By 1973, the disparity between the Grateful Dead's studio work and their eminence as live performers was already well established. Their sixth studio album, Wake of the Flood, served as a transitional document, bridging the gap between the gentle Americana they'd presented three years prior on American Beauty, and the increasingly electrified jamming they were exploring on-stage around then, while also setting the scene for the more complex progressive sounds they'd soon be getting into. After satisfying their nine-title/dozen-disc deal with Warner Bros, the Dead began their own record labels: Grateful Dead Records (for group releases) and Round Records (for solo projects). Wake of the Flood was the first Dead disc issued entirely under the band's supervision -- which also included manufacturing and marketing. Additionally, the personnel had been altered, as Ron "Pigpen" McKernan had passed away. The keyboard responsibilities were now in the capable hands of Keith Godchaux -- whose wife Donna Jean Godchaux also provided backing vocals. A majority of the tracks here had been incorporated into their live sets -- some for nearly six months -- prior to entering the recording studio. This gave the band a unique perspective on the material, much of which remained for the next 20-plus years as staples of their concert performances. Instead of hushed folk and bluegrass-informed songwriting, the Dead tap into the improvisatory, jazz-informed playing they excelled at live throughout Wake of the Flood. "Eyes of the World" contains some brilliant ensemble playing and Bob Weir's "Weather Report Suite" foreshadows the epic proportions that the song would ultimately reach. The lilting Jerry Garcia ballad "Stella Blue" is another track that works well in this incarnation and remained in the Dead's rotating set list for the remainder of their touring careers. The disconnect between the group's powers as a live band and their limitations as a studio band was a sticking point throughout their lengthy run. Wake of the Flood doesn't quite reach the goal of a middle ground, but it is one of the stronger studio documents the band produced, and captures hints of what they could do on-stage better than most of their studio sets from a time when they were truly unstoppable.© Lindsay Planer & Fred Thomas /TiVo

This 1973 release was the very last collection that the Grateful Dead authorized during their tenure with Warner Bros. in the late '60s and early '70s. However, this live disc was a sort of melancholy affair, as it centered on material featuring Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (guitar/vocals/mouth harp), who had left the band due to illness in June of the previous year. History of the Grateful Dead, Vol. 1 (Bear's Choice) is somewhat misleading, as a follow-up never came to pass. Band historians, however, claim that this release was optimistically titled because the label had hoped to issue a series of live recordings (à la Dick's Picks) containing highlights from a variety of vintage Dead performances. Alas, with the formation of the group's own label it was not to be. The single disc includes performances from a highly touted series of shows held over two nights (February 13-14, 1970) at the Fillmore East in New York City. While most assuredly not the finest example of the Dead's formidable acoustic sets, the platter opens with a quartet of cover tunes -- many of which had been entries in Jerry Garcia (guitar/vocals) and McKernan's folky jug band repertoire prior to ultimately forming the electric, psychedelic Grateful Dead. McKernan's playful cover of Lightnin' Hopkins' "Katie Mae" is a somewhat lightweight affair. He counterbalances ad-libbed lyrics with his own very sparse solo guitar picking, which is in perfect keeping with the lonesome nature of this blues. Garcia and Bob Weir (guitar/vocals) join in on the remaining "unplugged" tracks. Both the affective and noir "Dark Hollow" and "I've Been All Around This World" reveal the command of this highly under-utilized sub-division of the Dead. Clocking in at seven-plus minutes, the album's sole original composition, "Black Peter," is masterfully executed. It ultimately bests the original Workingman's Dead (1969) version in sheer emotive realization. The two electric offerings -- a cover of Howlin' Wolf's "Smokestack Lightnin'" and Otis Redding's "Hard to Handle" -- are full-blown rave-ups allowing the entire band to weave their collective R&B-influenced psychedelia, unedited and in real time. Both tracks had become assertive vehicles for McKernan's no-nonsense R&B sensibilities. In 2001, History of the Grateful Dead, Vol. 1 (Bear's Choice) was included in the 12-disc Golden Road (1965-1973) box set. The remastered edition comes replete with a newly inked 16-page liner notes insert containing an essay from the "Bear" (aka Owsley Stanley) himself. The expanded track list yields four additional performances from the same cache of shows: the McKernan-led "Good Lovin'," "Big Boss Man," a second and equally scintillating version of "Smokestack Lightnin'," as well as an up-tempo "Sitting on Top of the World," the latter of which keeps the frenetic spirit of the reading from the Dead's self-titled debut firmly intact.© Lindsay Planer /TiVo

With 1970's Workingman's Dead, the Grateful Dead went through an overnight metamorphosis, turning abruptly from tripped-out free-form rock toward sublime acoustic folk and Americana. Taking notes on vocal harmonies from friends Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the Dead used the softer statements of their fourth studio album as a subtle but moving reflection on the turmoil, heaviness, and hope America's youth was facing as the idealistic '60s ended. American Beauty was recorded just a few months after its predecessor, both expanding and improving on the bluegrass, folk, and psychedelic country explorations of Workingman's Dead with some of the band's most brilliant compositions. The songs here have a noticeably more relaxed and joyous feel. Having dived headfirst into this new sound with the previous album, the bandmembers found the summit of their collaborative powers here, with lyricist Robert Hunter penning some of his most poetic work, Jerry Garcia focusing more on gliding pedal steel than his regular electric lead guitar work, and standout lead vocal performances coming from Bob Weir (on the anthem to hippie love "Sugar Magnolia"), Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (on the husky blues of "Operator"), and Phil Lesh (on the near-perfect opening tune, "Box of Rain"). This album also marked the beginning of what would become a long musical friendship between Garcia and Dave Grisman, whose mandolin playing adds depth and flavor to tracks like the outlaw country-folk of "Friend of the Devil" and the gorgeously devotional "Ripple." American Beauty eventually spawned the band's highest charting single -- "Truckin'," the greasy blues-rock tribute to nomadic counterculture -- but it also contained some of their most spiritual and open-hearted sentiments ever, their newfound love of intricate vocal arrangements finding pristine expression on the lamenting "Brokedown Palace" and the heavenly nostalgia and gratitude of "Attics of My Life." While the Dead eventually amassed a following so devoted that following the band from city to city became the center of many people’s lives, the majority of the band's magic came in the boundless heights it reached in its live sets but rarely managed to capture in the studio setting. American Beauty is a categorical exception to this, offering a look at the Dead transcending even their own exploratory heights and making some of their most powerful music by examining their most gentle and restrained impulses. It’s easily the masterwork of their studio output, and a strong contender for the best music the band ever made, even including the countless hours of live shows captured on tape in the decades that followed.© Fred Thomas /TiVo

Two years after Grateful Deadication, his initial journey into the music of the Grateful Dead, saxophonist Dave McMurray digs even deeper. Once again, he's supported by his killer Detroit band -- bassist Ibrahim Jones, guitarist Wayne Gerard, keyboardist Maurice O'Neal, and drummer Jeff Canady -- with longtime friends and colleagues in percussionist Larry Fratangelo and keyboardist Luis Resto. The nine-song set also features a star-studded guest list.Opener "Playing in the Band" is performed by McMurray's quintet, along with Fratangelo and Resto. They get funky almost immediately thanks to Canady's syncopated breaks before a gritty tenor delivers the melody, and they play the hell out of the vamp and handle the middle eight with elegance. Framed by a lilting B-3, upright bass, and drum kit, McMurray's solo weds post-bop to contemporary soul jazz. The last two minutes offer skittering organs, punchy guitars, and drums, with McMurray soaring up top. The minimal blues guitar intro on "China Cat Sunflower" echoes Jerry Garcia's original, with McMurray employing tenor and a lilting flute. While the GD opted for exploratory psychedelia, McMurray delivers danceable jazz-funk adorned with a killer tenor solo and exceptional modal piano from O'Neal. "Bird Song" is introduced by a flute before sparse, rumbling kick drums, poetic guitar, and guest Don Was' upright bass open the gate to jazz. The band is economical, as a two-chord piano vamp frames McMurray's tenor working the lyric vamp before paving the way for solos, including a beauty from Gerard. Criminally under-recorded country singer-songwriter Jamey Johnson sings highlight "To Lay Me Down." A short, rippling piano intro, reedy tenor, and sparse percussion that offers a subtle nod to Pharoah Sanders, before Larry Campbell's fingerpicked acoustic guitar introduces the singer. Convicted and tender, he has never appeared with such vulnerability before. Was' upright, Gerard's electric, and guest Greg Leisz's pedal steel wrap the resonant singer as McMurray frames him in modal soloing. The funky read of "Truckin'" quotes from Booker T. & the MG's' "Green Onions" with Resto's organ the star component. Bob James lends his piano to both "The Other One" and "If I Had the World to Give." The former offers a three-minute post-bop intro with striking interplay between pianist and saxophonist. When the jamming begins, rock and funk inform Jones' smoking bass line, and Gerard's careening guitar and O'Neal's keyboard stack. "Scarlet Begonias," sung by Oteil Burbridge, employs a danceable, NOLA second line groove. The band gels behind the singer, propelling the tune into winding jazz-funk with overdubbed tenor saxes adding color and texture, illustrated by Canady's taut breaks. Closer "Crazy Fingers" is delivered by the quintet with a languid, melodic intro before shape-shifting into rocksteady reggae and transforming again into a rock anthem with transcendent soloing from McMurray. Grateful Deadication 2 easily equals the quality of its predecessor. Taken together, they create one of the more spirited, musically adventurous jazz-funk portraits of the Grateful Dead's music.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

As the '60s drew to a close, it was a heavy time for the quickly crumbling hippie movement that had reached its apex just a few years earlier in 1967’s Summer of Love. Death and violence were pervasive in the form of the Manson murders, fatalities at the Altamont concert, and the ongoing loss of young lives in Vietnam despite the best efforts of anti-war activists and peace-seeking protesters. Difficult times were also upon the Grateful Dead, unofficial house band of San Francisco’s Summer of Love festivities and outspoken advocates of psychedelic experimentation both musical and chemical. The excessive studio experimentation that resulted in their trippy but disorienting third album, Aoxomoxoa, had left the band in considerable debt to their record label, and their stress wasn't helped at all by a drug bust that had members of the band facing jail time. The rough road the Dead were traveling down seemed congruent with the hard changes faced by the youth counterculture that birthed them. Fourth studio album Workingman's Dead reflects both the looming darkness of its time, and the endless hope and openness to possibility that would become emblematic of the Dead as their legacy grew. For a group already established as exploratory free-form rockers of the highest acclaim, Workingman’s Dead's eight tunes threw off almost all improvisatory tendencies in favor of spare, thoughtful looks at folk, country, and American roots music with more subdued sounds than the band had managed up until then. The songs also focused more than ever before on singing and vocal harmonies, influenced in no small way by a growing friendship with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. The band embraced complex vocal arrangements with campfire-suited folk on "Uncle John's Band" and the psychedelic cowboy blues of “High Time.” Before they blasted off into hallucinatory rock as the Grateful Dead, several founding members had performed as Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, a group that played traditional jug band music with earnest, heartfelt appreciation. Those early influences came into sharp focus on the bluegrass rhythms and hillbilly harmonies of "Cumberland Blues" and the glistening pedal steel and shuffling drums of "Dire Wolf." The more rocking songs add to the album's brooding feel with "New Speedway Boogie" directly addressing the violence at Altamont, and "Casey Jones," which appeared at first to be a lighthearted celebration of cocaine, but was really a lament for troubled times that felt like they were spinning off the rails.The abrupt shift toward sublime acoustic sounds on Workingman's Dead completely changed what the Grateful Dead meant to their listeners at large. The enormous risk they took in changing their sound entirely resulted in a heartbreakingly beautiful, unquestionably pure statement and one of the more important documents of its time. They’d continue this trend on the even more roots-minded American Beauty, recorded later the same year, but the limitlessness, fearlessness, and true power of the band began here.© Fred Thomas /TiVo

The 50th-anniversary celebrations for The Grateful Dead are well underway. Reaching the height of their fame in the United States, the Dead were the embodiment of San Francisco’s proto-hippy sound in the ‘60s and are still regarded by many as the last legendary American band. They often played alongside Big Brother & The Holding Cie at the Acid Test parties organised by The Merry Pranksters’, where mass usage of LSD – which was still legal in California – was the name of the game. Following their purely psychedelic debut album, the band then released the experimental Anthem of the Sun and the trippy but expensive to produce Aoxomoxoa, before changing course completely and turning to country-folk music. Indeed, by 1970 the hippie movement was in its twilight years. Inspired by Crosby, Stills and Nash & Young, the band’s iconic guitarist Jerry Garcia decided to play in a different register and toned down his hypnotic guitar riffs, reviving his bluegrass roots and playing the pedal steel guitar instead. The band had to record their album Workingman’s Dead during some lengthy jam sessions at the Pacific High Recording Studio in San Francisco in a total of just nine days due to their financial situation. In a clever mix of frantic beats such as New Speedway Boogie and shorter folk and country tracks like Uncle John’s Band, the album thrills some and confuses others. Likewise, its companion album American Beauty, which is considered their greatest album, followed suit a few months later. To celebrate its 50th anniversary this 70’s classic has been remastered into two CDs and features live, previously unreleased material from a concert in the Capitol Theatre, New York, in 1970 – that’s more than enough for their diehard fans – the Deadheads – to feast on! © Charlotte Saintoin/Qobuz

The Deadheads are back. Among the many documentaries and events that go with each anniversary, the cult band have reissued one of their best works: Aoxomoxoa. Released on 20th June 1969, two months before Woodstock, the palindrome includes two of the jam-masters’ classics: St. Stephen and China Cat Sunflower. There’s Rosemary too, a dazzling ballad arranged by Jerry Garcia. Less experimental than Anthem Of Sun, the Grateful Dead’s third record features Tom Constanten on piano and Mickey Hart on drums. In addition to the 16 re-recorded tracks from 1969 and 1971, this Deluxe Edition boasts a live performance from January 1969 recorded at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. © Charlotte Saintoin/Qobuz

It is generally agreed that the Grateful Dead's late-'70s studio releases left even the most enthusiastic Deadheads longing for something more. The theory is that the band's momentum is best experienced during the ebb and flow of a live performance rather than the somewhat clinical tedium of a recording studio. Terrapin Station marks several milestones for the Grateful Dead: it was the band's first studio album in two years, as well as their return to a major label -- in this case Arista Records. More significant however is the use of an outside (read: non-Grateful Dead) producer. This was only the second time in which the Dead did not seize complete control. And the first time in a decade that they would relinquish their production reigns. They chose Keith Olsen -- a former member of the '60s garage rock band Music Machine -- whose production roster also included other Bay Area notables including the Sons of Champlin and Santana. Musically, Terrapin Station offers a few choice glimpses of the band doing what it does best. While the most prominent example is the album's extended title suite, there are a few others such as the cover of the Rev. Gary Davis gospel-blues "Samson and Delilah" and a resurrection of the Martha & the Vandellas hit "Dancin' in the Streets." The latter tune was originally performed by the Dead in their mid-'60s repertoire. What was once a garage rock and psychedelic reading has evolved into a 4/4-time, brass-influenced disco arrangement. Luckily, their extended versions during concert performances were infinitely more tolerable. Parties interested in examining the contrast between the studio and live performance versions of Terrapin Station material should seek the archival concert release Dick's Picks, Vol. 3. This two-disc set not only captures the band exactly two months and two days prior to the release of Terrapin Station, it also features stellar performances of every track from the album sans the up-tempo rocker "Passenger."© Lindsay Planer /TiVo