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Since garageland is gone, I thought I would step in on the weekly album voting. Also I want more threads to talk about my favorite band.
So what is your favorite Grateful Dead album? To limit this to a reasonable size, I only included studio albums and live albums which were released within a brief timeframe after the show(s). So no Dicks Picks, One from the Vault, etc.
Post by nitetimeritetime on Jul 30, 2010 11:37:42 GMT -5
If you really want the Dead, you want to hear the live stuff, not the albums (so Dick's Picks is the place to go). The only real exception to that rule is American Beauty. I like some other albums, but if I was recommending an album to somebody unfamiliar with the Dead, the only one I would give them would be AB.
There's plenty of live stuff above, including some of the best live releases (Reckoning, Europe 72). Still though, I think many of the Dead albums are underrated. I voted for American Beauty, Reckoning and Wake of the Flood, which is a very well put together album. I could easily have picked Anthem of the Sun or Blues for Allah, which are both excellent.
Unless you're already the type of person who loves long jams, I think the studio albums are a great place to start. But now that I have been listening to the band for so many years, I want to hear all the different directions they take the songs, so I listen mostly to the live stuff.
I don't really know much about Grateful Dead's albums, most of my listening experience if from random shows on etree. However, I know I really love American Beauty, Blues For Allah and Terrapin Station. So those get my votes. How about Floyd next? ;D
Post by nitetimeritetime on Jul 30, 2010 12:53:17 GMT -5
I hear you BB, I was really talking in terms of starter studio albums -- like if someone wanted to hear what the Dead were all about, but wasn't into live recordings (yet).
For myself, I like Mars Hotel, Shakedown, Blues, Anthem, Aoxo, and some others too, but I don't think I would have when I was first starting to listen to the Dead (like 20 years ago? really? damn).
AB, on the other hand, is the only studio album I can think of that really "sounds" like the Dead, whatever that means.
wolf (and others) listen to Reckoning. It's my favorite GD release. It's the height of the Dead's vocal harmonies (right after Brent Mydland joined the band) and it's a collection of acoustic live performances featuring some of their very best material.
As I see it, American Beauty is one of the quintessential albums of the last 50 years, an absolute classic. There's almost nothing wrong with it. That said, I may play Blues for Allah even more, simply because Help on the Way/Slipknot! is so awesome, but it's solid all the way through. Certainly, live GD is how to really get a feel for what the band is all about, but they made some amazing records too. Ripple->Brokedown Palace gets you every single time.
I really like the videos that are in circulation. Grateful Dead The Movie and Ticket To New Years are awesome! I even have a bootleg video of the 7/8/95 Chicago show. We all know what happened after that.