''The Best of the Grateful Dead Live'' is a compilation album by the rock band the

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, Folk music, folk, country music, country, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, ...

. It contains songs that were recorded live in concert and previously released on other Grateful Dead albums. It was released on March 23, 2018.

Production

According to producer David Lemieux, "We wanted to follow up the 2015 ''

The Best of the Grateful Dead ''The Best of the Grateful Dead'' is an album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. It is a two-CD compilation of songs recorded in the studio from throughout their career. It includes at least one track from each of their studio albums, recorded f ...

'' studio set with a live counterpart, and have focused our efforts on the band's primary live albums as well as some key tracks from archival concert releases."

Critical reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, Timothy Monger said, "Created as a counterpart to their 2015 two-disc Best of the Grateful Dead studio collection, ''The Best of the Grateful Dead Live'' includes highlights culled from the band's commercially released concert albums on the Warner Bros. and Arista labels as well as a handful of live selections from their own personal archives." In ''

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

'', Doug Collette wrote, "''The Best of the Grateful Dead Live'' doesn't purport to be comprehensive, but it does offer the novice virtually all the necessary touch-points by which to become more intimately acquainted with the unit's entire body of work (the exception, omitted no doubt by time constraints: any example of Ron "Pigpen" McKernan's extended stage spotlights)."

Track listing

Personnel

Grateful Dead *

Jerry Garcia Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician best known for being the principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence ...

– guitar, vocals *

Bob Weir Robert Hall Weir ( ; né Parber, born October 16, 1947) is an American musician and songwriter best known as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the group disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead ...

– guitar, vocals *

Phil Lesh Philip Chapman Lesh (born March 15, 1940) is an American musician and a founding member of the Grateful Dead, with whom he played bass guitar throughout their 30-year career. After the band's disbanding in 1995, Lesh continued the tradition of ...

– bass, vocals *

Bill Kreutzmann William Kreutzmann Jr. ( ; born May 7, 1946) is an American drummer and founding member of the rock band Grateful Dead. He played with the band for its entire thirty-year career, usually alongside fellow drummer Mickey Hart, and has continued ...

– drums, percussion *

Mickey Hart Mickey Hart (born Michael Steven Hartman, September 11, 1943) is an American percussionist. He is best known as one of the two drummers of the rock band Grateful Dead. He was a member of the Grateful Dead from September 1967 until February 19 ...

– drums, percussion on "St. Stephen", "The Music Never Stopped", "Estimated Prophet", "Friend of the Devil", "Feel Like a Stranger", "Fire on the Mountain", "Bird Song", "Ripple", "Eyes of the World", "Touch of Grey", "Blow Away", "So Many Roads" *

Ron "Pigpen" McKernan Ronald Charles McKernan (September 8, 1945 – March 8, 1973), known as Pigpen, was an American musician. He was a founding member of the San Francisco band the Grateful Dead and played in the group from 1965 to 1972. McKernan grew up he ...

– organ, harmonica, percussion, vocals on "St. Stephen", "Bertha", "Wharf Rat", "Sugar Magnolia", "Jack Straw", "Truckin'", "Morning Dew", "Brown-Eyed Women" *

Tom Constanten Tom Constanten (born March 19, 1944) is an American keyboardist, best known for playing with Grateful Dead from 1968 to 1970, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Biography Early career Born in Long Branch, N ...

– keyboards on "St. Stephen" *

Keith Godchaux Keith Richard Godchaux (July 19, 1948 – July 23, 1980) was a pianist best known for his tenure in the rock group the Grateful Dead from 1971 to 1979. Biography Godchaux was born in Seattle, Washington, and grew up in Concord, California ...

– keyboards on "Sugar Magnolia", "Jack Straw", "Truckin'", "Morning Dew", "Brown-Eyed Women", "The Music Never Stopped", "Estimated Prophet" *

Donna Jean Godchaux Donna Jean Thatcher Godchaux-MacKay (born August 22, 1947) is an American singer who was a member of the Grateful Dead from 1972 until 1979. Biography Donna Jean Thatcher was born in Florence, Alabama. Prior to 1970, she had worked as a ses ...

– vocals on "Sugar Magnolia", "Jack Straw", "Truckin'", "Morning Dew", "Brown-Eyed Women", "The Music Never Stopped", "Estimated Prophet" *

Brent Mydland Brent Mydland (October 21, 1952 – July 26, 1990) was an American keyboardist and singer. He was a member of the rock band The Grateful Dead from 1979 to 1990, a longer tenure than any other keyboardist in the band. Growing up in Concord, ...

– keyboards, vocals on "Friend of the Devil", "Feel Like a Stranger", "Fire on the Mountain", "Bird Song", "Ripple", "Eyes of the World", "Touch of Grey", "Blow Away" *

Vince Welnick Vincent Leo Welnick (February 21, 1951 – June 2, 2006) was an American keyboardist-singer-songwriter best known for playing with the band The Tubes during the 1970s and 1980s and with the Grateful Dead in the 1990s. He was inducted into ...

– keyboards, vocals on "So Many Roads" Additional musicians *

Merl Saunders Merl Saunders (February 14, 1934 – October 24, 2008) was an American multi-genre musician who played piano and keyboards, favoring the Hammond B-3 console organ. Biography Born in San Mateo, California, United States, Saunders attended Polyte ...

– organ on "Bertha", "Wharf Rat" *

Branford Marsalis Branford Marsalis (born August 26, 1960) is an American saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed inst ...

– saxophone on "Eyes of the World"

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Best of the Grateful Dead Live, The 2018 greatest hits albums 2018 live albums Grateful Dead compilation albums Grateful Dead live albums Rhino Entertainment compilation albums Rhino Entertainment live albums