The Grateful Dead almost need no introduction. Emerging from San Francisco’s psychedelic scene in the second half on the 1960s, they settled into a more country- and folk-based style on their classic 1970 releases Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty
But it’s their live shows, more than their studio albums, which have earned them their greatest fame. In concert, they could stretch out a 3-minute studio cut into a 20-minute jam, guitarists Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir soloing gracefully over the band’s lively groove. Deadheads, the legions of fans who followed their shows from town to town, made attendance of their shows a genuine cultural experience.
Excessive guitar soloing can raise a red flag for me, but I find their playing quite enjoyable—their laid-back guitar noodling thankfully has nothing of the hyped-up macho wanking of many a guitar “god.” The singing is a little ho-hum, but that doesn’t detract much from the overall vibe. They have a lot of good stuff, and I enjoy listening to them.
But they rarely fill me with much passion. I don’t consider myself a big Dead fan. And that makes me the ideal person to compile a terrific Grateful Dead playlist (or three). When you love everything, it’s hard to cut unnecessary tracks. When you’re more critical, it’s easy to pare down to the essentials.
Grateful Dead fans will surely notice some favorite tracks I’ve neglected in the playlists below, and that’s okay. But Grateful Dead skeptics might actually find themselves converted. Certainly, if you can’t get into these playlists, the hordes of Dead fans will have no use for you, other than to declare you a lost cause.
The first playlist collects highlights from their two best studio albums, Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty, released within five months of each other in 1970. Here are many of the Dead songs that I love; I could listen to this 30-minute playlist over and over again. (Indeed, I have. And so should you.)
The second, CD-length playlist collects other studio highlights spanning three decades, presented chronologically.
The third, longer playlist, collects some of their better live moments, including examples of both their extended jams and shorter songs that only saw release on live albums. Fans of the Dead will insist that it’s their live work that shows them at their best; a live album surely only captures a fraction of the full grandeur of one of their live shows, but the selections here make it clear how invigorating an experience a Dead show could be.
Cover Art: By scan of LP cover, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4505443
Very nice. For a self-confessed non-Deadhead you have made three great playlists for newbies and raging obsessives (like myself) alike. Fantastic.
Thanks, Nick. Glad to hear you like them!
Maybe it takes a non-fan of a band to make a great playlist, especially one that serves as an introduction. When you love a band too much, you love everything, right? Hard to choose the best.