To create the Perfect Playlist, I've tried to impossibly accommodate the new initiate and the tape trading Deadhead alike. Impossible to appease both?
The central question revolves around Dark Star. The most important Grateful Dead song, and the song that served for the band's greatest live triumphs and its fans' greatest trips. But how do we justify a 27 minute song consuming so much of our precious 80 minute playlist. Similar questions arise for other concert favorites. The calculus becomes easier if we limit ourselves to "studio" albums rather than entirely live performances. As with all things Dead, even that dichotomy isn't simple. For true believers, the studio versions are not only beside the point, they're missing the point. The point of the Dead is the concert. Studio versions of songs are only useful as a blueprint for what the band would do with the song in concert. The studio versions are only useful for fans for evoking the concert versions. The great compilation album, What A Long Strange Trip It's Been includes nearly an album's worth of otherwise unavailable Dead songs (unavailable in studio versions, that is) that some fans treat as the lost missing album, but in live versions, of course. The Dead are, after all, a live experience.
So few bands of their stature and duration treat their fans to different setlists each night. Pearl Jam does. The most bootlegged live bands, from Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, and Pink Floyd generally played the same setlist every night during a tour. Springsteen changes it up a bit, but not a completely new setlist night after night. And really, with any band that you've loved, and become intensely familiar with, so that you have an opinion as to which live version of a song is best, how many times do you need to hear the classic studio versions again, when there are endless live iterations?
www.headyversion.com can direct you to the most popular live version of each song, with fan opinion and debate commentary. The usual Cornell and Veneta proponents abound. We're also treated to great and less well-known versions from across the world and across the decades.
So what have we done? We've stayed true and brought you a Perfect Playlist of (mostly) studio Grateful Dead, as our starting point. We can explore the Europe 72 tour once we know the language. Here we go, right at 80 minutes, hitting the highs from the twin 1970 triumphs Workingman's Dead and American Beauty, diving deeper into the early recordings, and the solo work. Including the concert favorites and some that I just like.
Box Of Rain American Beauty
Scarlet Begonias From The Mars Hotel
Fire On The Mountain Shakedown Street
Franklin's Tower Blues For Allah
Ripple American Beauty
The Golden Road The Grateful Dead
Rosemary Aoxomoxoa
Jack Straw What A Long Strange Trip It's Been
China Cat Sunflower Aoxomoxoa
Till The Morning Comes American Beauty
Brown Eyed Woman What A Long Strange Trip It's Been
Ramble On Rose What A Long Strange Trip It's Been
Truckin' American Beauty
High Time Workingman's Dead
New Speedway Boogie Workingman's Dead
Sugar Magnolia American Beauty
Casey Jones Workingman's Dead
Uncle John's Band Workingman's Dead
Cassidy Ace (Bob Weir Solo)
For a band with such an extensive catalog, distilling its essence to 80 minutes means that very deserving songs have been left off the Perfect Playlist. If you'd like a deeper dive, and a second lick, try out:
One More Saturday Night What A Long Strange Trip It's Been
The Wheel Garcia
That's It For the Other One Anthem Of The Sun
Deal Garcia
Estimated Prophet Terrapin Station
The Music Never Stopped Blues For Allah
Shakedown Street Shakedown Street
To Lay Me Down Garcia
New, New Minglewood Blues The Grateful Dead
Althea Go To Heaven
Hell In A Bucket In The Dark
Doin' That Rag Aoxomoxoa
Eyes Of the World Wake Of The Flood
Cosmic Charlie Aoxomoxoa
U.S. Blues From The Mars Hotel
Touch Of Gray In The Dark
Bertha Grateful Dead (Skull and Roses)
Stella Blue Wake Of The Flood
Wharf Rat Grateful Dead (Skull and Roses)
Dark Star Live / Dead
St. Stephen What A Long Strange Trip It's Been
The central question revolves around Dark Star. The most important Grateful Dead song, and the song that served for the band's greatest live triumphs and its fans' greatest trips. But how do we justify a 27 minute song consuming so much of our precious 80 minute playlist. Similar questions arise for other concert favorites. The calculus becomes easier if we limit ourselves to "studio" albums rather than entirely live performances. As with all things Dead, even that dichotomy isn't simple. For true believers, the studio versions are not only beside the point, they're missing the point. The point of the Dead is the concert. Studio versions of songs are only useful as a blueprint for what the band would do with the song in concert. The studio versions are only useful for fans for evoking the concert versions. The great compilation album, What A Long Strange Trip It's Been includes nearly an album's worth of otherwise unavailable Dead songs (unavailable in studio versions, that is) that some fans treat as the lost missing album, but in live versions, of course. The Dead are, after all, a live experience.
So few bands of their stature and duration treat their fans to different setlists each night. Pearl Jam does. The most bootlegged live bands, from Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, and Pink Floyd generally played the same setlist every night during a tour. Springsteen changes it up a bit, but not a completely new setlist night after night. And really, with any band that you've loved, and become intensely familiar with, so that you have an opinion as to which live version of a song is best, how many times do you need to hear the classic studio versions again, when there are endless live iterations?
www.headyversion.com can direct you to the most popular live version of each song, with fan opinion and debate commentary. The usual Cornell and Veneta proponents abound. We're also treated to great and less well-known versions from across the world and across the decades.
So what have we done? We've stayed true and brought you a Perfect Playlist of (mostly) studio Grateful Dead, as our starting point. We can explore the Europe 72 tour once we know the language. Here we go, right at 80 minutes, hitting the highs from the twin 1970 triumphs Workingman's Dead and American Beauty, diving deeper into the early recordings, and the solo work. Including the concert favorites and some that I just like.
Box Of Rain American Beauty
Scarlet Begonias From The Mars Hotel
Fire On The Mountain Shakedown Street
Franklin's Tower Blues For Allah
Ripple American Beauty
The Golden Road The Grateful Dead
Rosemary Aoxomoxoa
Jack Straw What A Long Strange Trip It's Been
China Cat Sunflower Aoxomoxoa
Till The Morning Comes American Beauty
Brown Eyed Woman What A Long Strange Trip It's Been
Ramble On Rose What A Long Strange Trip It's Been
Truckin' American Beauty
High Time Workingman's Dead
New Speedway Boogie Workingman's Dead
Sugar Magnolia American Beauty
Casey Jones Workingman's Dead
Uncle John's Band Workingman's Dead
Cassidy Ace (Bob Weir Solo)
For a band with such an extensive catalog, distilling its essence to 80 minutes means that very deserving songs have been left off the Perfect Playlist. If you'd like a deeper dive, and a second lick, try out:
One More Saturday Night What A Long Strange Trip It's Been
The Wheel Garcia
That's It For the Other One Anthem Of The Sun
Deal Garcia
Estimated Prophet Terrapin Station
The Music Never Stopped Blues For Allah
Shakedown Street Shakedown Street
To Lay Me Down Garcia
New, New Minglewood Blues The Grateful Dead
Althea Go To Heaven
Hell In A Bucket In The Dark
Doin' That Rag Aoxomoxoa
Eyes Of the World Wake Of The Flood
Cosmic Charlie Aoxomoxoa
U.S. Blues From The Mars Hotel
Touch Of Gray In The Dark
Bertha Grateful Dead (Skull and Roses)
Stella Blue Wake Of The Flood
Wharf Rat Grateful Dead (Skull and Roses)
Dark Star Live / Dead
St. Stephen What A Long Strange Trip It's Been
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