Dead. Where Is Thy Sting?

@stuartk - yes, you are right; Workingman's Dead and American Beauty were kind of different from all the rest, being presented as fine works themselves and not trying to sound like they did live. I had both of them myself.

And if you're a fan of 'What's Become of the Baby', ya gotta get Aoxomoxoa (which had other great songs on it, too), though I did go to a Phil and Friends show where they actually performed that.

I recall 'Ace' and 'Garcia' came out around the same time, and almost every song on both was among their best ever and added to their sets. I remember thinking that 'Ace' sounded more like live GD than 'Skull and Roses' (like on 'Playin' in the Band'), which to me may as well have been a studio album, and while there were some outstanding songs on it (Bertha and Wharf Rat in particular), I thought overall, it was a pretty lame setlist from not-their-best nights - 'Europe '72' was much more like it for me when that came out - what a great triple album... 

I hope they make their annual superdeluxe package available to order soon! 

@johnto 

I love ’72 Dead!  If I could only listen to the Dead from one year in their entire career, I’d choose ’72. Yes, I’d miss the material from Wake of the Flood, Mars Hotel and Blues for Allah but for me, there’s something especially appealing about their playing in ’72. I think it was Weir’s peak as a superb rhythm guitar player. The new tunes were still fresh and Garcia was still varying his soloing approach to suit the style of each tune. And I love the SOUND of the band in ’72. The grand piano. Weir’s bell like ES345 and Garcia’s Strat. I’m not a fan of Donna’s out of tune singing but I can easily overlook it.

@larsman 

I'm sure you prefer entire shows but how do you think Ladies and Gentlemen stacks up against Skull and Roses?

I agree with what you say about WR into GDTRFB but I also think the versions of Bertha and Big Railroad Blues are pretty darned good, too. 

@stuartk - my favorite years for them would have to be '77-'78. And to tell you the truth, I don't think I've ever heard 'Ladies and Gentlemen' or most of the other official live stuff except for Dicks Picks and all of the annual packages...

My favorite of those packages is '30 Trips Around the Sun', which has one show from every year from 1965 (Pig's and Jerry's voices sounded very different at the beginning before they found their own style, and you can hear 'em do 'Cosmic Cowboy' and other songs never to be heard again!) to 1995, and the shows they picked were real 'on' nights, one and all... 

Of all the post-Jerry Grateful Dead bands, the one I like the most is Dark Star Orchestra; they are incredible and at this point they've played WAAAAY more shows than the boys ever did. Phil said that GD music was its own genre; I agree and to me, DSO is the most traditional GD sound, including the vocals; their Lisa is a stunning singer; so much more powerful (and in tune) than Donna ever was. 

It was IMO all downhill after they moved to solid state n ditched the 4 x MC240’powered PA….. just kidding…

low tide could also explain the show variability…. My sample not sufficient to draw a causation conclusion…

i