One for the Deadheads - top 10 tunes

I like them all, but they were all better live. Recommend you look at the attached. You can find all the concerts you went to and what you liked about them. This is an amazing resource.

http://www.archive.org/details/GratefulDead

quote:

Originally posted by Skip:
I like them all, but they were all better live. Recommend you look at the attached. You can find all the concerts you went to and what you liked about them. This is an amazing resource.

http://www.archive.org/details/GratefulDead

Hey Skip, I was introduced to the joys of the Archive by Nick Lees and Leopold of this parish a few years ago. I have downloaded a couple of hundred shows from there, plus another couple of hundred from the likes of Dime, Lossless Legs, Zomb, etc. I also lurk on dead.net, GDLG and subscribe to various Dead podcasts.

K

Box of Rain
Estimated Prophet
Friend of the Devil
Dire Wolf
Sugar Magnolia
Fire on the Mountain
Playing in the Band
To lay me down
Ship of fools
Bertha

That's this morning at least

Alligator
Caution Do Not Stop on Tracks
Cold Rain and Snow
Morning Dew
That's it for the Other One
Truking
Unbroken Chain
Uncle John's Band
Viola Lee Blues
Weather Report Suite
etc ........

In no particular order

Dark Star from Live Dead

Walk Me Out In The Morning Dew from Europe 72

Eyes Of The World From Without A Net

Looks Like Rain from Wembley 89 bootleg

And many others

Kevin:

You are ahead of me Dead-wise. I have a box set on CD, a couple on vinyl, and 4 live concerts in the 80's.

Have you checked this out? You need it if you don't have it. It will amaze you and your deadhead friends. A guy told me about it and he was right. Dark Star to the max.

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/grayfolded

I listen to it on my iPod and it is great on a long flight. Pretty amazing what this guy does and how he does it. My wife hates it, which is recommendation enough for most folks.

Kevin-

Asking a life long Dead Head to come up with a top ten list is simply too tempting. Of course, the list could be different tomorrow, but here goes. I'll restrict myself to commercially available recordings in case you want to try these on for size:

1) Dark Star- The "Live Dead" version is indeed amazing, and if you can find one, they released a limited edition 10 disc set called "The Complete Fillmore West 1969" recordings which covers four similar shows, all of which have merit. 2/13/70 from Dick's Picks Volume 4 is often voted the best version of all time by Deadheads, and it is even more fully developed. A few years later, the more delicate version from 10/18/74 from the "Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack" Box Set was played on a night when they might have thought they would never play their hallmark jamming vehicle ever again, and it is also transcendent. All sublime versions of this archetypical Dead tune. If the more energetic style of playing from '72 appeals to you, listen to the monster version chronicled on "Steppin' Out" from the shows the band played in London that year.

2) China Cat Sunflower> I Know You Rider. I favor the more flowing and more extensively jammed versions from 1974 to the wonderful and often tighter versions from 1972. Take a listen to the stunningly fluid example captured on Dick's Picks Volume 12 from Providence 6/26/74 which is my personal favorite, or the later release of Volume 31 from Philly 8/5/74.

3) Eyes of the World also reaches a peak as an instrumental jamming vehicle in this era; try the stunning version from 8/6/74 on Dick's Picks Volume 31, or the masterful example from 10/19/74 on the Movie Soundtrack Box set.

4) New Potato Caboose- This early and quirky jamming piece reaches a masterful, dancing, twisting, surging, vibrating aliveness on Two From the Vault in pristine sound. This is the Dead as they would have been heard had you been lucky enough to see them as THE S.F. ballroom dance band, inconveniently taken from tapes made in a Los Angeles show from summer of '68.

5) For a greatly more representative and more enduring part of the band's active play list, I would listen to Stella Blue, which Garcia played with great pleasure and nearly always very well from it's introduction in 1972 through to his final tour in 1995. Try the beautiful and quiet version on their most recent release from Louisville in June of 1974, titled Road Trips Volume 2, No. 3 which ended the show in a moment of reduction and grace. For more muscular and rocking versions try the late 70's standouts captured on So Many Roads Box set (4/28/78) or perhaps the most fully jammed version from that era is captured on the "From Egypt With Love" shows from Winterland in October of 1978 on the Road Trips Volume 1, No. 4 set. Note, this song is somewhat marred by the master tape dropping out, so they patched a musically crucial segment with the best available back up tape, but it is hardly seamless, so if you are an audiophile beware! Fabulous later era versions are available on Dozin' At the Knick from spring of 1990, and on the excellent soundtrack to View From the Vault # II, taken from Washington DC on 6/14/91, which is also available as a DVD if you like video concert performances, that is one of the best of the Dead's releases taken from their later years.

6) Terrapin Station- This song was debuted in the banner year of 1977 by the Dead, and there are very good releases from that first year on a number of CD's: try Dick's Picks Volume 15 from Englishtown, New Jersey, which is a wonderful release if you don't know it. That show has perhaps five songs which are all so well played that many consider them the best versions the band ever performed, including Mississippi Half Step, Peggy-o, and the final jam of He's Gone> Not Fade Away> Truckin' is nearly an hour of masterful playing. Not Fade Away should, in that instance, count as their song, so totally do they put their stamp on it.

Another popular '77 version of Terrapin comes when the song is woven into a long, flowing jam captured on Dick's Picks Volume 29, which is a four disc box set from the epic spring of '77 tour, taken from a small theater in Atlanta with great acoustics. That release also boasts high water mark versions of Sugaree, Row Jimmy, Uncle John's Band and Playin' In the Band, making it a perennial fan favorite. Later era Dead Terrapin's are well chronicled again on Dozin' At the Knick (spring of 1990), and other releases. In concert, this was really one of Garcia's masterpieces, perhaps his best song from the second half of his career. They very rarely played it poorly.

7) One of the Dead's most popular set pieces was the joining together of Weir's "The Other One" with Garcia's "Wharf Rat" and concluding with most Deadhead's all time favorite rock n' roll dancing finale, "Sugar Magnolia" There are numerous versions out now, but my personal favorite has long been the version from 5/10/78 from New Haven, captured on Dick's Picks Volume 25. The had restored their two drum approach in 1975, and would build to a power and youthful energy in 1977 and 1978 that they would seldom be able to match in later years. If this doesn't get you up and dancing, you are allergic to the Dead as the American dance band.

8) Scarlet Begonias> Fire On the Mountain; yes the epic version played at Cornell 5/8/77 should be formally released, it is perhaps their most famous show of all time, and it masterful. The only reason they have not released it is the master tapes were stolen and sold to the Italian bootleggers in the late '80's.

9) The Cornell 1977 show is also justly acclaimed for perhaps the strongest, and most emotive version of Morning Dew Garcia ever played, although here again, there are countless superb interpretations through the years. I was lucky enough to see his final performance of Morning Dew in Albany in the summer of 1995 tour, and it will one day be released I am sure, as it carried thirty years of his passion and love of music into one brief, intensely felt out pouring to his fans. I have never seen so many people weeping openly in public as on that night. I don't know that you can really call a cover song properly a Dead song, but if you can, Morning Dew would be it.

10) My final pick is another cover, Dylan's She Belongs to Me, which the Dead briefly covered in 1985. Most versions are sublime, but you can certainly start with the one played on 11/21/85 at Richmond, captured on Dick's Picks Volume 21.

Now before I come up with another ten, er forty....

Good listening,

Bruce

My god. Deadheads.
My favorit show ever is:
GD with Branford Marsalis ( NY | Madison Square Garden |1990 ? ).
This version of Dark star is amazing.

Nice thread, perfectly timed for Jerry's birthday.

Ripple

another alltime fav for me.

I assume you guys are familiar with this

http://www.radioio.com/channels/dead

- one of the most played on my Squeezebox.

.....Erm ...can we start an Allman Brothers thread now someone?

Hey, everybody knows that "Viola Lee Blues" is the ur Dead tune. The recently released 1968 Carousel Ballroom tapes--the source for much of Anthem of the Sun--are outstanding. Jerry was playing a Les Paul back then, my favorite sound.

quote:

Originally posted by Jet Johnson:
.....Erm ...can we start an Allman Brothers thread now someone?

Yes. And also a thread of Phil Lesh & Warren Haynes.

Jeez, Kevin. What a load of old hippies!

All that thread needed was Ron The Mon and Peter Litwack (hi to both and hope you're well if you're reading guys).

A list of best Dead tracks is a bit like what was more satisfying, a bone-crunching tackle by Billy Bonds or a mazy dribble from Alan Devonshire. Depends on the mood!

I'd like to add to the above the version of Althea from Without A Net (late, late live Dead and I suspect massively fiddled with in the studio judging by some of the complete sets from around that time, but they're forgiven).

I think I've finally drawn a line under my Dead collection with Rocking The Cradle. Heresy, I know....

quote:

Originally posted by ft-o8:
[QUOTE]Yes. And also a thread of Phil Lesh & Warren Haynes.

Mule rule

quote:

Originally posted by Gary Shaw:
Jeez, Kevin. What a load of old hippies!


A list of best Dead tracks is a bit like what was more satisfying, a bone-crunching tackle by Billy Bonds or a mazy dribble from Alan Devonshire. Depends on the mood!

Gary, nice taste in football. Come on you Irons.

Bruce

Great list! A lot in there I'd forgotten - and I realised I haven't got round to listening to my Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack box yet! And I wish I'd managed to get the big Fillmore box before the copies ran out

Here are a few others:

What about that beautiful "Peggy-O" from Vegas in '94?

Or that superb version of "Dancin' In The Streets" from Cornell 77? Or almost anything (especially "Big River") from the next night at the War Memorial in Buffalo the next night?

Or those superfast versions of "Sugaree" and "Bertha" from Hartford in March '81?

Great thread. Thanks BDNYC...spot on re: Cornell, I have a download copy with lots of drop outs but it is still brilliant. Agree, a commercial release would be a treat.

For reflective beauty: Ripple / Brokedown Palace. Modern day hymns !

Thanks BDNYC

Bruce that's a fantastic post - what a wonderful knowledge of the Grateful Dead you have there. Definitely lots to explore.

ATB Rotf

Not ten, but a handful that mean a lot to me.

I saw The GD at Wembley on Halloween 1990, so the download of that concert from their website will always be precious to me. The highlight of the show, for me, was Werewolves of London.

Dark Star from Live/Dead was probably their greatest song. But then I happen to think that that was their best album. And I agree entirely that John Oswald's Grayfolded is a masterpiece.

The GD song that I play more than any other, though, is Looks Like Rain from Without A Net.

What a long strange trip, etc, etc.

G

Thanks for the kind words.

Fall of 1990 was one of the last great periods for the band, I was supposed to go to London to see those shows, and some lame reason or another seemed to make more sense....Our fellow European Dead fans didn't get to see the Dead anywhere near as much as we did in the US, which was probably due in large part to Garcia's drug habits.

For fans of the mellow, pretty Dead, Brokedown Palace was typically used as an encore, and it was always a nice way to go home. I also loved their take on Knockin' On Heaven's Door, the far more rarely played Attics of My Life, and Garcia's later era ballad Black Muddy River. Weir normally gravitated more to blues or rockers, but his Looks Like Rain and Cassidy were also very nice quieter songs.

Good listening,

Bruce

Hi Bruce

I recently discovered the NYC Academy of Music show (23 March '72). Was listening to it earlier - what an absolute stunner - great Miller recording and a top-notch performance. The Phil-heavy "Dark Star" is really out there, and a nice mixture of songs/moods too.

Dead Freaks Unite!

My best

K

I'll have a look out for that one Kevin. 72 was certainly a wonderful year for them - still with that psych jamming feel but with the tight vocal stuff too. I know they practiced the harmonies for the 72 tours like they never did again.

Saw them at the Lyceum on that 72 tour, and when (some time way after midnight) they opened the roof to let the starlight in half the West End must have got stoned. Missed all the tubes and busses and had to walk home to Muswell Hill - didn't care a kipper.

I just wish I'd seen them more.