Very Best Of Grateful Dead CD

Incl.1 Of 8 LTD.Ed.Replica Passes From 1995 Tour (Marvel

Grateful Dead: Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (vocals, acoustic guitar, keyboards, organ, congas, percussion); Jerry Garcia (vocals, guitar, pedal steel, piano); Phil Lesh (vocals, guitar, piano, bass); Bob Weir (vocals, guitar); Brent Mydland (vocals, keyboards); Donna Godchaux (vocals); Tom Constanten (piano, keyboards); Bill Kreutzmann (drums, percussion).
Producers include: Grateful Dead, Dave Hassinger, Bob Matthews, Betty Cantor, Keith Olsen.
Complition producers: James Austin, David Lemieux.
Recorded between 1967 & 1987. Includes liner notes by James Austin.
All tracks have been remastered using HDCD technology.
Personnel: Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh (vocals, guitar, piano); Bob Weir (vocals, guitar); Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica, organ, keyboards, congas, percussion); Brent Mydland (vocals, keyboards); Donna Jean Godchaux, English Chorale (vocals); David Nelson (electric guitar); Matthew Kelly (harp); David Grisman (mandolin); Tom Scott (saxophone, lyricon); Steven Schuster (saxophone); Tom Constanten (piano, keyboards); Howard Wales, Merl Saunders (organ); Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann (drums, percussion); Jordan Amarantha (percussion).
Audio Remasterer: Joe Gastwirt.
Liner Note Author: James Austin.
Photographers: Herbert Greene; Fred Ordower.
It only seems like there has been an endless stream of Grateful Dead compilations. In reality, there has only been a handful, and the most notable of those were released while the band was still an active recording and touring unit in the '70s -- and before they had belated chart success in the late '80s, 20 years after their debut album. So, Warner/Rhino's 2003 collection The Very Best of the Grateful Dead marks the first attempt to do a thorough single-disc overview of the group's career, encompassing not just their classic Warner albums but also the records they cut for their own Grateful Dead/UA and Arista. As always with the Dead, it's hard to condense the band's free-ranging, freewheeling output onto one disc, and there are some big songs and concert staples MIA here, including the perennial "Dark Star," "Jack Straw," "Black Peter," "Stella Blue," "Brokedown Palace," "Playing in the Band," "Wharf Rat," and "Terrapin Station." They are missed, some more than others, but the 17 tracks here do present nearly all sides of the Dead while hitting their biggest songs: "Truckin'," "Touch of Grey," "Sugar Magnolia," "Casey Jones," "Friend of the Devil," "Uncle John's Band," "Box of Rain," and "Ripple." As that list proves, this is a set that leans heavily on the twin peaks of Workingman's Dead and American Beauty, but there's a reason why those two are beloved of Deadheads and casual fans alike: the classic songs are there. They're also here, along with other staples like "The Golden Road," "One More Saturday Night," "Estimated Prophet," "Eyes of the World," and "U.S. Blues," which may not be as well-known to the general populace but help fill in the picture and provide a good portrait of the band. The collection would have been better if sequenced a little more chronologically, but nevertheless it provides a first-class introduction to a band whose catalog can often seem a little unwieldy. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Even though the two-disc WHAT A LONG STRANGE TRIP IT'S BEEN may have more fully anthologized the Grateful Dead's fruitful Warner years, no previous anthology has ever summarized the band's entire career, on through the slim-pickin's mid-1970s to their celebratory late-'80s comeback. In this respect, THE VERY BEST OF... can be called a nearly definitive collection. Still, this is an entry point for the casual passerby, so the psychedelic largesse of the Dead's late-'60s albums is entirely eschewed in favor of the shorter, more concise songs of their folk-rock period ("Uncle John's Band," "Friend of the Devil," etc.). Consequently, this becomes a tribute not to the impr