The Grateful Dead

For me this is the finest ever Grateful Dead recording.

Takes me back my youth when I was the only deadhead in my street. Now looking for a 4xl tie dye shirt.makes an old man very happy

I'd been missing this album from my collection. Good to have it back again.

The Dead in get up and go mode.Post acid, pre smack with added Pigpen.Definately one to keep to partner live dead.

All the original members of the band play here at their very very best. Although the bonus tracks do not belong here and I can't think why they're included.

My first Dead album was the 1969 Fillmore West triple CD set. I guess that particular collection benefits from having been released only recently, so demonstrates the full capability of more modern sound engineering than this set, released 1971, which sounds much rougher round the edges. The production is also somewhat haphazard, so different tracks are spliced together crudely so that the transition between tracks is a little unsophisticated - the audience burst on us mid-scream at the beginning of one track; suddenly give us the silent treatment at the end of another.But it's easy to ignore these minor considerations in the light of the music, and the songs. These are an excellent mix of Dead originals and covers.The originals include excellent versions of Playing In The Band and Wharf Rat, and a paint-blistering version of The Other One, which drives as hard as Ride of the Valkyries, with the same ¾ beat.The covers are exactly the kinds of references I'd expect from a band like the Dead back in the early 70s, including respectful versions of songs I would at the time have considered "heritage", like Me & Bobby McGee (immortalised for me by Janis Joplin), Johnny B Goode (Chuck Berry was still on the road and rockin' hard, but my young self at the time considered him to be of the previous generation) and Not Fade Away (originally a Buddy Holly staple, the liner notes remind us, but probably more familiar in the Stones' version). The other cover worth mentioning is Merle Haggard's Mama Tried, a song I can guarantee most of my peers at the time would have considered soooo uncool, reflecting as it does the Dead's Country influences, as does the opener, Bertha.A growing-up further on, this is one of the elements of what makes the set so compelling - its eclecticism; the Dead are not afraid to borrow from anywhere, so in addition to Country there's Blues, Rock'n'Roll and Prog Rock, with a bit of jazz influence thrown in for good measure.Altogether then an excellent compilation, and deserving of its apparent "classic" status amongst Deadheads.

The definitive Dead album. Sweet.

For those familiar with the classic "Skull and Roses" (the more polite of it's contemporary tags), this album needs no description. For those unfamiliar with it, it is an absolute classic sample of the Dead playing live - buy it and enjoy. The thing that I like best about this edition is that it isn't padded out with second rate bonus tracks as so many CD re-releases are. It does have two extra tracks tagged on the end, but they are quality numbers that fit seemlessly with the original playlist and add to the album, so no need to strip them out when you play it.