Where to start…

I’m often asked (actually no, I’m not – I’m *never* asked but wish I were ’cause I’d love to have the conversation) which is the best Grateful Dead album for a beginner to listen to. And my answer is always the same – none of them.

With the Dead its kinda all or nothing, you have to immerse yourself in at least half a dozen to even begin to understand what they were about. And you can pretty much forget the ‘studio’ albums, and everything after about 1975 unless you’re totally bonkers. Which I’m not.

I have all the studio albums up to Terrapin Station and about 20 or so live albums from 67-74 but hardly anything after that. Oh, Dicks Picks 18 has nice versions of ‘Deal’, ‘Looks Like Rain’, and ‘Brown Eyed Woman’ but by 1978 Kreutzmann and Lesh have lost their fire and it’s generally pretty MOR stuff most of the way.

So give yourself a few days. Get hold of Anthem Of The Sun, Live/Dead, Europe 72, Hundred Year Hall, and the cut down 3CD version of the Fillmore 69 concerts. Add Mars Hotel (for ‘Unbroken Chain’ and the original ‘Eyes Of The World’) and American Beauty, so you get at least a sense of the studio Dead, and finally the ‘Skull And Roses’ live album because it’s probably the best of the briefer live albums and has a rudimentary ‘Other One’ and is pared down to the five essentials. Avoid anything with the awful Donna Jean Godchaux’s wailing, and Brent Mydland’s gruff and unnecessary vocals.

If you like psych music you’ll already know Live/Dead (won’t you???) And if not it probably won’t do a thing for you. But if do, and have somehow missed out, then you owe it to yourself to experience one of the most extraordinary 75 minutes ever committed to vinyl.

Otherwise, it doesn’t much matter where you start, you probably won’t be blown away by anything at first – and leave Cryptical Envelopment (from Hundred Year Hall) until your third or fourth day. But make sure you listen to at least two versions each of Dark Star, The Other One, Eyes Of The World and China Cat Sunflower/I Know You Rider. It’s almost impossible to find versions of EOTW, even in the later years, it’s such a glorious song.

In fact it’s so good, and I’m so confident that when you hear it you’ll want to hear more – and *buy* more – that I’m going to upload one of my favourite versions for you – go get it. Aren’t I nice to you? So please download this, listen to it (bear in mind it’s live and warts-and-all, and forgive the duff vocals – that’s not what GD were all about anyway), and then investigate further and buy some more GD. Your long strange trip starts here.

If you like psych music you’ll already know Live/Dead (won’t you???) And if not it probably won’t do a thing for you. But if do, and have somehow missed out, then you owe it to yourself to experience one of the most extraordinary 75 minutes ever committed to vinyl.