Where to Begin

tl;dr start with either Europe ‘72 (great example of their live skills) if you want to start with a live recording or American Beauty/Workingman’s Dead if you want to start with studio stuff.

that’s a great question! i could spend several pages on this so i’ll keep it short haha. it is biased towards the 60’s/70’s since that’s the era I’m most familiar with and enjoy most.

Studio albums I recommend:

  • American Beauty (Aug-Sep ‘70) – ⬅️ Start here for studio albums! this and the one below are maybe their two most popular releases and showcase their quintessential Americana country-rock-folk style. “Sugar Magnolia” would become a mainstay of theirs throughout their career.
  • Workingman’s Dead (Feb ‘70)
  • Anthem of the Sun (Sep ‘67-Mar ‘68) – actually a “hybrid” album as it’s an amalgamation of recorded live concerts and studio takes, this showcases their psychedelic rock period and demonstrates their improvisational skills. The suite “That’s It for the Other One” (later shortened to just the middle section as “The Other One”) would become a mainstay of their concerts as a launching point for jams
  • Terrapin Station (Nov ‘76-May ‘77) – more into progressive rock now, a large chunk of this album would become live staples like “Estimated Prophet”, “Dancin’ in the Streets”, “Samson & Delilah”, and “Terrapin Station Part 1”
  • Aoxomoxoa (Sep ‘68-Mar ‘69) – worth listening to for “China Cat Sunflower” which would become a mainstay of their live sets throughout their career
  • Wake of the Flood (Aug ‘73) – snapshot of their jazz-rock era, contains more future set-list staples like “Eyes of the World”, “Stella Blue”, “Row Jimmy”, and “Let It Grow”
  • From the Mars Hotel (Mar-Apr ‘74) – more jazz-rock, “U.S. Blues” and “Scarlet Begonias” are the two from here that would pop up most in future set lists
  • Blues for Allah (Feb-May ‘75) – jazz-rock leaning more progressive, this was recorded in Bob Weir’s home studio. “Help on the Way” > “Slipknot!” > “Franklin’s Tower” would become a feature of many future concerts; “The Music Never Stops” is another standout from the album that would receive a lot of play in ‘76 and ‘77

Live albums I recommend:

  • Live/Dead (recorded Jan-Mar ‘69) – fantastic introduction to the early “primal” dead, opening with “Dark Star”, a famous jumping off point for their psychedelic jams during this period.
  • Skull & Roses (recorded Mar-Apr ‘71)
  • Europe ‘72 (recorded Apr-May ‘72) – ⬅️ Great place to start if you’re want to jump straight to live recordings. one thing you may notice if you listen to this and then the concerts it was assembled from is some parts of songs and vocals may sound different because they were overdubbed in the studio.

If you’re enjoying that or want to jump straight to full shows, here’s some I’d recommend. You can stream all of them via Relisten which is a nice frontend to Archive.org’s Live Music Archive; there’s also iOS and Android apps so you can listen on the go!

  • 2/13/70 - this is the show that hooked me completely, it has one of their greatest performances of “Dark Star”. The third set of this and the following night are available on Dick’s Pick’s Volume 4.
  • 5/2/70 - also known as Dick’s Picks Volume 8. truly a great show from beginning to end, frequently in many fans’ top shows.
  • 4/29/71 - a ripping show from beginning to end, this happens to feature a rare “Alligator” which would actually be the last one they ever play. That kicks off a sequence that segues into “Drums” > “Jam” > “Goin’ Down the Road Feeling Bad” > “Cold Rain and Snow”. The “Drums” section is particularly great and the “Jam” contains teases of “China Cat Sunflower” and “St. Stephen”. Selections from this show are featured on the album Ladies and Gentlemen… The Grateful Dead.
  • All of the Europe ‘72 volumes are great, though frequently cited as favorites are 4/26/72 (Vol. 9) and 5/26/72 (Vol. 22 and the last night of tour). 4/21/72 (Vol. 7) is also interesting because it was recorded for TV and is less than half as long as the other shows. 5/7/72 (Vol. 13) is definitely the most unique show of the run being over four hours long; it’s said the payout was 8x greater than any other on the condition they played a show spanning their history, thus it’s the only show with a “Dark Star” and “The Other One”.
  • 8/27/72 - another legendary show, also known as Sunshine Daydream as that’s the name of the album released and documentary that was filmed
  • 6/22/73 - from their PNW tour ‘73, this is a stellar show from that year showing how they were becoming more and more influenced by jazz and incorporating that into their sound. Selections are available on Pacific Northwest ‘73-‘74: Believe It If You Need It while the full show is part of their Pacific Northwest tour box set (or available to stream on the archive)
  • 6/18/74 - a hometown (for me) show in Louisville, it contains one of their greatest performances of “Eyes of the World”. Great example of the jazzy style the dead was playing in ‘74. The first part of the first set has kind of weird audio but it clears up. This and the show from Iowa a few days prior were released on Road Trips Volume 2 Number 3.
  • 8/13/75 - also known as One from the Vault, it has them playing their recently released album Blues for Allah in its entirety plus eight other songs
  • 5/8/77 - also known as Cornell 5/8/77, considered by some to be one of their greatest shows of all time. It’s a fantastic example of the sound the dead had in ‘77

I’d also recommend the documentary Long Strange Trip, it mainly focuses on Jerry but is still a great look at the band’s early history.

okay already getting long so i’ll finish by linking to a Reddit post explaining the different eras in finer detail along with show recommendations.