The board has helped with my journeys through both Bob Dylan and Neil Young's catalogs in the past...now I'm soon preparing my next adventure:

The Grateful Dead

As of late, I've been huge on buying box sets. A lot of artists are putting their entire catalog in a nice spiffy box set (Led Zeppelin, The Doors and recently: The Beatles). on Amazon, I saw that the Grateful Dead have 2 huge box sets spanning their entire studio catalog. Each about $120 each.

For someone like me who's only lightly listened to the Dead's stuff till now...anyone have any recommendations which way to go? Is the entire catalog worth getting or is it best to only get 10 "must-haves"? If so, what are your favorite GD albums?

Any help would be appreciated!

The Dead are a band you have to hear live,therestudio albums are okay
but don't capture the essence of the band.Look for any of the dick's picks
series they are all good

check out my list i can burn you a few shows if you want

Mike

db.etree.org/unclephil

^^^
exactly, dicks picks up thru 1979 are the way to start, save the studio and 80s-90s live for much later.

The Dead were generally not so well served by recording studios or anthologies. But there are lots of live recordings that capture that thing they did. Having said that I'd start with two of the basics (Workingman's Dead and American Beauty), then work my way to their live stuff, starting with Live/Dead. From there, I'd look for top-shelf live sets from '72 (Steppin' Out) '74 (Dick's Picks 12), '77 (To Terrapin), and '89 (Crimson White and Indigo).

I'm a huge fan of their 1976 tour - and I seem to be the only one in almost (of course) neglecting most of the other years and sticking to it, so ignore me.

avoid their studio stuff completely. get a comprehensive, random live disc of theirs (you can easily judge by popularity), the longer the better, and get into the groove.
also, avoid brown acid. for God's sake, I know I know, but a few beers will do the thing.

I have so damn lot of their stuff, mostly downloaded from the net. now I plan on getting Fillmore West 1969, can't decide if I need 11CD version or just 3CD.

[en.wikipedia.org]
[www.allaboutjazz.com]

most probably I'll pay for the cheaper version and later illegally download that bigger one. they won't arrest me anyway, will they.

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baxlap
The Dead were generally not so well served by recording studios or anthologies. But there are lots of live recordings that capture that thing they did. Having said that I'd start with two of the basics (Workingman's Dead and American Beauty), then work my way to their live stuff, starting with Live/Dead. From there, I'd look for top-shelf live sets from '72 (Steppin' Out) '74 (Dick's Picks 12), '77 (To Terrapin), and '89 (Crimson White and Indigo).

i agree with this post

Justin, please think about this.

Everyone I know (with one exception) who became a Dead fan either before or after Jerry's death, became totally obsessed with them. Are you sure you want to do that?

Start with the first album, as a point of reference and to understand how they evolved, and take a pause after finishing American Beauty and Europe 72. If your not getting them by that point, stop, because your probably not going to, and the rest ain't gonna help.

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BluzDude
Justin, please think about this.

Everyone I know (with one exception) who became a Dead fan either before or after Jerry's death, became totally obsessed with them. Are you sure you want to do that?

haha....that only makes me more intrigued! Maybe it'll balance out some of the Stones obsession?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-08-10 06:06 by Justin.

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BluzDude
Justin, please think about this.

Everyone I know (with one exception) who became a Dead fan either before or after Jerry's death, became totally obsessed with them. Are you sure you want to do that?

Of course. I mean do the Dodgers have a Jerry Garcia night?....Of course not. Anything SF is better than LA right?

Europe '72. Essential.

Why did Frisco bands from the 60's always give their worst performances purposely in L.A.? (Jefferson Airplane first comes to mind) I don't think L.A. bands were so rude.

Here's another good place to start. [www.archive.org]

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whitem8
Europe '72. Essential.

Europe '72 was my first Dead album (I got it when I was 12, but there were parts of sides 5 and 6 that I didn't quite get ). Anyway, as good as Europe '72 is, it has loads of overdubbed backing vocals, and the LP side format doesn't help.

Steppin' Out is four discs from the same tour. It's entirely live (no overdubbed vocals) and the CD format allows the jams to stretch without interruption. It's everything Europe '72 is, but multiplied by two.

The five-disc soundtrack to the Dead Movie is also pretty good. That's got lots more free form stuff. Some of the '73 Dick's Picks (the ones from Boston Music Hall and Oklahoma City) are also top notch.

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Justin
The board has helped with my journeys through both Bob Dylan and Neil Young's catalogs in the past...now I'm soon preparing my next adventure:

The Grateful Dead

As of late, I've been huge on buying box sets. A lot of artists are putting their entire catalog in a nice spiffy box set (Led Zeppelin, The Doors and recently: The Beatles). on Amazon, I saw that the Grateful Dead have 2 huge box sets spanning their entire studio catalog. Each about $120 each.

For someone like me who's only lightly listened to the Dead's stuff till now...anyone have any recommendations which way to go? Is the entire catalog worth getting or is it best to only get 10 "must-haves"? If so, what are your favorite GD albums?

Any help would be appreciated!

Workingman's Dead and American Beauty are great studio albums - arguably their best - but the Dead really came into their own on stage, so it's best to start with a live album or five.

Dick's Picks (DP) 8 - 5/2/70 - Nice mix of acoustic and electric + a great James Brown cover

DP 12 - 6/26/74 - The Dead at the height of their jazzy improv period.

DP 13 - 5/6/81 - Tres funky early 8os show - includes a great 15mn funk jam

DP16 - 11/8/69 - Terrific 69 show

DP 26 - 4/26/69 - Another corker from 69 show. Different to the above - this one's way more psychedelic

DP33 - 10/10/76 - Tight, hard hitting set - they were supporting the Who on this show

One from the Vault - 8/12/75- Jazz/funk fusion

Two from the Vault - 1968 - Primal dead show

Nightfall of Diamonds - 10/16/89 - Incredible late period show

Road Trips Vol 2. no 2 - 2/14/68 - Brilliant early Dead.

This is excellent--thanks guys. I'm gonna start picking up some titles here and there and definitely will prolly pick up the two classic albums and focus on the live stuff. Nice list, Nikolai---VERY helpful!

Does anybody know if the newly remastered albums out are all available on digipack style packaging?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-08-10 08:40 by Justin.

I think if you are just starting you can't go wrong with "American Beauty" and "Workingman's Dead". Two albums that proved they could do it in the studio.

Blues for Allah

[thepowergoats.com]

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jamesfdouglas
Blues for Allah

he he, that's great! Go straight for that song, immediately separates boys from men!
and if I ever meet anyone who hasn't heard the Beatles I'll recommend they start with Revolution 9.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-08-10 12:54 by Child Of Clay.

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Child Of Clay

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jamesfdouglas
Blues for Allah

he he, that's great! Go straight for that song, immediately separates boys from men!
and if I ever meet anyone who hasn't heard the Beatles I'll recommend they start with Revolution 9.

i actually like their studio versions better, but that's just me. i just can't get into half hour long songs

there are some great ones that can be beautifully stretched out longer, like Wharf Rat. if you have more trouble with that, shuffle Dark Star w/ Mountain Jam, they go great together. ;-)

Oh Wharf Rat is beautiful on Grateful Dead (live)! WOnderful.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-08-10 16:43 by whitem8.

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Child Of Clay

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jamesfdouglas
Blues for Allah

he he, that's great! Go straight for that song, immediately separates boys from men!
and if I ever meet anyone who hasn't heard the Beatles I'll recommend they start with Revolution 9.

Side 2 anyway, with the Blues for Allah suite. Side 1 of Blues for Allah with Help on the Way, Franklin's Tower, etc. may be the best side of studio Dead there is. It's all there, in about 22 minutes.

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mckalk
I think if you are just starting you can't go wrong with "American Beauty" and "Workingman's Dead". Two albums that proved they could do it in the studio.

Yup. If you like those, try their first two live albums, Live Dead (1969) and Grateful Dead (1971). If you need more than that, you're more of a Grateful Dead fan than I am.

Here is a great starting point. You can listen to virtually any show they ever did. Pick your favorite era (mine is '68 - '72), look for the highest rated shows and listen free! You can download the AUD shows but only stream the SBD shows (but if you click the Stream VBR M3U file on the left the mp3 files will download into your internet temp folder and when moved to another folder can be used like any mp3 file!). This is a great place to explore The Dead!

[www.archive.org]

Ross

I had an opposite experience on getting into the dead than many others have had. The studio classics were what got me appreciating their songs. I didn't "get" the dead for a while. I had a couple hardcore friends listening to shows all the time, and to me all the songs sounded the same and went nowhere. I think I was overwhelmed by their live stuff, and needed to learn the songs via the studio stuff before I could really take in the live versions.

I ended up getting into them by starting with some studio cds- workingman's dead, american beauty, mars hotel, and aoxomoxoa are full of "hits." I mean, nice 3-5 minute, well written songs with your standard verse chorus format. Then I got europe 72 and Grateful Dead (skull and roses cover). Those are live, but they are not very "jammy." Europe 72 almost sounds studio in it's production, and again there are some incredibly good songs on there. Then I could appreciate the greatness of Terrapin Station, once I understood their originals. From there, I started getting into dick's picks and the larger 4-11 cd live collections.

Unlike me, you seem ready to dive in and have an open mind about them, whereas I was admitedly not choosing to listen to them when I started, it was just on around me. But this is what ended up getting me hooked. Enjoy, it's always great to really get into a new band.

The live stuff is great but the 'Dead hit their SONGWRITING stride in the early '70s and it's from those tremendous SONGS that their legacy truly is derived. The live stuff, while marvelous is just variations on a theme. You REALLY need "American Beauty" and "Working Man's Dead" from 1970 as well as "Europe '72." The latter is a live album but the crowd sounds are mostly mixed out so it has the feel of a studio record. This was apparently the vibe the band was going for as "'72" contains a plethora of then unreleased songs including the classic "Jack Straw," "Sugar Magnolia," "Ramble On Rose" and "One More Saturday Night" which the band apparently didn't have time to properly record in the studio.

"Wake of The Flood" followed in '73 and, while marginally respected at the time, contains some of the 'Dead's best loved songs including "Row Jimmy," "Eyes of The World," "Weather Report Suite," and "Mississippi Half Step'"

Once you've digested the SONGS on these four ESSENTIAL titles you'll be able to jump into Grateful Dead history (especially the live stuff) anywhere you wish.

ENJOY THE RIDE!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-08-10 18:11 by R.

As for studio albums, don't forget Jerry's first album and Bob Weir's "Ace" album. They are basically Dead albums and songs from these were staples in their live shows. I also like "In The Dark" as a last gasp.

Ross

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Ross
As for studio albums, don't forget Jerry's first album and Bob Weir's "Ace" album. They are basically Dead albums and songs from these were staples in their live shows. I also like "In The Dark" as a last gasp.

Ross

Indeed though the 'Dead were mostly individual players on the first Jerry album and Weir doesn't appear at all, if memory serves. Jerry's "REFLECTIONS" album from '76, however contains no less than FOUR tracks with the 'Dead including "Might As Well," "'Must Have Been The Roses," and "They Love Each Other" - all 'Dead live staples.