Grateful Dead
Golden Road (1965-1973)

Live/Dead

Live/Dead has long been called the quintessential Grateful Dead album. And rightly so, though the myriad of concert recordings released over the better part of the last decade have made it slightly less significant. Nevertheless, Live/Dead remains a vital effort. After all, it not only captures the band in all its late ’60s glory, but it also is the album that launched the jam band genre and gave the Grateful Dead’s career a well-deserved push, while also passing time as the group prepared to shift direction.

Most notable is a classic rendition of Dark Star, the Grateful Dead’s trademark tune, which opened Live/Dead in superlative fashion. Rather than bursting out of the starting gate, the band gently eased into the song from some other space in time — actually, it was Mountains of the Moon that preceded the tune at the concert from which this rendition was taken — allowing the instruments to gradually coalesce into the now familiar musical theme. It’s a slow, deliberate progression that oozes and drips over its delicate psychedelic soundscape, offering the first recorded indication as to what the band had to offer its concert-going fans.

Yet, this was merely the beginning as the Grateful Dead wound its way through a raucous St. Stephen, the ferocious rhythmic thrashing of The Eleven, Pigpen’s rousing blues rant Turn on Your Lovelight, and the solemn strains of Death Don’t Have No Mercy. Indeed, Live/Dead fully captured the band’s live sound with startling precision, opening the doors of perception to the uninitiated and welcoming them inside with open arms.

This is the fifth installment of a nine part series, which will examine The Golden Road (1965-1973) album by album. The entire set is rated: 

1 Star:   Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!