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List Price: $18.98 | | Label: Rhino / Wea
Salesrank: 1761
Released: September 16, 2003 |
| Our Price: $8.09 |
| Used Price: $7.22 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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The Very Best of the Grateful Dead Track Listing:
1. Truckin'
2. Touch of Grey
3. Sugar Magnolia
4. Casey Jones
5. Uncle John's Band
6. Friend of the Devil
7. Franklin's Tower
8. Estimated Prophet
9. Eyes of the World
10. Box of Rain
11. U.S. Blues
12. Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)
13. One More Saturday Night [Live]
14. Fire on the Mountain
15. Music Never Stopped
16. Hell in a Bucket
17. Ripple
Editorial Review:
The first-ever compilation bringing together the best of their Warner Bros., Grateful Dead records, and Arista years on a single disc - TV-marketed and remastered in HDCD! 17 tracks including 'One More Saturday Night' (live, 1972). Slipcase. 2003.
The Very Best of the Grateful Dead Reviews:
A Good Collection......BUT...!! 
2009-10-23 - I would have replaced "Golden Road" & "Franklin's Tower" with "Alabama Getaway" & "Shakedown Street". This *IS* a "Best Of" Release....Is it not????
Good Intro to the Dead
2009-08-12 - "Best of" collections can sometimes disappoint, but in the case of the Grateful Dead, this is the best way for the non-Deadhead to experience them. As a band, the Dead were not always consistently good song-writers (their fame is based on their live shows, not their albums), so apart from "American Beauty," there really is no one record that is going to blow away the casual listener. However, this is a solid collection that contains many of the band's best songs, as well as most of their hits. I give it 4 instead of 5 stars because certain obvious inclusions are absent. For instance, where is "Alabama Getaway," or "I Need a Miracle"? I am old enough to remember these songs getting tons of airplay on FM stations, so they certainly qualify as "hits." Still, a fine introduction to a great American band.
A Fine Compilation 
2009-03-15 - This Grateful Dead compilation covers no less than twenty years of their recording career from their debut of 1967 till the fine 1987 album "In the Dark". In spite of the great span of time the CD comes out quite consitent featuring the majority of the band's best known songs.
Their 1970 album "American Beauty" is one of their really great albums and it's no surprise that this album is the best represnted here with no less than 5 songs. Another fine 1970 album was "Working Man's Death" which had the fine "Uncle John's Band" and "Casey Jones'".
Grateful Dead were always known as a great live-act and one 1972 live-recording is included here, but though "One More Saturday Night" is by no means a weak track, I would have preferred to see one or two more of their studio-recordings instead.
At any rate this compilation should work as an appetizer for more music from one of the finest American West Coast bands to come out of the 1960's.
Great For Long Time Fans Too
2009-03-14 - I've had the privelege of hearing the Dead live dozens of times. For me, any one of the live recordings, Great as they are, do not capture the thrill of hearing a given rendition for the first time. After repeated playings, the fun of hearing the tune done IN A DIFFERENT WAY (the heart of what they did) is gone. But this collection presents iconic versions (blueprints, if you will) of many of the tunes commonly played live. When I listen to these, it brings back ALL the times I heard live versions. Yes, this is a good introduction for the uninitiated, but is also, at least for this fan, a collection of seeds from which many sweet memories grow.
So for we who took a powder keg and sealed our silver mines, this is a cost effective collection. The remastering is breathtaking too, allowing one to hear these iconic tunes fine detail without having to (re)buy a bunch of CDs. For recreating the live experience, the multi-channel DVDs provide a better approximation of the experience than any of their CDs anyway.
A touch of Grateful Dead
2009-01-31 - This is a great CD for the novice or for any GD fan. Some classic gems here. A good CD to purchase as an intro to the "dead zone" but is far from a complete summary. Good remastering makes this very enjoyable listening and well worth the price.
