annie laid her head down
in the roses

What studio albums do you already have, Doc? I think most fans would probably agree that "Workingman's Dead" and "American Beauty" would be the two to start with, studio-wise, though "Wake of the Flood" is great too. Honestly those are the only three of their true studio albums that hold up for me as totalities--there are dozens of great songs scattered throughout the other ones, and even some great studio versions, but generally speaking creating cohesive, well-developed studio albums was not the Dead's forte. Truth be told, if you have a few studio albums and can't get into more than a few songs off each, that's probably not all that dissimilar to a lot of Deadheads.

If you want a good hybrid of the two (studio and live), I would check out the original "Europe '72," a live album at heart but with some studio touch-ups on the vocals. It contains definitive versions of some of their best-crafted songs ("Jack Straw," "He's Gone," "Tennessee Jed," "Ramble On Rose," "Brown-Eyed Women") but also showcases some great extended improvisation. A second recommendation would be "Live/Dead," the Dead's first live album from 1969. Robert Christgau said it contained "the finest rock improvisation ever recorded" when it came out. They hadn't come into their own really as songwriters yet, but the instrumental interplay borders on telepathic in places. There are hundreds of live albums to get but both of those are well-known and revered canonical works, readily available at a good price, and in excellent sound quality.

As far as an all-time favorite from left field, I would nominate "Dicks Picks Volume 12," which I'm pretty sure is out of print but is well-worth eBaying if you find your interest stretching a little further.

like bugs said, it's really all about Jerry. so if you want to find Jerry Garcia Band (studio & live) albums, The Pizza Tapes album and the Old and In The Way (S/T) album, you'll hear a side of him that doesn't (necessarily) come thru when he played with The Dead.

as far as bootlegs, im not a huge fan of live shows when you cant have the tracks flow seamlessly with out the gap or pause between songs, and im not sure how they will end up if i download them and add them to my ipod, and its been forever since ive had a CD burner to put them on a cdr, so i may hut for cheap ones that i can buy in music stores.

yeah, streaming from the archive.org site will create gaps, but i'm pretty sure if you download a show from there it won't have gaps. do you bittorent? what i'm saying is there are plenty of shows online to download.

The studio album most worth listening to, IMO, is Workingman's Dead. Great songs, musicianship and recording. If you're looking for specific live shows, go to the archive and check out the most downloaded list. Most of those are great. Also, go to the headyversion.com. They list what fans consider the best versions of individual songs played live. Then you can find them on the archive and stream.

Some of my favorite shows:

8/27/72- Veneta, Oregon.
5/2/70 - Binghampton
5/7/77- Cornell
9/10/91- MSG w/ Branford Marsalis

I could list forever.

I don't know a heck of a lot about this band, but I generally like 'em when I hear them.

I love 'American Beauty', in particular "Friend of the Devil" and "Operator".

I'm also quite fond of 'Europe 72'.

That disco song of theirs, "Shakedown Street" is pretty fun too.

My rankings of their (studio) albums (my highlight tracks noted):

Grateful Dead (Wharf Rat, The Other One, Not Fade Away/ Goin' Down the Road..., Playing in the Band, Me and My Uncle)

Two bootlegs that I've had on tape since forever (links to archive.org for d/l or stream):

5/8/77 - Cornell- pretty much the world over thinks it's THE show.

10/9/89 - Hampton, VA - The run they go on starting w/ Playin' in the Band has always reminded me why they were so beloved by people.

That Hampton show was unreal. The first time they had played Dark Star and Death Don't Have no Mercy in a long time. The shows were billed as The Warlocks, I guess as a joke by the band? The shows were spectacular and to this day I wish I had gone. I listen to that one a lot.

This is actually a live album--recorded at the Fillmore East, 1971.

Also surprised to see you ranking "Anthem of the Sun" so low--I love that one, pure psychedelic craziness. I would have included it among my "studio albums that hold up as totalities" but since it's as much live as it is studio I left it off (and made it a point to specify that I meant "true studio albums").

supposedly they listed themselves as The Warlocks to fool the venue authorities (?) who had banned them from playing VA b/c of previous shows.

Nice. I'd never heard about that.

Awesome that this thread's seeing some action during the days between.



Once we grew into our shoes
we told them where to go
Walked halfway around the world
on promise of the glow
Stood upon a mountain top
Walked barefoot in the snow
Gave the best we had to give
How much we'll never know we'll never know

i've been streaming 10/9/89 since i posted it. i love whenever they played dylan. that's a great album for folks to look up if they don't know of it/have it already:

If you love that one, check out Postcards from the Hanging. It's a collection of the Dead playing Dylan compiled (i think) by David Lemieux, the Dead's archivist. It's an amazing collection.

, i'm clearly a bit foggy on this topic, but I don't know of any other proper recording of these songs.

i saw that come up when i was looking for that album cover pic.

avoid the bob weir one, team.