creation Anthem was.

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.

I think you're right. I've purchased all kinds of hippie-era rarities and obscuro bands. But nothing ever seems to nail it.

get the david crosby album that the dead plays on! so good.

Parts of Mayo Thompson's Corky's Debt to his Father have a Dead-like thing going on. Like "Good Brisk Blues." Yeah, that Crosby album If I could only Remember My Name is good.

I love Crosby's solo album. It's tapping something similar to the Dead. Crosby said CS&N were influenced by the Dead's musicianship, song structures, and time signatures. But for me, listening to the Dead is an experience unqiue to itself. If I want to hear them, but I don't have anything handy, there is no substitute. Of course, that can be said of many bands but they usually aren't dissed like the Dead!

Mountain Bus!!

Quantum, have you heard the Mountain Bus record? best GD contemporary soundalike band.

Tea Leaf Green tries to sound like their American Beauty era, but fails to be enjoyable, imo. That's the most blatant ripoff I've ever heard. Wish I liked it.

I own jams by Mighty baby and Mason Proffit but not Mountain Bus. I've alway heard I need to check them out. That's my next purchase. Thanks.

American Beauty has wonderful songs, but I like the production and the cohesiveness of Workingman's Dead better. Much warmer, more organic sound, less tinny AM radio-friendliness. More surprising harmonies, too, and at times more inventive musically (Cumberland Blues, Easy Wind). And I'm a sucker for the filler -- High Time is a song I just love. Plus, it changed my life (I had never listened to country music before).

The other one that's close for me is Live/Dead, at least the first three sides.

And why no Ace? Indistinguishable from a Dead album, they played all those songs live (including, over and over, Saturday Night and Playing In The Band), and it's awfully good.

Finally: dean ge, if you want to hear stuff that sounds like the Grateful Dead but isn't, I have two nominations: Amazing Rhythm Aces (the poppy American Beauty side) and Konono No. 1 (exactly what the Dead would have sounded like if all they had were differently tuned finger pianos).

All right, I *love* Konono No. 1, but they sound absolutely nothing like GD. Everything from the rhythm section to the melodies, they sound nothing alike. Both great though, obvs! Haven't heard the Amazing Rhythm Aces, though.

... I can't believe that nobody else has mentioned "Reckoning". I've got 6 "Dick's" albums (Hapour College [#8] is my fave), plus "Ladies and Gentleman...", "Dozin' at the Knick", "Europe '72", "Nightfall of Diamonds", and even 4 or 5 studio albums --- so it's not like i'm just after that easy stuff. The craft they exhibited in these 1980 excerpts was very well-honed, the sequencing is great, and extremely entertaining.

"Reckoning" -- C'mon, somebody else's gotta show some love!

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Reckoning is okay but a little lacking in energy. Still, it's a decent official live recording and I should listen to it more, I suppose.

In The Dark, you people are mad.

Ah, you know what it is with Reckoning? The damn production. That's why it sounds lacking in energy, I think.

The Grateful Dead

American Beauty

Grayfolded, y'all.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Europe 72 is so bland compared to some live shows around the same time.

Yeah, but the sound is so good, plus the restraint suits the material I think.

Three votes for Shakedown Street?

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

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God, I love Mickey.

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

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