Search results
Jan 9, 2024 · Rolling Stone lists the 15 best Grateful Dead live albums, from their psychedelic peak to their final studio release. Find out which albums feature iconic tracks, acoustic sets, and memorable shows.
- 30 sec
- Europe 72. Listen to the full album (on Amazon) For many Deadheads, the band’s 70’s shows in general, and Europe 72 specifically, are the pinnacle of the Grateful Dead’s touring career.
- War Memorial Auditorium – Buffalo NY 5/9/77. Another classic show where Jerry opted for a twangier tone in his lead playing, as you can hear in the song above.
- Harry Adams Field House, University of Montana – Missoula, MT 5/14/1974. As a Montana resident and University of Montana graduate, I simply had to include this album.
- Live/Dead – 1969. Listen to the full album (on Amazon) Live/Dead was the Grateful Dead’s first official live album release. For many diehard fans, it still takes the cake as the best live album.
- Must-Haves: Live Dead (1969) The ultimate live document of Grateful Dead v1.0, and candidate for the best live rock album ever, is this double LP made during the distended Aoxomoxoa sessions.
- Must-Haves: Workingman’s Dead (1970) Leaning into their love of country music and the harmonies of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, the Dead make the perfect Americana LP, years before the genre was coined.
- Must-Haves: American Beauty (1970) The sister LP to Workingman’s Dead, released just over four months later, rode the songwriting bonanza, with new influences digested.
- Must-Haves: Europe ’72 (1972) Having perfected their stage game, the Dead take it overseas, with trusty 17-track studio in tow. The result is that rarest of things, an essential triple LP.
This list features short reviews and setlists for all of the Grateful Dead live releases that I own. The releases are listed in chronological order by performance date. Compilations with live recordings from different periods are listed at the end, the same goes for the live material from Rhino's reissues of the studio albums.
- Winterland, San Francisco. March 18th, 1967. Warner Bros. Records released the Dead’s debut album, The Grateful Dead – a sonically brittle, high-speed version of the group’s stage act and songbook – on March 17th, 1967.
- Dance Hall, Rio Nido, California. September 3rd, 1967. Time was an elastic concept on a Grateful Dead stage – a song ended only when every possibility embedded in the structure and set loose by the group’s improvising empathy was tested and fulfilled.
- Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco. February 14th, 1968. Anthem of the Sun, the Dead’s second album, may be the most authentic musical document of the San Francisco renaissance: a union of interior psychedelic exploration and truly liberated rock & roll; a continuous drive to light via mad studio alchemy and the Dead’s already proven specialty, live performance.
- Dream Bowl, Vallejo, California. February 22nd, 1969. This show, on the eve of the long weekend at the Fillmore West that was taped for 1969’s Live Dead, is a beautifully recorded artifact of the Dead at a different, simultaneous juncture: during a break from the studio sessions for 1969’s Aoxomoxoa, where they were spending a fortune crystallizing the cryptic but compelling lysergic romanticism of the songs Garcia was writing with lyricist Robert Hunter.
Dick's Picks Volume Eight: Harpur College, Binghamton, NY, May 2, 1970 (1997) flawless acoustic set, almost all of the working class favorites. first dead release i really loved. good cosmic charlie, st. stephen, and dancing in the street.
Nov 26, 2020 · Grateful Dead Albums: The Best of the Rest. From Seventies and Eighties studio gems to top-shelf live recordings from throughout their career to Jerry Garcia's finest solo record. By. Jon...
People also ask
Which Grateful Dead album is the best?
Are there any Grateful Dead live releases?
Is Grateful Dead V1 the best live rock album ever?
How many Grateful Dead live albums are there?
What are the best Grateful Dead shows?
Are the Grateful Dead a good band?
