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
