Grateful Dead - The Very Best Of Grateful Dead (2003)

Even though the two-disc WHAT A LONG STRANGE TRIP IT'S BEEN may have more fully anthologized the Grateful Dead's fruitful Warner years, no previous anthology has ever summarized the band's entire career, on through the slim-pickin's mid-1970s to their celebratory late-'80s comeback. In this respect, THE VERY BEST OF… can be called a nearly definitive collection. Still, this is an entry point for the casual passerby, so the psychedelic largesse of the Dead's late-'60s albums is entirely eschewed in favor of the shorter, more concise songs of their folk-rock period ("Uncle John's Band," "Friend of the Devil," etc.). Consequently, this becomes a tribute not to the improvisational warrior Dead but to the creatively songful Dead, even as we hear them age gracefully into the older, wiser "Touch of Gray," which brought them a whole new generation of admirers.

Song Title
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, The (To Unlimited Devotion)
13. One More Saturday Night - (live, 1972)
14. Fire On The Mountain
15. Music Never Stopped, The
16. Hell In A Bucket
17. Ripple

Grateful Dead: Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (vocals, acoustic guitar, keyboards, organ, congas, percussion); Jerry Garcia (vocals, guitar, pedal steel, piano); Phil Lesh (vocals, guitar, piano, bass); Bob Weir (vocals, guitar); Brent Mydland (vocals, keyboards); Donna Godchaux (vocals); Tom Constanten (piano, keyboards); Bill Kreutzmann (drums, percussion).

Producers include: Grateful Dead, Dave Hassinger, Bob Matthews, Betty Cantor, Keith Olsen.
Complition producers: James Austin, David Lemieux.
Recorded between 1967 & 1987. Includes liner notes by James Austin.