Grateful Dead: The Best of the
Grateful Dead Live

CD518 - 2 CD
Rhino, 2018

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THE BEST OF THE GRATEFUL DEAD LIVE

The Grateful Dead forged its legend on the road, traveling countless miles between 1965 and 1995 to perform a world record 2,318 shows for millions of devoted fans. The band's refusal to ever play a song the same way twice has endeared generations of fans, many of whom prefer certain live versions of songs over their studio counterparts, and garnered the popular phrase among Dead Heads: "There is nothing like a Grateful Dead concert."

Made for die-hard Dead Heads and new fans alike, THE BEST OF THE GRATEFUL DEAD LIVE is the ultimate live collection, a two-disc set with recordings selected from the band's official live albums on Warner Bros. and Arista, plus a few tracks from their many archival live releases, beginning with "St. Stephen" - from the group's first official live album, 1969's Live/Dead - and ending with the poignant "So Many Roads," taken from the band's final concert at Chicago's Soldier Field in July of 1995.

"We wanted to follow up the 2015 The Best Of The Grateful Dead studio set with a live counterpart, and have focused our efforts on the band's primary live albums as well as some key tracks from archival concert releases," says band archivist and producer David Lemieux. "Just as there was nothing like a Grateful Dead concert, there is also nothing like a live Grateful Dead recording; it's no secret that as good as the Dead's studio recordings were, they excelled in front of an audience, and this set provides an overview of just how great the Dead were live in concert."

The live albums the band released during its 30-year career are the primary source for the collection, including tracks like "Bertha" from Grateful Dead (Skull & Roses) (1971), "Fire On The Mountain" from Dead Set (1981), and "The Music Never Stopped" from One From the Vault (1991). A testament to its ongoing popularity, the revered double-album Europe '72 (1972), is represented by no less than five tracks, including "Sugar Magnolia," "Jack Straw" and a searing rendition of "Morning Dew." Other performances on the set were selected from the growing number of live releases that have emerged since the death of founding member Jerry Garcia in 1995. Some of those recordings include "Touch Of Grey" fromTruckin' Up To Buffalo (2005), a 1990 version of "Eyes Of The World" with saxophonist Branford Marsalis featured on Wake Up To Find Out (2014), and "Estimated Prophet," which debuted earlier this year as part of Cornell 5/8/77, a recording of the Grateful Dead's mythic show at Cornell University in 1977, thought by many to be the band's greatest live performance.

DISC 1
1 St. Stephen (Live at The Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA 2/27/69) [Remastered] 6.37
2 Bertha (Live at The Fillmore East, New York, NY 4/27/71) [Remastered] 5.42
3 Wharf Rat (Live at The Fillmore East, New York, NY 4/26/71) [Remastered] 8.32
4 Sugar Magnolia (Live at The Olympia Theatre, Paris France 5/4/72) [Remastered] 7.10
5 Jack Straw (Live at The Olympia Theatre, Paris France 5/3/72) [Remastered] 4.48
6 Truckin' (Live at Lyceum Theatre, London, England 5/26/72) [Remastered] 13.07
7 Morning Dew (Live at Lyceum Theatre, London, England 5/26/72) [Remastered] 11.28
8 Brown-Eyed Women (Live at The Tivoli Concert Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark 4/14/72) [Remastered] 4.37
9 The Music Never Stopped (Live at The Great American Music Hall, S.F. CA 8/13/75) [Remastered] 5.28
10 Estimated Prophet (Live at Barton Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 5/8/77) [Remastered] 8.44

DISC 2
1 Friend Of The Devil (Live at Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY 10/27/80) [Remastered] 7.32
2 Feel Like A Stranger (Live at the Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA 10/4/80) [Remastered] 5.46
3 Fire On The Mountain (Live at Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY 10/31/80) [Remastered] 6.47
4 Bird Song (Live 1980) [Remastered] 7.38
5 Ripple (Live at the Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA 10/4/80) [Remastered] 4.26
6 Eyes Of The World (Live at Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY 3/29/90) [Remastered] 16.13
7 Touch Of Grey (Live at Rich Stadium, Orchard Park, NY 7/4/89) [Remastered] 6.30
8 Blow Away (Live at John F. Kennedy Stadium, Philadelphia, PA 7/7/89) [Remastered] 12.19
9 So Many Roads (Live at Soldier Field, Chicago, IL 7/9/95) [Remastered] 9.35