Cody_Mack Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 I would like some recommendations for Grateful Dead music. Over the years (from the early 70s) I somehow missed the train when it left the station; I would catch a glimpse of it periodically when it went by but still didnt pay a lot of attention to it. I have caught a few posts by Forum members; how they talk about the Dead being a jam band. Well, I love jam bands; those bands where everyone has a role to play, everybody knows what everybody else is doing (usually by instinct), and everyone contributes to the overall effort. Lots of instruments and voices, no egos, just geat music flowing out. That is one reason I am big fan of the Allman Brothers. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> I never had the desire to purchase any of the Dead albums until now. I listen to XM quite a bit now and they have educated me to, not only the quality of the Deads music, but to the quantity of selections available. My gosh, how many albums did they produce? I have been particularly engrossed by some tracks I have heard by the Jerry Garcia band. The style of some of those tracks is really meshing with the sound I am looking for lately. With the vast selections available, where is a good start? I am not looking for the typical Greatest Hits album. You can get that on your local FM Classic Rock station; over and over and over. Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audible Nectar Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 I wouldn't sweat too much of the studio stuff. I find most of the Arista catalogue (excepting for "In The Dark") as being pretty much unlistenable. You can also give the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab version of "From The Mars Hotel" a spin.........it's butter smooth. But LIVE is where it's at. I recommend the "Dick's Picks" series of releases (1 through 8 are especially good - especially number 8), available at the GD's merchandise site and in stores. There's 36 + releases in the series. "One From The Vault" and "Two From The Vault" are must have earlier era releases, then you can try "Dozin' At The Knick" and the "Terrapin Station" special release from the Capital Centre in 1990 if you like the later sound/era. There's SOOOOOOOOOO much material to lose your mind with.....but this is a start. But please, keep it LIVE[] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garymd Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 Start with Dick's Picks 15 and 18. Tell me what you like and we'll go from there. Do you want studio recommendations also? Go to GDLive.com to download shows. Garcia Band at Warner Theater in '78 is a great one that's available on that site. One of the late shows with "The Harder They Come" into "Simple Twist Of Fate" is a classic. Definitely not your "best of" type of stuff. Much better than that! You could build an entire collection from '77, the Dead's best touring year by far. Garcia was in a zone during that time period and into '78. Some amazing stuff!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freddyi Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 about 38 years ago - FWIW Internet Archive has many shows supposely (?) in the public domain http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=collection%3AGratefulDead%20-%2Fmetadata%2Fstream_only%3A%281%29 studio = American Beauty and Workingman's Dead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauln Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 American Beauty is a fine studio album, very listenable for the Dead. The three record Europe 72 is live and loose... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Travis In Austin Posted March 16, 2007 Moderators Share Posted March 16, 2007 about 38 years ago - FWIW Internet Archive has many shows supposely (?) in the public domain http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=collection%3AGratefulDead%20-%2Fmetadata%2Fstream_only%3A%281%29 studio = American Beauty and Workingman's Dead ALL of the GD's live music is in the public domain, after a certain point, by design. I don't mean you can legally copy a commercial disk of a live show at will, and you cannot sell their music for gain, but they had a recording pit (area roped off for "novice" recordists to set up their recording equipement to tape shows) back as far as I can remember which would have been Winterland in '74. Those tapes have been bought, sold and traded at the "Bizarrs" forever They are in the public domain because the GD waived those rights by implication. Back when Nagra and Stellovox reel to reels were the vogue of the movie/broadcast industry you never saw a bigger collection at one time then at a GD concert. They were hooked up to microphones that were on stands 15 to 20 feet in the air. I am sure Gary could tell you a whole more about it, I don't seem to remember much of it. The Allman Brothers are one of my all time favorite bands, and I know what you mean about jamming. However, just as At Fillmore East has got to be one of the best live jam lp's ever, could you really do without the studio lp's Eat A Peach (Blue Sky), or Brothers & Sisters (Jessica). An anomaly with GD, unlike the Allman Brothers, is that they did not have relatively good success with album sales. Their only top 10 lp, In the Dark, and only top ten single, Touch of Grey, came in 1987. The band was plagued with financial troubles, made even worse by a bad movie investment, and switched record labels in the mid 70s (twice). Not having much luck in the studio they concentrated on live work, which they developed into a multi-million industry in its own right. All through the late 70s, 80s and early 90s they were consistently in the top ten for highest grossing domestic tours. If a major draw like the Stones did not tour that year, they were frequently the top one or two grossing tours. As such, a lot of their fans, rightfully so, focus on the live work. Consequently, thier studio work tends to get overshadowed somewhat since a lot of people who are real fans got into them because of going to a show. I think if you want to capture the essence of the GD it does have to be in their live work, however, to capture a their evolution as a band, etc., a few original studio/live albums are essential, at least to me. As has been mentioned, American Beauty is a must have, Anthem of the Sun, studio and live (with the "Space Mix"), Live Dead, and Workingman's Dead, are all ones I recommend you give a whirl, as they mark major milestones for the band. Gary and others know vastly more then I do on the subject of GD music and I would follow their sage advice. However, dont be hesitant to give some of these other titles a try, especially if you are into vinyl. Travis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldbuckster Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 Not a DEAD fan but, Europe live 72 is a good starting point, as is American Beauty, I like their live music best.................... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 If you think you might like Jam bands try "Moe".they are a jam band that really jams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark1101 Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 I have been a dead head for 30 years.....and have my RatDog tickets for 3/22/07 at the Athens, Classic Center. They're still doing it and so am I. I agree with the prior posts about the Dick's picks. But....something else that is excellent. There is also now downloadable music from their website. All the Dick's Picks (36) plus a new "download series" (12). There are also "vault" releases (several) which are excellent. The biggest new thing is all their remastered albums each beefed up with several added bonus tracks, and priced cheap. Some are excellent to consider, especially "Reckoning" an acoustic concert that has an entire extra disk of similar material added....excellent. Recorded very well for the time and now digitally remastered. The "vault" series is mainly multitrack (16) recorded and sound the best. The Dead detail the recording method in almost every album you can buy. So pay attention. Most all the Dick's picks are 2-track and sound OK, but not as good. Some of the "download series" is multitrack as well. You have to look at each one. If you are getting into it from long ago I recommend mid and late 70s to start. Their peak. I download this stuff all the time. It's cheaper and you own the master files to burn new copies. Get the FLACs and use DB Poweramp music converter to convert to .wav and burn to CD or play from your PC. If you need help email me. All mine come out very very good. Go to Dead.net. Enjoy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garymd Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 Mark, My brothers are trying to drag me to the Ratdog show this coming Monday at Ramshead Live in Baltimore. You know I'm not much of a Weir fan and therefore haven't been paying attention to set lists, etc. Anything good coming from them lately? Surprise guests? Should I just suck it up and go on a worknight? Frankly, I'd rather see the DSO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodog Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 Live is where it's at, but as far as studio stuff goes, try finding a copy of "ACE", Bob Wier's solo project. Even though it's labelled as his solo project, The Grateful Dead is the "backup band" Woo my very first rock n' roll concert was 5/18/77. Atlanta, GA at the Fox Theater. Good Ole Grateful Dead. WOW! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boom3 Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 The Warners DVD Audio of American Beauty and Workingman's Dead, remixed by Mickey Hart, are wonderful, easily the best DVD-A analog remixes ever. If you have a DVD audio player and 5/6/7.1 set-up, you are in for a treat! I love Europe '72 but both the LP and the CD version's audio are not great. I wish like anything Mickey would remix those into DVD-A. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eq_shadimar Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 I agree with everything that has been said here. There is TONS of readily downloadable material available on the internet. You should have no problem finding some. I know this is the 2-Channel section but their DVD's of live shows are decent as well. I also agree that MOE is a good jam band. You may also want to try Phish as well. Laters, Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mas Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 The Warners DVD Audio of American Beauty and Workingman's Dead, remixed by Mickey Hart, are wonderful, easily the best DVD-A analog remixes ever. If you have a DVD audio player and 5/6/7.1 set-up, you are in for a treat! I love Europe '72 but both the LP and the CD version's audio are not great. I wish like anything Mickey would remix those into DVD-A. What boom3 said! American Beauty is by far the best DVD-A available, especially if you are simply looking from the point of view of what a good engineer can do with a good plan! Amazing mix and the pieces and parts truly emerge from the mud. An excellent album made damned near perfect! WorkingMan's Dead is also a must have. Live in Europe 72 is excellent for a wide range - almost a greatest hits package from the day - albeit it a hybrid album - live tapes sweetened and overdubbed in the studio. I would add the first 2 live albums, Live Dead and the Skull & Roses live albums, as well as the first self-titled Garcia solo album. I like the subsequent Garcia solo albums but they are a little different from what you might expect - same feel, but very different 'classic' material. As I still find the "please no more cowboy songs Bob" banners a hoot at the dead shows in the mid 70's, I would avoid Bob Weir's solo albums for the most part. OK, the Pump Song (from Ace) is OK, but what to do with the rest of the album? ;-) From Wake of the Flood on (the Arista Years), well, except for Live at the Mars Hotel (which I like!!!), its an acquired taste. ~~~~~~ I personally stick to the live stuff before ~1973. Also, you might enjoy the earlier New Riders of the Purple Sage albums. NRPS, Powerglide, Gypsy Cowboy and their 3 various released live albums (Austin, Boston, Veneta) are quite good. And, oh heck,while we're here... if you are looking for great live period stuff, Happy Trails by Quicksilver Messenger Service can be had for a discount price, and you will be hard pressed to find a better live capture...Cippolina and Elmore are sweet! Plus. whats no to like about 40 minutes of variations on Bo Diddley's Who Do You Love. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 Fire.. Fire on the mountain... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark1101 Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 Mark, My brothers are trying to drag me to the Ratdog show this coming Monday at Ramshead Live in Baltimore. You know I'm not much of a Weir fan and therefore haven't been paying attention to set lists, etc. Anything good coming from them lately? Surprise guests? Should I just suck it up and go on a worknight? Frankly, I'd rather see the DSO. Gary, This tour is going very well. Bob is in good voice, which when he is not....ruins the whole thing. But he is now. The band is strong and check out the link. They did some shows at the Beacon recently with some guests, Donna Jean...DJ Logic...others. You better go Bro. Look at the set lists. The downloads sound really good. http://www.rat-dog.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garymd Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 Speaking of Fire on the Mountain, every Deadhead has his/her favorite version of a particular song/songs (many GD tunes were played together like Scarlet Begonias into Fire On The Mountain, primarily because at some point they figured out which tunes ended on the same key another started with and they just like the way they transitioned into one another). Other examples would be Estimated Prophet-Eyes Of The World, China Cat Sunflower-I know You Rider, etc. Many folks like myself love the jams between the songs and the transitions from one tune to the next. The Scarlet-Fire from Cornell University in '77, Estimated-Eyes from Englishtown, NJ in '77 (Dick's Picks 15), China-Rider from Tempe, Arizona (mid 70s???), etc. I still have, and occasionally still play some of my 300+ bootleg tapes collected over the years. I've been to about 250+ Dead/Garcia concerts over the years, the first at RFK Stadium in '73 when The Allman Bros opened for them. There's also some great shows from the early 70s with Duane Allman joining them for a few tunes. One in particular from Filmore East in '71 or '72 stands out. Pigpen was still around in those days and they did a great version of It Hurts Me Too along with Sugar Magnolia and one or two others with Duane on the slide guitar. With a few exceptions, they're only really listenable in the car. You have to be a pretty hard-core fan to appreciate some of this stuff. I have rehearsal tapes from '66, audition tapes from '72 with Keith Godchaux playing with them for the first time, interviews with Garcia and other band members, shows from '67 with Janis Joplin, early 90s shows with Brandford Marsalis (he also joins them on Without A Net), and who can forget Old And In The Way, the great bluegrass band with Garcia, David Grisman, Pete Rowen, Vasser Clemens and John Kahn who toured for one summer in '73. I have a few bootlegs from that tour also. I highly recommend the CDs that were released from that tour, especially the original "Old And In The Way" self-titled album and "Breakdown," which was released in the 90s. Also, the CD releases of Garcia/Grisman are all great. Shady Grove, The Pizza Tapes (with Tony Rice) and the soundtrack to Grateful Dawg are just 3 of many I'd recommend. You should also watch both The Grateful Dead Movie (1975) and Grateful Dawg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garymd Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 Mark, My brothers are trying to drag me to the Ratdog show this coming Monday at Ramshead Live in Baltimore. You know I'm not much of a Weir fan and therefore haven't been paying attention to set lists, etc. Anything good coming from them lately? Surprise guests? Should I just suck it up and go on a worknight? Frankly, I'd rather see the DSO. Gary, This tour is going very well. Bob is in good voice, which when he is not....ruins the whole thing. But he is now. The band is strong and check out the link. They did some shows at the Beacon recently with some guests, Donna Jean...DJ Logic...others. You better go Bro. Look at the set lists. The downloads sound really good. http://www.rat-dog.com/ Thanks Mark. Still undecided though...... It is a school night! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cody_Mack Posted March 16, 2007 Author Share Posted March 16, 2007 Thanks all for the excellent responses. You are definitely reading my mind as to what I am looking for. Seems <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Gary is the unanimous choice for local GD expert [Y]<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> Some very good points about live being their best productions overall. To me that indicates they are one of those bands that truly care about what the music sounds like to their fans. Not only does it sound good on the record, but also in the arena. A few bands do that well. I have not been to a vast amount of live shows, but Yes is one of those bands that comes to mind. Great Jam bands like that really open up on stage; you never know whats coming next. Great bands like the GD play by instinct; they mesh naturally. Travis the ABB showed up at the XM studios and performed Eat A Peach track by track with chat in between tunes. I captured this with a line-in from my XM tuner to a .wav file. You hear a lot of flack about the compressed sound from XM, but this sounds awesome! I have done several captures from their studio. Speaking of the XM studio, I have heard a few Bob Weir performances as well. While I didnt care much for what I heard, I will check out the Ace album that Woo mentioned. mas am a big NRPS fan as well; although I have only two LPs. They are also on my to-buy list. Anyone have anything by Great Caesar's Ghost, another jam band who just happen to cover the GD and the ABB? Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LousyTourist Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 Well, I can't add too much to what has already been said, but I will put in a plug for the early solo Jerry albums. Live shows are a bit of a crap shoot, IMHO, as deadheads are quite forgiving when it comes to their fav set, so you will find some fans of a particular show and when you listen to it you think, lordy, the boys took a while to warm up THAT night. Have an 86(? I think) Winterland with a SMOKIN Morning Dew that has been hard to get off my player lately. The good thing about the live shows is you shouldn't have to pay for them, so listen first, and if you like, look for a DP or similar to come out if you want better production values. I do not advocate the digital copying bit though; that's only because I am not a fan of digital in general. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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