Hard to argue with American Beauty at #1. It is pretty much perfect all the way through. Box Of Rain is one of my favorite songs ever. Broke down Palace and Attics always hit me in the gut, and Sugar Magnolia is one of the first Dead songs besides Truckin’ I ever heard, and I love the hell out of it. I need to get a new copy of Live Dead, though. My vinyl copy, while labeled correctly, is actually the same two sides. I’ve had it forever, one day I’ll get a new one. I haven’t heard Without a Net in a good while, but it got played a lot back in the early/mid nineties. Pretty crucial for me when I was digging in a little deeper. But you probably would have been bummed at the Dead and Co. show I went to last night, as they ended with Casey Jones. But they encored with Ripple. They also played Black Peter. Which was probably the highlight for me. Nothing like hearing Jerry do it, though. Cool list that I mostly agree with. Looking forward to the Zappa tours!
Well 7 months later, I'd like to thank you for making this ranking. Though I knew and enjoyed most of the "popular dead songs", I had tried listening to some famous live shows and it didn't really stick with me. I had heard the studio stuff wasn't worth listening to so I just figured the dead wasn't for me. After this came out, I listened to "American beauty" and was pleasantly surprised at how much I loved it. No jams, just great songs. So I figured I liked one dead album and left it at that. But then, I decided a couple of weeks ago to try "Live/dead" cause it was your number 2. Well by the end of dark star I was hooked, all of a sudden the dead made sense. Now I'm going through the europe 72 shows and loving all of them. You've made a deadhead out of me!
Totally nailed the top 4 brother. I love that you’ve got Without a Net that high, I may even make it 2 and Live Dead 3. Or 2a and 2b. Great list, really enjoyed these videos ✌🏼
Man, I don't have much to add to your comments. These are all great albums in their own right. WORKINGMAN'S DEAD - solid studio versions of all of the songs, but stand out songs to me are New Speedway Boogie and Easy Wind which might make it slightly better than Beauty. WITHOUT A NET is one that I revisit often. Your description is pretty spot on. I have a copy of a complete Branford Marsalis show myself because I love that Eyes. Completely agree that that Saturday Night can go. I believe that is Brent singing ALL of Mr. Fantasy, not Phil, but I may be wrong. My only complaint on that song is that it fades out. I have a version where it goes into Hey Jude and I am not sure if that's what was cut out here. Also, I think this is the version of Looks Like Rain has one of those memories stained into my mind of hanging with some old friends in the 90's. LOVE IT. I have to rank Europe '72 higher though because Walkin Blues, Victim or the Crime (which I despise, but need to try again), and Saturday Night (the version on here is weak), bring the album down. LIVE DEAD - Again, I rank Europe '72 higher, (and Two From the Vault, even though it doesn't count on your list). Two from the Vault to me is FAR superior and similar setlist, so I always grab that first, but I do listen to Live Dead, it just falls further down the list (probably because the Feedback is almost 8 minutes of.........................................feedback). I don't think anyone can argue with AMERICAN BEAUTY being #1. It is just a natural choice for studio and always listened back to back with Workingman's. I think Friend of the Devil is a great song, but it is kind of like Stairway to Heaven or You Shook Me All Night Long in that I don't ever need to hear it again. Always played at the bar whether on the jukebox or by a live acoustic singer. I actually prefer the one on Dead Set (which I know you probably disagree, but the Brent solo is great on that one). Well I said more than I thought. Glad you will be doing some Dick's Picks because you flew through these and I only have the first 12 volumes and #22. Oh - and back to the Zappa once removed. Since Halloween is close....Alice Cooper - Pretties for You?
WITHOUT A NET: I loved this. It was like a return to “form” ~ a kind of redemption, maybe ~ after a baffling studio-release hiatus 1981-1987, a weak Dylan And The Dead, and a relatively insipid Built To Last. In The Dark had been good but I wanted to hear live music by the Dead. I absolutely cherished Without A Net and went to see them less than a month after buying it. I had the vinyl ~ which did justice to the lush sleeve gatefold design and super cover art illustration. I have slight misgivings about the midi guitar sounds/usage of this era and I wish Brent’s piano sound had not been so honky tonky, but these are trivial things compared to the thundering machine the music on this album represents. I have subsequently come to realize that late 1989 and early 1990 was a righteous purple patch. Sometimes, I even think it was the Dead’s last truly ‘great’ era, and the two box sets drawn from Spring 1990 shows are simply marvellous. The - as you say - unremarkable (i.e. merely very good) performance of Walking Blues was released AGAIN when Terrapin Limited came out years later. I love it all but I will give a special mention to China Rider, Bird Song and the Help > Franklin’s suite… oh yes, and a hurtling Let It Grow. When I moved to Indonesia in 1991, I gave this 3xLP to a non-Dead friend who wrote to me a month later and said he wasn’t non-Dead anymore. When I left Britain, I made a weird mistake: the only music I brought with me was Keith Jarrett’s Sun Bear Concerts on several cassettes only to find the music shops in Yogyakarta - and more especially in Sorong (the frontier town where I worked) - absolutely dire in terms of choice. Lo and behold, astoundingly, I walked into a pokey cave-like cassette store on some tourist drag and found a 2 cassette copy of Without A Net on the shelf alongside a load of unbuyable pop dross. How odd! I have it at No.5 out of 22. It probably deserves to be even higher.
I think the single track here that is far superior to every other live version is Feel Like a Stranger. The ending jam reminds me of a composed Genesis jam, a la Abacab. Every note and riff and instrument sounds planned and rehearsed and perfect. I am sure it sounds like that because I have listened to it so many times, but I will take this Stranger over every other.
@@theopinionatedhippie470 I think it was after hearing the superb Feel Like A Stranger and Althea on this album that my ears were opened up to Go To Heaven which I hadn't listened to a lot in the 1980s. On another note, I wonder if they'll ever remaster Without A Net. I went from the Mississippi Half-Step on this release to the one on 1990-03-21 - Hamilton, Canada from one of the two Spring 1990 box sets and the latter has quite noticeably ballsier and louder sound.
I am not a big cover band fan. I try but apart from Dweezil (and his guitar playing!) and Sheila (!!!!!!!!!), I really have zero interest in Zappa cover bands at this point in time. But maybe someday......
@@theopinionatedhippie470 Definitely recommend ed palermo. Much more than a "cover band". An extension of frank's "big note" concept he takes music from all different genres and styles and mashes them together. My favorite arrangements of his are "holiday in berlin/uncle meat/eat that question/ boogie woogie waltz (weather report)", and "Nights in white satin (moody blues)/moggio".
@@theopinionatedhippie470 It's pretty funny. In their animated video, Ben & Jerry (ice cream manufacturers) have Bob Weir and Gerry Garcia cryogenically frozen at their HQ in the desert. They unfreeze them in 2020 so they can release a modern day rap version of Casey Jones for a contemporary audience.
Hard to argue with American Beauty at #1. It is pretty much perfect all the way through. Box Of Rain is one of my favorite songs ever. Broke down Palace and Attics always hit me in the gut, and Sugar Magnolia is one of the first Dead songs besides Truckin’ I ever heard, and I love the hell out of it. I need to get a new copy of Live Dead, though. My vinyl copy, while labeled correctly, is actually the same two sides. I’ve had it forever, one day I’ll get a new one. I haven’t heard Without a Net in a good while, but it got played a lot back in the early/mid nineties. Pretty crucial for me when I was digging in a little deeper. But you probably would have been bummed at the Dead and Co. show I went to last night, as they ended with Casey Jones. But they encored with Ripple. They also played Black Peter. Which was probably the highlight for me. Nothing like hearing Jerry do it, though. Cool list that I mostly agree with. Looking forward to the Zappa tours!
Well 7 months later, I'd like to thank you for making this ranking. Though I knew and enjoyed most of the "popular dead songs", I had tried listening to some famous live shows and it didn't really stick with me. I had heard the studio stuff wasn't worth listening to so I just figured the dead wasn't for me. After this came out, I listened to "American beauty" and was pleasantly surprised at how much I loved it. No jams, just great songs. So I figured I liked one dead album and left it at that. But then, I decided a couple of weeks ago to try "Live/dead" cause it was your number 2. Well by the end of dark star I was hooked, all of a sudden the dead made sense. Now I'm going through the europe 72 shows and loving all of them. You've made a deadhead out of me!
This may be the greatest victory of all!
Totally agree with you man- American beauty is like a greatest hits studio. Their best songs but not their best live songs❤
Totally nailed the top 4 brother. I love that you’ve got Without a Net that high, I may even make it 2 and Live Dead 3. Or 2a and 2b. Great list, really enjoyed these videos ✌🏼
Man, I don't have much to add to your comments. These are all great albums in their own right. WORKINGMAN'S DEAD - solid studio versions of all of the songs, but stand out songs to me are New Speedway Boogie and Easy Wind which might make it slightly better than Beauty. WITHOUT A NET is one that I revisit often. Your description is pretty spot on. I have a copy of a complete Branford Marsalis show myself because I love that Eyes. Completely agree that that Saturday Night can go. I believe that is Brent singing ALL of Mr. Fantasy, not Phil, but I may be wrong. My only complaint on that song is that it fades out. I have a version where it goes into Hey Jude and I am not sure if that's what was cut out here. Also, I think this is the version of Looks Like Rain has one of those memories stained into my mind of hanging with some old friends in the 90's. LOVE IT. I have to rank Europe '72 higher though because Walkin Blues, Victim or the Crime (which I despise, but need to try again), and Saturday Night (the version on here is weak), bring the album down. LIVE DEAD - Again, I rank Europe '72 higher, (and Two From the Vault, even though it doesn't count on your list). Two from the Vault to me is FAR superior and similar setlist, so I always grab that first, but I do listen to Live Dead, it just falls further down the list (probably because the Feedback is almost 8 minutes of.........................................feedback). I don't think anyone can argue with AMERICAN BEAUTY being #1. It is just a natural choice for studio and always listened back to back with Workingman's. I think Friend of the Devil is a great song, but it is kind of like Stairway to Heaven or You Shook Me All Night Long in that I don't ever need to hear it again. Always played at the bar whether on the jukebox or by a live acoustic singer. I actually prefer the one on Dead Set (which I know you probably disagree, but the Brent solo is great on that one). Well I said more than I thought. Glad you will be doing some Dick's Picks because you flew through these and I only have the first 12 volumes and #22. Oh - and back to the Zappa once removed. Since Halloween is close....Alice Cooper - Pretties for You?
WITHOUT A NET: I loved this. It was like a return to “form” ~ a kind of redemption, maybe ~ after a baffling studio-release hiatus 1981-1987, a weak Dylan And The Dead, and a relatively insipid Built To Last. In The Dark had been good but I wanted to hear live music by the Dead. I absolutely cherished Without A Net and went to see them less than a month after buying it. I had the vinyl ~ which did justice to the lush sleeve gatefold design and super cover art illustration. I have slight misgivings about the midi guitar sounds/usage of this era and I wish Brent’s piano sound had not been so honky tonky, but these are trivial things compared to the thundering machine the music on this album represents. I have subsequently come to realize that late 1989 and early 1990 was a righteous purple patch. Sometimes, I even think it was the Dead’s last truly ‘great’ era, and the two box sets drawn from Spring 1990 shows are simply marvellous. The - as you say - unremarkable (i.e. merely very good) performance of Walking Blues was released AGAIN when Terrapin Limited came out years later. I love it all but I will give a special mention to China Rider, Bird Song and the Help > Franklin’s suite… oh yes, and a hurtling Let It Grow. When I moved to Indonesia in 1991, I gave this 3xLP to a non-Dead friend who wrote to me a month later and said he wasn’t non-Dead anymore. When I left Britain, I made a weird mistake: the only music I brought with me was Keith Jarrett’s Sun Bear Concerts on several cassettes only to find the music shops in Yogyakarta - and more especially in Sorong (the frontier town where I worked) - absolutely dire in terms of choice. Lo and behold, astoundingly, I walked into a pokey cave-like cassette store on some tourist drag and found a 2 cassette copy of Without A Net on the shelf alongside a load of unbuyable pop dross. How odd! I have it at No.5 out of 22. It probably deserves to be even higher.
I think the single track here that is far superior to every other live version is Feel Like a Stranger. The ending jam reminds me of a composed Genesis jam, a la Abacab. Every note and riff and instrument sounds planned and rehearsed and perfect. I am sure it sounds like that because I have listened to it so many times, but I will take this Stranger over every other.
@@theopinionatedhippie470 I think it was after hearing the superb Feel Like A Stranger and Althea on this album that my ears were opened up to Go To Heaven which I hadn't listened to a lot in the 1980s. On another note, I wonder if they'll ever remaster Without A Net. I went from the Mississippi Half-Step on this release to the one on 1990-03-21 - Hamilton, Canada from one of the two Spring 1990 box sets and the latter has quite noticeably ballsier and louder sound.
I love these dead reviews will you be doing the posthumous live albums not counting diks picks 🙏 🇬🇧
I am moving on to Zappa Tours next and then, actually, since you mentioned it....Dick’s Picks! 😀
Ever consider Best Zappa by cover groups.
Ed Palermo Aybe Sea. Keneally's lead and Ed's arrangement is one of the best.
I am not a big cover band fan. I try but apart from Dweezil (and his guitar playing!) and Sheila (!!!!!!!!!), I really have zero interest in Zappa cover bands at this point in time. But maybe someday......
@@theopinionatedhippie470 Well as long as you like Sheila that's OK.
@@theopinionatedhippie470 Definitely recommend ed palermo. Much more than a "cover band". An extension of frank's "big note" concept he takes music from all different genres and styles and mashes them together. My favorite arrangements of his are "holiday in berlin/uncle meat/eat that question/ boogie woogie waltz (weather report)", and "Nights in white satin (moody blues)/moggio".
Hey Shaggy, have you seen the Shyboyz version of Casey Jones?
I have not.
@@theopinionatedhippie470 It's pretty funny. In their animated video, Ben & Jerry (ice cream manufacturers) have Bob Weir and Gerry Garcia cryogenically frozen at their HQ in the desert. They unfreeze them in 2020 so they can release a modern day rap version of Casey Jones for a contemporary audience.