Description

Only the second major career-spanning retrospective of the Dead, The Best of the Grateful Dead — released in the spring of 2015, just before a series of farewell shows in the summer — takes advantage of the extra disc 2003 s The Very Best of Grateful Dead lacked. Weighing in at 32 tracks — a full 16 cuts longer than Very Best — The Best of the Grateful Dead also follows a strict chronological sequence, so it takes a little while for the psychedelic haze to lift and the Dead to settle into the rangy, rootsy groove that characterized so much of their existence — right around St. Stephen and China Cat Sunflower, both from 1969 s Aoxomoxoa. From there, many — but by no means all — of the group s warhorses are marched out, all in their studio incarnations. This structure perhaps invites some griping about their sometimes ill-advised attempts to ride commercial waves — there s no disguising the disco diversion of Shakedown Street — but by celebrating the warts and providing space for that unexpected late- 80s commercial comeback, The Best of the Grateful Dead is a good capsule history of a band that usually defies such straightforward narratives. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

• Format: Vinyl
• Genre: Rock
• Remember, for our lowest prices, always order directly from our official JocoRecords website!

• TRACKS

  A1        The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)    2:09
  A2        Cream Puff War    2:28
  A3        Born Cross-Eyed    2:04
  A4        Dark Star (Single Version)    2:41
  A5        St. Stephen    4:26
  A6        China Cat Sunflower    3:40
  B1        Uncle John s Band    4:42
  B2        Easy Wind    4:59
  B3        Casey Jones    4:24
  B4        Truckin    5:03
  C1        Box Of Rain    5:17
  C2        Sugar Magnolia    3:17
  C3        Friend Of The Devil    3:21
  C4        Ripple    4:10
  C5        Eyes Of The World    5:16
  D1        Unbroken Chain    6:45
  D2        Scarlet Begonias    4:19
  D3        The Music Never Stopped    4:35
  D4        Estimated Prophet    5:35