Rhino Collects 25 Years of Trips with Grateful Dead Live Compilation
The Grateful Dead played more than 2,300 concerts during their lifespan. Of those, it’s estimated that some 2,200 of those shows were taped by the band and their loyal fans. The good-natured California group allowed them to be freely distributed from the beginning, and every Deadhead has a favorite. But where would you start with the live history of such an esteemed band? The Dead and Rhino are offering an answer to that question this spring with The Best of The Grateful Dead Live, a 2CD or 2LP set offering highlights from the band’s official live documents.
A companion to a studio overview released in 2015, The Best of The Grateful Dead Live collects 19 songs from live albums released on Warner Bros. and Arista during the group’s tenure, as well as several select archival titles released after Jerry Garcia’s passing in 1995. (This includes a track from the Cornell show of last year’s stellar May 1977: Get Shown The Light, considered by many to be among the group’s absolute best live performances.) From a rousing rendition of “St. Stephen” from a Fillmore West gig in 1969, captured on the Dead’s inaugural live album Live/Dead, to Garcia’s final performance with the band on “So Many Roads” in Chicago in 1995, the cream of the crop is all here.
“We wanted to follow up the 2015 The Best of The Grateful Dead studio set with a live counterpart, and have focused our efforts on the band’s primary live albums as well as some key tracks from archival concert releases,” longtime band archivist and compilation producer David Lemieux said in a statement. “Just as there was nothing like a Grateful Dead concert, there is also nothing like a live Grateful Dead recording; it’s no secret that as good as the Dead’s studio recordings were, they excelled in front of an audience, and this set provides an overview of just how great the Dead were live in concert.”
Also due for release is a vinyl version, The Best of The Grateful Dead Live Vol. 1: 1969-1977, which replicates the material from the first disc of this set on two 180-gram LPs. Both formats will be in stores March 23. Amazon U.S. links are below, along with the full track list and show sources!
The Best of The Grateful Dead Live (Grateful Dead/Rhino, 2018)
2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. (TBD) / Amazon Canada (TBD)
2LP (The Best of The Grateful Dead Live, Vol. 1 1969-1977): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. (TBD) / Amazon Canada (TBD)
Disc 1 (also 2LP track list)
- St. Stephen (Live @ The Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA – 2/27/1969)
- Bertha (Live @ The Fillmore East, New York, NY – 4/27/1971)
- Wharf Rat (Live @ The Fillmore East, New York, NY – 4/26/71)
- Sugar Magnolia (Live @ The Olympia Theatre, Paris, France – 5/4/1972)
- Jack Straw (Live @ The Olympia Theatre, Paris, France – 5/3/1972)
- Truckin’ (Live @ Lyceum Theatre, London, England – 5/26/1972)
- Morning Dew (Live @ Lyceum Theatre, London, England – 5/26/1972)
- Brown-Eyed Women (Live @ Tivoli Concert Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark – 4/14/1972)
- The Music Never Stopped (Live @ The Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – 8/13/1975)
- Estimated Prophet (Live @ Barton Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY – 5/8/1977)
Disc 2
- Friend of the Devil (Live @ Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY – 10/27/1980)
- Feel Like a Stranger (Live @ The Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA – 10/4/1980)
- Fire on the Mountain (Live @ Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY – 10/31/1980)
- Bird Song (Live @ The Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA – 10/14/1980)
- Ripple (Live @ The Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA – 10/4/1980)
- Eyes of the World (Live @ Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY – 3/29/1990)
- Touch of Grey (Live @ Rich Stadium, Orchard Park, NY – 7/4/1989)
- Blow Away (Live @ John F. Kennedy Stadium, Philadelphia, PA – 7/7/1989)
- So Many Roads (Live @ Soldier Field, Chicago, IL – 7/9/1995)
Disc 1, Track 1 from Live/Dead (Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, 1969)
Disc 1, Tracks 2-3 from The Grateful Dead (Warner Bros. Records, 1971)
Disc 1, Tracks 4-8 from Europe ’72 (Warner Bros. Records, 1972)
Disc 1, Track 9 from One From The Vault (Grateful Dead, 1991)
Disc 1, Track 10 from May 1977: Get Shown The Light (Grateful Dead/Rhino, 2017)
Disc 2, Tracks 1-3 from Dead Set (Arista, 1981)
Disc 2, Track 4-5 from Reckoning (Arista, 1981)
Disc 2, Track 6 from Wake Up to Find Out (Grateful Dead/Rhino, 2014)
Disc 2, Track 7 from Truckin’ Up to Buffalo (Grateful Dead, 2005)
Disc 2, Track 8 from Crimson White & Indigo (Grateful Dead/Rhino, 2010)
Disc 2, Track 9 from So Many Roads (1965-1995) (Arista, 1999)
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1 thought on “Rhino Collects 25 Years of Trips with Grateful Dead Live Compilation”
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Hm… I guess this is a perfectly good starting place for the casual/curious Dead listener? But for a longtime fan, there’s nothing here of interest. Every track is previously released, many of which were released in the proper context of the full concerts!
Anyone wanting to get into live Dead, wanting to know what the hype, the legend, whatever, is all about should listen to vintage albums Live/Dead, Europe ‘72, the all-acoustic Reckoning, and the classic live shows Sunshine Daydream, One From the Vault, Cornell ‘77 (or get the whole Get Shown the Light box from the same week), and Truckin’ Up to Buffalo.
All of those are great, And those complete shows represent an amazing cross-section of the band’s evolution through the decades. All peak years, all peak shows.
This new collection, by contrast, has fine perfomances all, but is woefully incomplete. No “Dark Star”? No “Playing in the Band”? No “Franklin’s Tower” or “Scarlet Begonias”??
No… This is not “The Best of the Grateful Dead Live.” Not by a longshot.