Live / Dead

My inner dialogue… Upon seeing this as today’s album: oh no A minute into the first song: maybe I will like this, it’s kind of cool 9 hours later and the first song is still going: No.

I went into this with an open mind. I'm not a Dead fan, but they seem like cool guys, so I saw this as a chance to fully engage with their live music, and I hoped that I would finally appreciate this band that is beloved by so many. That did not happen. This is actively bad music. Everyone raves about their jamming, but they are a terrible jam band. First of all, no one is playing anything remotely interesting, there were clams all over the place—especially by the bassist, and worse still, none of these guys are listening to what anyone else is doing, so it's like everyone is playing a different song. (And not in a good way, like Ornette Coleman or Ascension-era John Coltrane.) What's more, there's no fire or passion. This is the limpest, blandest, hackey-sackiest music I've ever heard. The fact that these tracks were not taken from one concert, but were instead hand-selected from a few different shows blows my mind. Like seriously? These were the best takes? Good lord. Please, people. Do not listen to this music. If you want that jam-band spacey vibe, there are so many better live albums out there that will slake that thirst: Happy Trails by Quicksilver Messenger Service, At Fillmore East by The Allman Brothers, or Live at the Fillmore East (March 7, 1970) - It's About That Time by Miles Davis. Those are great albums. This one is just not good.

When I heard all those stories about people following these guys around for years, I really didn't think it would just be a bunch of blokes noodling on guitars and doing silly voices. Most of the material here either felt completely aimless or like a bad rip of other, better artists. Not free-form or experimental enough to be interesting, not structured or melodic enough to be engaging. One and a half. Fave track: Feedback

i don’t give a shit, life’s too short to try the Grateful Dead again

Fuck me what a slog. I tried to imagine myself on a lawn at a music festival, with a little half tab deep inside me, and I decided I'd only hate it more. The one song that connected with me was 'Death Have No Mercy'. It's hard to imagine anyone in a Grateful Dead audience enjoying this more than the band themselves, who for the majority of this are off on their own tangents with sprawling guitar solos and out-of-time drums. I straight up don't understand how this can be referred to as psychedelic, it doesn't leave any space to go on your own journey. 1.5/5 for the sporadic moments on this album where it all comes together and does create a little piece of magic.

I turned this on with every intention of giving it a chance. Three minutes in, out of respect for myself and my sanity, I stopped. This band managed to seal the deal in that short amount of time. From the tones of the instruments to the meandering disjointed playing, I cannot abide.

Of course I have to give this a 5! This album shows the Dead at their wildest and while it's no Europe '72 it does have a few Glorious moments. The St. Stephen-Eleven-Lovelight suite is exceptional and made me jealous of anyone who got to see this lineup of the band in their prime. An entire album side of just "Dark Star"? Wow. I would totally understand if anyone takes off an entire star for "Feedback". This is probably a 4.5 because of that but what the heck.

Can someone please inform the Grateful Dead that they don't have to be boring when they're playing music? I really feel bad for the audience, this must have been terrible to sit through.

Last summer, as my friend and I left Boulder for Yellowstone, we were delayed by traffic outside the CU football stadium. Frustratedly craning my neck from the passenger seat, I spotted a sign: Dead and Company. We realized that neither of us had ever listened to any of the Grateful Dead. Aware of their massive following and contributions to American music history, I decided to remedy that by downloading a Grateful Dead playlist from Spotify. Leaving Jackson a day later, we lost service and Spotify switched to offline mode: downloaded music only. Cruising down the highway through the heart of the Wild West with nothing but open road ahead, Tetons clawing the sky to our left, Great Plains unfurling to our right, and roadtrip vibes immaculate, seemed the perfect time to indulge in some quintessential Americana. We made it through four Grateful Dead songs before turning on something else. If that wasn't the time to appreciate the Grateful Dead, when is? Not now either, apparently.

Yawn

(Granted this is a live album so it might not be as great as studio ones) But this was the first exposure I've ever had to Grateful Dead, and with the amount of hype, "dead heads" I know, and how much praise is heaped onto the band, I expected the music to be a bit... better? It's nothing terrible, but I feel like I've heard this exact style and musical ideas so many times in this list, nothing stood out whatsoever.

I just keeps going and going and going. Half the album is the band tuning.

Maybe if my formative experiences with psychedelics were soundtracked by The Dead, I’d have more patience for their nonsensical noodling…but they weren’t…and I don’t.

Worst album ever.

Scant song-like moments and the late attempt to experiment can't save this recording as an official live document. Violent disagreement with the Dead.

Annoying drugged out hippies!

I did not enjoy this album. If I wanted to listen to good improvised blues rock I'd listen to Cream. This is over bloated, boring crap. 1/5

Meandering crap. Endless noodling. Make it stop.

I’ve loved this album since I was a teenager, so objectivity is impossible. What I will say is that I could see the singing on this to be a deal breaker for new listeners. It’s rough. If you can get past it, though, I think this album does everything you want a live album to do. It’s high energy and acts as a time capsule. It’s considered a classic deservedly.

This is a great live album with the remarkable quality that it either works as something you listen to very closely or has the power to run in the background and spurs you on to do some great creative work.

Jam rock psicodélico, mayormente instrumental. Me ha gustado. Venga, vinilo.

Gotta give it a 5 to help counter all these 1s, yes it's weird early Dead but it still far superior to random 80s pop band

10/10 jazz rock is a flawless genre I think one of those songs was in 11/8? perfection!

Very chill for a jam rock album, i appreciate that.

When I hear the jams on this, I just instinctively picture a whole crowd of white middle-aged dudes, watching on and nodding slowly while stroking their massive beards. I guess this was the 60’s, so I need to slightly re-calibrate and make the crowd a bit more hippy-ish, but it’s the same thing. There’s an enormous amount of noodling here though. Is this what this band is all about? The first track is 23 minutes of gratuitous, over-indulgent wanking on guitars. I can’t imagine how boring that would have been to watch live, and with the first track! Christ. When the band do kick in and sing, it’s really muddy sounding. And boring. And repetitive. ‘Turn on Your Love Light’ was a slog and a half. I do actually like some of the music, and some of the jams. I think they have some skill, despite what a bunch of other prominent reviews here say. When they kick in with that nice solo guitar and electric organ I’m all for it. But you’re talking a few sprinkles in amongst a massive bloated whole. Not that impressed with this one.

One of their weaker albums ..

Okay, the middle track, which has more singing and is 15 minutes long is enjoyable, but the rest of it is interminable jam band noodling. Never trust an album where the artists are enjoying it more than the fans.

Too unstructured for my liking, dragged on.

You know why the Grateful Dead suck? Because, individually, none of them listen to what the others are playing. It’s like 5 guys playing 5 different songs at the same time. Their rhythm section is terrible. The bass, drums and rhythm guitar are rarely playing in time, even on their traditional “songs”. If you’re gonna have wanky guitar solos over and over, at least have the decency to have a tight rhythm section anchoring your wanky clustershit down instead of letting it become an impenetrable, cacophonous blob. This is hands down the most overrated band in American history. They are so fucking bad, and yes, I am taking the Eagles and Red Hot Chili Peppers into account in my assessment. In fact, for my third and final Grateful Dead review (Working Man’s Dead), I’m going to list 101 bands and artists that are better than Grateful Dead. Keep your eyes peeled.

I bet the dead are grateful that they never have to listen to this. Stupidly long 'songs' devoid of any form or hook. Just impenetrable jazz rock noodling. It started badly and got worse. I saw that the penultimate track was 7 minutes long and called 'Feedback'. I thought 'it can't be, can it, surely not...?'. Yep. It is. Rating: 1/5 Playlist track: St. Stephen Date listened: 20/10/23

What the hell is this.23 minutes of mindless soloing followed by nonsense lyrics.I hate this the songs have no hooks,they’re too long and they’re not even musically interesting.I can’t believe this but I think it’s worse than GENESIS.At least those guys were weird with it.The drummers really good but he can’t save this wreck.THERES A 7 MINUTE LONG “SONG” OF FEEDBACK THIS ALBUMS A 0.

Ok, this is pretty cool, love the vibe. Really liked Dark Star, didn't really dig Turn on Your Love Light but still giving it a 5.

An excellent live album.

Great album to just vibe out and chill to.

Great sounding and groundbreaking live album. If you are gonna listen to the Grateful Dead, it should be a live album, just be careful if you ask a room full of Deadheads which one is best. I have always said Jesus and The Grateful Dead have a lot in common for me, I love and respect their work but their followers annoy the shit out of me.

good

While this doesn't necessarily contain the definitive versions of each of these songs, as a whole it is an essential encapsulation of the early dead when they were still pushing the psychedelic aspects of their music. They've always been a jam band, but they really embrace the improv explorations here. Lovelight and Death Don't Have No Mercy take a more typical type 1 form, bluesy numbers that let Pigpen shine as a front man with a lively call and response from the rest of the band. This is the Dead at their most adventurous, exploratory, and unburdened by the machine they'd become. Jerry's voice is clear and cogent. A classic Betty board with excellent sound, and the best Live compilation album that captures their raucous, psychedelics beginnings.

Patient exploratory jamming that captures the very best of the early psychedelic Dead for one of the best live albums of all time - not just the hits performed in front of an audience, but an album who's liveness, the presence of performance, is what makes it what it is. Dark Star alone makes this a five-star album: the interplay between the band, listening, responding, building, and turning each others melodic and rhythmic ideas as they improvise their way through the (more structured than you'd think) segments of the peice is staggering. There's so much space in the music despite the number of instruments contributing to it. Through Dark Star > St Stephen > The Eleven they ratchet up the tension, go dark to dwell in some minor key modes, bring it back to a bright joyous major key, let the music dissipate, wrangle it back together for a verse, segue from song to song to keep it rolling. The album climaxes in the raunchy RnB rave up Lovelight, before the mournful dark blues of Death Don't Have No Mercy, which eventually dissolves into feedback, the controlled chaos of signal becoming noise becoming signal.

Album is interesting one and interesting choice. I don't think many "Deadheads" listen to this era much, esp the Dead and Co people. This album attempted to capture the uncapturable, the Grateful Dead live in the late 60s. As fan I find it enjoyable esp the Dark Star - > St Stephen -> Eleven. Death don't have no Mercy is great as well. It's not for everyone but that's fine.

Thoughts before listening: The best American band of all time and one that has really shaped my musical interests as an adult. Growing up in the 90s, with Jerry Garcia dying when I was 14, I never actually saw the Dead live, but their legacy was the blueprint for much of the music I would chase throughout most of my young adult years. This is a document of their early, purely psychedelic live shows, and in some ways it's more interesting than good I guess. Still though it's an important recording for an important band. Review: What the Dead don't get much credit for is their songwriting, which often gets overshadowed by the psychedelic live show and the fans. On their 70s albums they wrote some absolute gems, which unfortunately don't show up on this album focused on the craziness of their 60s era live shows. I understand why other reviewers on here are throwing 1s out for this album. It goes way out there, especially opening with a 24 minute "Dark Star" that certainly has it's moments, but also has plenty of meandering atonal sections as well. This is the version of the Dead that was the house band for Ken Kesey's acid tests, not the one selling out football stadiums in the 80s and 90s (let alone Dead & CO's 20+ sold out shows at the Sphere). I like both versions of the band, but I certainly personally prefer arena rock Dead. The highlight here is "St. Stephen">"The Eleven">"Lovelight", just an exceptional suite of songs with energy that's missing from much of the "Dark Star". All in all this is an interesting listen showing an early stage in the life of an institution of American music. While this album isn't a 5-star album to me within the Dead's catalog (that's reserved for American Beauty, Workingman's Dead, and Europe 72) I'm giving it 5-stars here since it'll be the band's only inclusion on the list....and to counteract the inane 1-star reviews.

Good shit

This was a long one but a good one, some of the tracks were 20 mins long but didn't overstay their welcome I really enjoyed this more jam based album. In particular feedback stood out to me as It was essentially a proto drone/ambient noise song which impressive since it came out 6 years before lou reeds metal machine music which I always considered to be the first instance of that genre Also the recording quality is impressive for 1969

First song only y ta bien serio, lo escuché con el vence en discord shout out bence. 10/10.

Tuvo bien serio

Two really great live albums in a row generated. Last one was at Budokan now this. So glad I waited until I was able to play this on proper speakers and not just AirPods. You can see why they had their legions of Deadheads.

🤘🏼

is this the best album on this list? no is this the best grateful dead album? not even close still 5 stars though

Not sure why the recorded tuning their guitars at the beginning but this is picking up. St. Stephen is my kinda jam. Loving this track The Eleven is great too. Turn on your love light rocks. I love this tune. Death don’t have no mercy is great. The start of this album was rough. The rest is great. Tracks one and seven had to be an influence on Gregg Ginn

The first album to capture the live sound of the most famous live band of all time. Changed the recording and nature of live shows in rock forever. That, and holds up today, even if it's only one of a myriad superior live offerings available on your nearest streaming service today. I can't imagine what holding this other-worldy vinyl between your hands might have felt like in 1969.

This is for all of you here who just can’t stand this, who think it’s boring, long, too much noodling, not very interesting. I used to be like you. That’s why I avoided the Dead for years. It’s kind of the exact opposite of all the other music we all love. That music is carefully thought out, composed. It reads like a book, it has drama and intention and characters. This is… a bunch of guys noodling? But then I realized, listening to the Grateful Dead radio night that Vermont Public Radio dutifully provides, that there’s something else going on. Amid all of the endless droning numbers, my brain started to kind of relax and accept it. I stopped waiting for something to happen. I stopped being impatient with the music. I just sat back and let the music be there, and let its own internal structure unfold. This is a kind of music whose rhythm and melody and shape isn’t written down by anyone— there really isn’t an author. It’s just a collision. It’s what happens when one musician does whatever feels natural to them at that moment, without thinking, without much regard for what anyone is doing at all. I kept closing my eyes and seeing waves crashing on the beach. I really think there is something there. You can stare at waves on the shore for long enough, and the experience is soothing and hypnotic, even as the slight variation of each individual wave might pop out to you. It has its own internal logic and drama, even if Nature is the ultimate author. I really feel like this music works the same way. If you sink into it, and stop waiting for anything to happen, its own pleasurable logic reveals itself to you, and the variations you hear are just enjoyable moments in the larger texture. And man, it’s kind of soothing! And healing in a way. This is a way of listening to music that I almost never do. I’m always listening to things written by other people, where there is an author on the other end, a creator. I’m always waiting for something to happen. But there’s something deeper and more soothing and satisfying going on here. 5/5. This album wasn’t the one that got me into the Dead, but it did give me that insight last night, lying awake, letting the whole drama unfold.

Masterpiece! One of my favorite albums. Guitar riffs are perfect!

I loved it

lovely

live dead!

One of my favorite St Stepen renditions.

I spent a lot of years, mostly in my teens and early 20s, being really into the Dead, seeing tons of shows, etc. I still return to them from time to time and I'm usually reminded of just how remarkable they were as musicians and as a cultural...not sure what, anomaly? phenomenon? novelty? who knows... Amazing what they did and how they did it. I always admire their willingness to try things and given the absurd amount of touring they did for decades, and the heavy and nasty drug abuse that clouded the band on and off from the beginning, there are times when they just don't sound very good, but there are so many times when they reach new heights. I was fortunate enough to witness live some of those moments, and it's mind-boggling they amount of recorded concert material we can still access to this day. When this band is on, they are ON.

A really good album, I'm a fan of instrumental music so this was a big hit for me.

Favorite Songs: Dark Star St Stephen Holy moly, what an Album. The mixture of Kathy tunes and 60s rock is just mindblowingly good.

The Dead never die.

I like The Dead but they pretty much define "overrated".

Masterfully made prog rock/acid rock tracks with range of impressive instrumentals, including an organ solo on "Death Don't Have No Mercy". 'feedback' the weakest track imo but still earns a 5/5 for me.

Groovy 🤟🏽

Is this the best live album on the list? Best track: Turn On Your Love Light

I’m not really a jam band person but the Grateful Dead are very good and the solos are great

I am a big fan of Grateful Dead, especially their music that feels so free and improvised yet somehow still so composed and premeditated. This album has elements of that, however I don't think it's the best live album that the Dead have to offer. Still enjoyable to listen to, but it has its ups and downs. I like the bluesy feel throughout, and the layered instruments (multiple guitars, drums, organ, bass, vocals) all working in unison. I experienced a few "get on with it" moments while listening to periods of songs that felt like they took forever to evolve - I believe the jam band genre gets this criticism quite frequently. Fave tracks: Dark Star, Death Don't Have No Mercy

hippies noodling blues

This is what I HATE about Grateful Dead: the jammy nonsense that turns enjoyable enough songs into intolerable wankery. Take the opening song Darkstar for instance; that's a fine song on its own but it does NOT ever need to be 20 minutes long. It's just tedious. At least St. Stephen (a song I enjoy quite a bit in it's studio version) stays at a tolerable enough 6 minutes. I know a large number of GD fans say the live versions are the true representation of the band, but I despise it. I like the studio versions far, far better and even then I'm far from a super fan. I can give it a 2 for at least having some good songs at their core, but man this is otherwise insufferable.

You probably had to be there

No/Thanks

fine, not my cup of tea.

For the life of me, I just don't understand the draw of Grateful Dead. :(

Tough week with the random generator got tougher

Boy am I glad that’s over with. I have long held the belief that the Grateful Dead one of if not the most overrated band ever. (KISS is a close second.) this album did nothing to dissuade me of that. I suppose if you are a big fan of psychedelic drugs and jam bands, this is your holy grail. For everyone else, i recommend avoiding it. Especially that Feedback track. I’m not sure who that appeals to, but it ain’t music.

For being a jam band, these dudes fucking suck at jamming. 1/5

there is absolutely no excuse for this

Live / Dead is such a slog, I can't even get through a single song in the entirety of my commute... twice over. This is torture, not entertainment.

One of the most effective DEA recruitment pitches ever made.

What a interminable slog, Jesus Christ. "Death Don't Have No Mercy" was mostly a song after 45 minutes of musical diarrhea and then they follow that up with 7 minutes of literal amplifier feedback. I'm grateful they are dead.

Boy howdy I didn't like this. Saint Stephen was the only song I enjoyed at all.

Apparently listening to the Grateful Dead is supposed to bring enlightenment to your soul. The only moment of enlightenment I had after listening to this is the Grateful Dead are a truly awful band and I don't understand why so many people like them. Fucking dreadful.

Two albums later, I've concluded that I do not like The Grateful Dead. Far too much of long, unstructured, dull songs which never resolve themselves. I also hate live albums, with very few exceptions, and the live factor is hugely influential in the love for this band. I can understand someone being able to like them, because I too enjoy listening to music under the influence of questionable substances. But I'm sober currently, and wishing I wasn't listening to this dreck. 17/01/24

At one point I self classified as a Dead Head. This listening experience brought on an epiphany—what if it’s not the music I liked but the soft cotton skirts and the hippy boys? Indeed. If I’m being honest with myself there was always something unsettling with the devout Dead Heads. Yeah I love the songs Box of Rain and Terapin Station but those jams…ugh…meet me in the parking lot where I’m buying a flowy skirt and some mushrooms. Andre and I were recently at a bar with Dead Head friends and a Dead cover band was playing. It all came back when our friend got up to do that Dead dance… that uncomfortable feeling—-CRINGE. I looked around at the zombie dance groove these folks all partook in and ugh…Super cringe. And that’s how I felt listening to this live album…vocals are off, those “jams” make me feel like I’m drowning, flowy skirts and hippy boys ain’t my jam.

Fucking MID

10/10

Grateful Dead - Live/Dead The first live album by the Dead. I first discovered the Dead in 1987 when they released their song, Touch of Grey. I still remember the video and watching it on MTV. Then I never thought about them again for many decades. In 2000ish I started my fascination with Phish and with the advent of the internet, I found my way back to the Dead. Starting that journey I started listening to American Beauty. It became my starting point into their catalog. I never got fully obsessed with the band, but I did respect their contribution to the music landscape. One thing I did find out was that their live shows reflected their true musicianship and while I enjoyed the studio albums, they couldn't hold a candle to the live stuff. Live/Dead is the beginning of what would become their legacy. The live shows and tape trading made them immortal. We still get new live shows released that have been remastered from those tapes. While I never got to see the Dead play live, I can sit back with any of their live recordings and feel like I was there. 5/5

If I had a time machine I would travel back to the late 60's and be a Deadhead. A surefire way to get rid of the upright squares is to open your gig with a 20 minute banger. I still miss Jerry.

Oh the songs are long Favorites: St. Stephen, The Eleven It wasn't boring, rather relaxing

I understand Deadheads now

long, sympathetic jams and grooves, with lovely improvisational feel

Plays exactly like you would expect from a long live album from Grateful Dead.

A really fun vibe session that ends on a bit of an overstayed note. The songs were a lot of fun to listen to - I've heard the Dead were a huge improv group, but this album was some truly excellent musical chemistry. I do think the last 8 minutes could have been left off, but there is something neat about making a song from feedback.

Listened Before? N Like, allllright man! The Dead! Love these guys. I have not heard this particular recording before, and it's a good one. The inclusion of a 23 minute version of Dark Star as all of side one of the double album is spectacular. I was groovin. This is early stuff, so not as polished as some of their later publications but they were tight and awesome jammers even back then. Added to Library? N Songs added to playlist: St. Stephen

I enjoyed everything but the feedback session.

Never been a fan of the Dead, never quite got what all the hype was about. But then I never really got into Phish either. I do understand from this album how creative they were, and fairly talented, with all their jamming and improvisation. Yeah, it can go on a little long but I still marveled a bit. Feedback was the biggest slog to listen to given the piercing instrumentals - but I do give them props for making it sound exactly like feedback (or nails on a chalkboard)...for 8mins. Wow. I don't know that I'll go back to this album much but I do think I will tell others about it, just for the unique experience.

Enjoyed the record more than I thought I would, perfect for headphones on the couch

Excellent guitar

Love the Dead. One of the most influential bands of my life. This is an album that would probably not turn someone onto them. “Lovelight” is an amazing song, and “St. Stephen” is fantastic, but “Feedback” is kind of rough. They get so much better in the next year. 4/5 Will listen again. RIP Phil

Heavy instrumentation, a mess, a thing I like. However it's a bit too long...I still like it though.

Quite enjoyable

Excellent album with great guitar work. No real songs per se, but great jams