The Good Ol' Grateful Thread

Selaws said:
Hey team! So I had my introduction to The Grateful Dead over the weekend in the form of a double album I picked up on a whim at a carboot sale, Grateful Dead ‎– Wake Of The Flood / From The Mars Hotel. I listened to them yesterday and think they are great! I gravitated more to the 'From the Mars Hotel' and have had 'Unbroken Chain' in my head all day. Im going to start a deep dive and stream a load of albums and have a question I hope one of you could answer.

Do the Grateful Dead have distinctive periods/albums of different sounds? I usually just start at the beginning and work my way through each album, but it seems like the Grateful Dead have an endless catalog when you include live albums etc. Would it be best for me to stick to some of their most well known albums, then listen to the more obscure ones after?

I know this seems like a bit of a silly request, but if we take Tom Waits' catalog as an example, 'Closing Time' is a vastly different sounding album to 'Bone Machine'. I wouldn't want a few poorly chosen albums to dictate my opinion on a band, especially when their discography is huge.
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I would start with the 1970 duo of American Beauty and Workingman's Dead and then work my way in either direction, probably. But yes, they definitely have different "eras". Sprinkle in some live stuff, like Europe '72 or the Cornell 5/8/77 show, for example, which are totally different experiences than the studio albums. And if you like indie rock, you could check out the Day of the Dead covers set, and explore the albums based on what you like best from that.
 
I've not seen to many of the various dead cover bands around, but I did go see Grateful Shred a year or so ago, just found out they are playing another local show later this year that I'll probably go to. They do a good job of covering the early 70's dead. Tight harmonies with the country tinge.

Thoughts on other Dead cover bands?
 
imtheocean said:
I've not seen to many of the various dead cover bands around, but I did go see Grateful Shred a year or so ago, just found out they are playing another local show later this year that I'll probably go to. They do a good job of covering the early 70's dead. Tight harmonies with the country tinge.

Thoughts on other Dead cover bands?
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JRAD is the best. Not a typical cover band at all but holy shit do they smoke
 
imtheocean said:
I've not seen to many of the various dead cover bands around, but I did go see Grateful Shred a year or so ago, just found out they are playing another local show later this year that I'll probably go to. They do a good job of covering the early 70's dead. Tight harmonies with the country tinge.

Thoughts on other Dead cover bands?
Click to expand...
MattS said:
JRAD is the best. Not a typical cover band at all but holy shit do they smoke
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I've never seen Grateful Shred, but I hear they're pretty good. JRAD is always on fire.. highly suggest seeing them live. Dark Star Orchestra is really great too, and they tour a lot! They take old Grateful Dead set lists and recreate the shows, sometimes using JGB set lists and even their own once in a while.
 
Selaws said:
Hey team! So I had my introduction to The Grateful Dead over the weekend in the form of a double album I picked up on a whim at a carboot sale, Grateful Dead ‎– Wake Of The Flood / From The Mars Hotel. I listened to them yesterday and think they are great! I gravitated more to the 'From the Mars Hotel' and have had 'Unbroken Chain' in my head all day. Im going to start a deep dive and stream a load of albums and have a question I hope one of you could answer.

Do the Grateful Dead have distinctive periods/albums of different sounds? I usually just start at the beginning and work my way through each album, but it seems like the Grateful Dead have an endless catalog when you include live albums etc. Would it be best for me to stick to some of their most well known albums, then listen to the more obscure ones after?

I know this seems like a bit of a silly request, but if we take Tom Waits' catalog as an example, 'Closing Time' is a vastly different sounding album to 'Bone Machine'. I wouldn't want a few poorly chosen albums to dictate my opinion on a band, especially when their discography is huge.
Click to expand...
@BjorgenFjorgen's advice is a good place to start. This was one of the first articles I read when I first got into the dead - https://pitchfork.com/features/resonant-frequency/7166-resonant-frequency-59/ - and it has some good picks as well as background info. The live stuff is where most of the richness lies when it comes to the Dead but it's definitely overwhelming. As is commonly stated, I find the best starting places for their live periods are Live Dead (late 60's acid psych), Europe '72 (more Americana/song oriented, although they could still unleash some monster jams during this period), and Barton Hall '77 (probably the band's most popular show). I've always gravitated towards the '69-'72 period. Once you figure out what's clicking for you, it makes next steps much easier.
 
Selaws said:
Hey team! So I had my introduction to The Grateful Dead over the weekend in the form of a double album I picked up on a whim at a carboot sale, Grateful Dead ‎– Wake Of The Flood / From The Mars Hotel. I listened to them yesterday and think they are great! I gravitated more to the 'From the Mars Hotel' and have had 'Unbroken Chain' in my head all day. Im going to start a deep dive and stream a load of albums and have a question I hope one of you could answer.

Do the Grateful Dead have distinctive periods/albums of different sounds? I usually just start at the beginning and work my way through each album, but it seems like the Grateful Dead have an endless catalog when you include live albums etc. Would it be best for me to stick to some of their most well known albums, then listen to the more obscure ones after?

I know this seems like a bit of a silly request, but if we take Tom Waits' catalog as an example, 'Closing Time' is a vastly different sounding album to 'Bone Machine'. I wouldn't want a few poorly chosen albums to dictate my opinion on a band, especially when their discography is huge.
Click to expand...

American Beauty is the album that got me into the Dead. I would recommend waiting on the 80s studio albums until you've become a full blown deadhead. Really, though, live is the way to go. Most songs took on a whole new life when played live and theres really a whole discography worth of live songs that were never on albums (Dark Star being the most notable). If I were to recommend albums, I'd go in this order:

American Beauty
Workingman's Dead
Wake of the Flood
Aoxomoxoa
Anthem of the Sun
From the Mars Hotel
Blues for Allah
Grateful Dead (First Album)
Terrapin Station (mainly for Estimated and the Title Track)

Then, I'd tell you to go check these shows out (but it wouldn't even hurt to do these first):

Cornell '77
Europe '72
Dicks Picks 4
Dicks Picks 8
Dicks Picks 12
Reckoning

I'd say if you're still on board and loving it after that, you're ready to dive headfirst into the 80s albums and the whole of the live catalog. All of the above are available on Spotify, by the way. There may be some disagreement here (there always is with Deadheads) but that's my opinion.
 
Sodajerk said:
American Beauty is the album that got me into the Dead. I would recommend waiting on the 80s studio albums until you've become a full blown deadhead. Really, though, live is the way to go. Most songs took on a whole new life when played live and theres really a whole discography worth of live songs that were never on albums (Dark Star being the most notable). If I were to recommend albums, I'd go in this order:

American Beauty
Workingman's Dead
Wake of the Flood
Aoxomoxoa
Anthem of the Sun
From the Mars Hotel
Blues for Allah
Grateful Dead (First Album)
Terrapin Station (mainly for Estimated and the Title Track)

Then, I'd tell you to go check these shows out (but it wouldn't even hurt to do these first):

Cornell '77
Europe '72
Dicks Picks 4
Dicks Picks 8
Dicks Picks 12
Reckoning

I'd say if you're still on board and loving it after that, you're ready to dive headfirst into the 80s albums and the whole of the live catalog. All of the above are available on Spotify, by the way. There may be some disagreement here (there always is with Deadheads) but that's my opinion.
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I dig this approach. As far as 80s goes, In The Dark has some heavy hitters on it. I can jam to that all day
 
Sodajerk said:
American Beauty is the album that got me into the Dead. I would recommend waiting on the 80s studio albums until you've become a full blown deadhead. Really, though, live is the way to go. Most songs took on a whole new life when played live and theres really a whole discography worth of live songs that were never on albums (Dark Star being the most notable). If I were to recommend albums, I'd go in this order:

American Beauty
Workingman's Dead
Wake of the Flood
Aoxomoxoa
Anthem of the Sun
From the Mars Hotel
Blues for Allah
Grateful Dead (First Album)
Terrapin Station (mainly for Estimated and the Title Track)

Then, I'd tell you to go check these shows out (but it wouldn't even hurt to do these first):

Cornell '77
Europe '72
Dicks Picks 4
Dicks Picks 8
Dicks Picks 12
Reckoning

I'd say if you're still on board and loving it after that, you're ready to dive headfirst into the 80s albums and the whole of the live catalog. All of the above are available on Spotify, by the way. There may be some disagreement here (there always is with Deadheads) but that's my opinion.
Click to expand...
Definitely sound advice.
Just throw Live/Dead somewhere in there, and you’re golden.

I also think The Grateful Dead Movie is a good introduction into them as well. Came out in ‘77 but was from Winterland ‘74.
 
Dark Star Boogie said:
Definitely sound advice.
Just throw Live/Dead somewhere in there, and you’re golden.

I also think The Grateful Dead Movie is a good introduction into them as well. Came out in ‘77 but was from Winterland ‘74.
Click to expand...

Good call. How did I leave out Live/Dead?! Movie is definitely great, but it's a little harder to get your hands on. I was just trying to include stuff that I know is on Spotify, and I dont think that one is for some reason.
 
After bouncing off of the Dead for years for multiple reasons, a couple of years ago I decided to dive in on a whim and something clicked. I now only usually listen to the Dead in huge chunks where it's almost the only thing I listen to and then take a break for a while. Live/Dead was the first album I got into and it's still probably my single favorite release. Echoing most people here, AB and Workingman's Dead were the first two studio albums that I loved and are the only ones that I really go back to. I'm probably underrating most of their other studio work. I'm still fairly ignorant about a lot of the 80s and early 90s live material.

Just got back from a vacation while I was going through one of these periods. Listened to a lot of Dick's Picks 36 and whole shows from the Europe '72 run. Also started delving a little more into some of the live JG Band material.
 
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