Grateful Dead

In no order...originals only...

Dark Star
Caution
Born Cross Eyed
Cryptical
St Stephen
The Eleven
Here Comes Sunshine
Weather Report Suite
Loser
Candyman
Morning Dew
Wharf Rat
Stella Blue
New Potato Caboose
Candyman
Shakedown Street
Scarlet Begonias
Help/Slip
King Solomon’s Marbles
Victim
Blues for Allah
Mountains of Moon
What’s become of the Baby
Attics of My Life

Ok, that’s stream of consciousness, so only 10...

Dark Star
King Solomon’s Marbles
Help/Slip
Here Comes Sunshine
Weather Report Suite
Wharf Rat
St Stephen
The Eleven
Loser
Cryptical Envelopment
BONUS: 73-73 Eyes

Since you left out Rider, you can't have the jam in between! And, what's a live version without the jam in between! :-P

-edit- oops, I was reading older posts first LOL Sorry, Daverock just saw your message about the jams...

I didn't leave out Rider in my second list of favourite music.

Ha - no problem!

...this is a whole lot harder than I thought LOL I Chosen these top ten songs from the Grateful Dead complete musical songs and live performances! 🙏❤️💀🌹

The Dead played covers so unfaithful to the original versions, they absolutely became their own.

Top Ten:

The Same Thing
Brown-Eyed Women
Death Don't Have No Mercy
Loser
Me And My Uncle
You Win Again
Mr. Charlie
Jack A Roe
Big River
Don't Ease Me In

It's pretty hard to have a top ten. When I first went over songs, I started with 40.

INPO

Jack Straw
Scarlet>Fire (Scarlet if I can only have one)
Help>Slip>Franklins (Franklins if I can only have one)
Wharf Rat
The Other One
Dark Star
St. Stephen
The Eleven
Here Comes Sunshine
Mountains of the Moon

Rubin and Cherise would be on the list, but it really is a JGB song.

Top 5 covers

Morning Dew
Peggy-O
She Belongs to Me
Visions of Johanna
Rubin and Cherise (That way I am covered)

....Cumberland
Caution
The Eleven
Still pondering. (I'm sneaking in an extra)

....happy wife, happy life.
With everyone disagreeing these days, can we all just agree that Dark Star, PITB, Truckin' and The Other One are givens?? Serious question. Look deep in your Grateful Dead lovin' soul, and you know its true.

Dark Star
St. Stephen
The Eleven
Playin' in the Band
Eyes of the World
Ripple
Two Souls in Communion
Sugaree
Help on the Way > Slipknot > Franklin's Tower
Althea

Really all of the rest of them too...Honestly it would have been easier to pick my least favorite songs but I am not sure I would have 10.

Help>Slip>Franklin
Brown-Eyed Women
Sugaree
Scarlet>Fire
Jack Straw
He's Gone
Bertha
The Other One
Dark Star
Wharf Rat
Loser

Wave to the wind
Easy answers
I fought the law
Samba in the rain

Ok enough snark

I can paste the link into my comment box, but when I press save to send it to the forum it doesn't cross over.

I have not made comments here for a while. Just wonder if there are other folks in Europe that still has not got their Dave´s 34 delivered? On April 30 I got an upbeat "Good news! Your order is on the way!" Since then 47 days have passed and no sign whatsoever of my order with bonus dics. I hope other people have been more lucky.

Bjornindia….I get the impression a lot have now been delivered-I got mine here in England about a week ago. Hopefully yours will arrive in the next day or so-but if not it might be as well to contact Marye

Dark Star of course
The Wheel
Stagger Lee
Althea
Bertha
Estimated-Eyes (but mostly 73/74 Eyes)
Throwing Stones
Scarlet-Fire
Help-Sliplnot-Franklin's Tower
Truckin-The Other One
China-Rider

So many more!

Impossible!!

Like others, I am including covers and medleys.

Morning Dew
Eyes of the World
Dark Star
TOO
PITB
China>Rider
Help/Slipknot!/Franklins
To Lay Me Down
Comes a Time
All the Dylan Covers (Desolation Row floats to the top)
All the other Garcia Ballads

I left so many off!!! Impossible.

Edit: Adding Scarlet>Fire. Something up there must have to get bumped..
Correction: Replace TOO with all songs on Anthem of the Sun, and somehow add in Viola Lee Blues.
Edit#2: Adding in all songs from WMD and AB, and Brown Eyed Woman + Jack Straw. These songs are true classics and should be granted a waiver from counting towards a top 10 list.

This is one of those impossible riddles that's impossible to solve.

I'm still waiting too
G.

...this exercise/Game makes my brain twitch! Lol ha ha!
Top 11 Dead Songs-

1. "That's It for the Other One"
2. Cryptical Envelopment
II. Quadlibet
The Faster We Go, the Rounder We Get
3. New Potato Caboose"
4. "Born Cross-Eyed"
5. " Alligator"
"Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks)
6. St. Stephen"
7. Dupree's Diamond Blues"
8. "Doin' That Rag" 4:41
9"Mountains of the Moon"
"10. China Cat Sunflower
11. "Cosmic Charlie
& if I’m allowed, 3more...
*#12Morning Dew
*#13Cream Puff War"
*#14"Viola Lee Blues"
...I’m melting., melting
M
E
L
T
I
N
G
Y

Have a grateful day everyone, take care my brothers and sisters! 🙏❤️💀🌹🤠pigpen RIP Fat Man RIP😔

I can't believe no one included this in their top ten. A perfect song, and I don't think I've heard Garcia give it an uninspired performance.

Great song! The music was written by Jerry Garcia and John Dawson of NRPS and the lyrics are by Robert Hunter!
The final song arrangement performed in the studio is quite different than the original composition if I remember correctly.

The most played Grateful Dead song around campfires across the United States for going on 50 years.
-BAR/NONE-

I need to add to this. The most played song of ANY song played around campfires in the United States for going on 50 years , period.

I concure with strider88 , good Ol campfire music, much like the two albums ‘American beauty’and ‘working mans dead‘ both scream out Americana!
Primo good Ol’Grateful Dead sing along songs!

I think we have to assume all the songs from American Beauty and Working Mans Dead were grandfathered in, add in the never released on Studio LP songs from E72.

Yes, how could we forget FOTD? Perhaps because it's one of those rare songs were the studio version is the classic, best version and it never really climbed as high live (my opinion).

Brown Eyed Woman, Jack Straw, Attics, Brokedown Palace, Cumberland Blues.. goodness, what a treasure chest.

"You can borrow from the devil or you can borrow from a friend, the devil give you twenty, when your friend got only ten".

Need I say, ….as well to count.

Really ANY song on SOME night can be a exploding head moment. What might serve the community better is a definitive list of EVERY song and what is the BEST version of that song. I'm sure as a family we can come to together and create one list we all agree on, right? Lets say for instance, "The GREATEST Looks Like Rain, EVER, is from 1983-04-16". I think that is a statement we all can get behind. Next, Day Job, I KNOW I saw one, somewhere, wow! Probably still picking pieces of my skull off the ceiling!.

So what's funnier, 10 favorites or BOAT list? :-)

The more recent comments got me wondering: are we listing the best songs, as they exist in their pure construction, or are we listing the songs that we enjoyed most in a live setting? Friend of the Devil, as mentioned, is a perfect song, but perhaps was not always the best song at a concert. On the other hand, The Eleven might be the epitome of a Grate concert song, but would likely not have been that interesting on an album.

Top Five Concert Songs:
The Eleven
China-->Rider
Eyes
Scarlet-->Fire
The Other One

(Plus Let It Grow as a sixth. Whoops!)

This started as simply “your 10 favorite original GD songs“ (I think?)...but of course any time you ask a bunch of bolos and bozos to complete a task your gonna get more than you bargained for! Lol 😉

EDIT: I don’t know Dennis, that 10/10/82 LL Rain is a real dazzler! And what are you thinking....we can’t even put a favorite song list together and there’s only a few hundred of those, how the hell are we going to chose a best version lists from the THOUSANDS of versions....there’s always one folks! LOL

70's: probably from 78 imo, 5-14 or 7-5? Jerry loved to rip the solo in 78.
80's and beyond: 10-3-87

Best version that I have heard so far, the version from Dead Set. Jerry and Brent kill it on this version.

Love the way this song changed in 1976, with the extended versions.

....Shakedown Street. Added to
Brokedown Palace
The Eleven
Cumberland Blues
Caution
That's five. I'm getting there. Reminder. I'm not including Dark Star, PITB, Truckin' or TOO. Those are no brainers IMO.

...this Lazy Summer Home....

Sixtus

Relix Magazine 1978

Which are your favorite songs, the ones you are proudest of?

I like Ripple a whole lot and It Must have Been The Roses, Cumberland Blues, Dupree, Ramble on Rose is a particular favorite - there's something funny about that song.

Friend Of The Devil "I thought that was the closest we've come to what may be a classic song."

- Robert Hunter

I've said this before, the best Looks Like Rain is Frost Amphitheatre, October 10, 1982. Bob's speech and then his and Jerry's outro is simply perfect. "They say into each life a little rain must fall. In my life, it's coming' down like a big brick wall".

I'll have to tune that one in again later. Thanks!

P.S. Nice work Sixtus if that's your gate :-) What does the plaque say?

Personally, I can only complete this 10 favorites list in the following manner:
Studio-not in order
Truckin’
Uncle John’s Band
Casey Jones
Friend Of The Devil
Terrapin Station
Estimated Prophet
Ripple
St. Stephen
Brokedown Palace
Crazy Fingers

Live-kind of in order
Dark Star
Viola Lee Blues
Turn On Your Lovelight
Caution
Cold Rain & Snow
Wharf Rat
Morning Dew
Here Comes Sunshine
Bird Song
Blues For Allah-yeah, I know, but all 3 versions are SPECTACULAR!!

So now, it’s time for y’all to rip me a new one!!
And don’t forget......Music is the Best!!

First.. great conversation, I need to look back to the origin.

Second, I love that none of us (a couple exceptions, bless their souls) can follow the rules. Bend them perhaps... I get a kick out of that, and in a benevolent way.

Back to your regularly scheduled St. Stephen>The Eleven.

Edit: Includes the William Tell Bridge.

....make that three.

1. Eyes 2. pitb 3. Tennessee jed 4. TIFTOO 5. Bird song 6. Dark star 7. LIG 8. St.stephen 9. Cosmic Charlie 10. Morning dew P.S.- not in order and may change due to state of mind. Bonus- Mr.charlie.

It seems fidelity might be lost, unfortunately...
...it reads, upon close inspection:

'The Lazy Gate'

Surrounded by Familiar, Happy Icons of Grateful Lore.
Covered among rampant roses, pink.

The current and existing entrance into the Gardens of Sixtus; this being our first exposure to the joys of nature it being our inaugural summer here; we truly have no idea What will pop, and When. Each jaunt among the gardens delivers newly found joys of nature's bounty and immense offerings - coupled with opportunities for reflection.

Be well, All!

Sixtus

P.S.
The Eleven:
Eyes; H>S>F (is that one or three? (I'm calling One)); Estimated; TMNS; Crazy Fingers; Bird Song; Dark Star; Peggy 'O; Terrapin; Scarlet>Fire; Wharf Rat

And peggy-o, Estimated and Help/slip/frank. Wow, this is not easy.

Love their take on that tune..

From some google searches, I think that song might have originated in the 1500's (could be wrong, would love some fact checking).

A personal favorite.

I have never met a Peggy-O I would not Marry-O.

So I've read the usual suspects:
-Long Strange Trip
-So Many Roads
-Deal-Kreutzman
-Cornell 77
-Searching for the Sound-Lesh (my vote for the better of the five)

Next, I think I'd like to read the "Bear" "Steve Parish" or "Bill Graham" bios...anybody read them? Any suggestions for some interesting Dead related/or loosely Dead related books you've enjoyed?

I have read them all.

Phils book was quite good.. McNalleys and Blairs were equally good. Long Strange Trip was perhaps the hardest read, but rewarding.

Parishes, although perhaps the most entertaining, had it's drawbacks.

I like them all. I did not read the dis't book that came out in 2015. I have no interest in gossip, but history is fun.

Of the unread, the Bear book is certainly the most fun. Rosie McGee wrote a book that was fun too, as did I think one of Bears GF's, but that might be the Bear Book you speak of.. great fun.

Also, highly recommended are the two Orange Sunshine The Brotherhood of Eternal Love books (yes there are two). Great reads.

Edit: The two Owsley Books are (I think)
Bear: The Life and Times of Augustus Owsley and
Owsley and Me: My LSD Family: Stanley, Rhoney Gissen

Really both must reads. Great books.

Check yours...

& always, time distorts

-Sixtus

I've read every goddamn rock biography I've been able to get my hands on. The Dead ones you've mentioned are all good. I'm currently 2/3 way through the Ted Templeman autobio. Just before that was John Entwistle's first - ! - though boring and slowly written, the man was hands down the best bass player I ever saw.

I am highly intelligent and an extremely fast, voracious reader with a photographic memory. On the surface, a statement like that may come across as egotistical, fantastical, or just arrogant, but in reality it's just true.

So like scenes in real life, I can vicariously place myself into the situations of the protagonists, rock heroes in these books I devour. Having done all the drugs and had all the sex and endured slight flirtations with the law, I have soaked into my being all of these shared experiences, of our collective bad ass conscicenceness. I am he as you are we and we are all together... that was from memory, either mine or someone else's, did I get it right?

Lennon, porn, insanity, drugs. The one your mother warned you about.

Ever been thinking a thought and wanted to spit it out before someone else said it first? Felt like you fed it to them when they did? Yes, of course. Ever been tripping and had the same shared feeling wash through the room, invisible though tangible, with everyone making eye contact and laughing and locking in, together, though for an indeterminately brief and instantly lost period of time?

We're all as connected as those groves of Aspen trees they call the world's largest living organism. Or whatever the fuck. When you glance at the clock, how often is it 12:21 or 3:03 or 2:22?

Just words. Be well and carry on.

\m/

PM back at you. I'm going to get workingman's dead now before I forget.

The first one I read was by Hank Harrison, and my edition was called simply "The Grateful Dead." First published in 1973. Apparently Harrison was the bands manager for about 5 minutes around 1966. But there is very little mention of him in any books apart from his own-which are actually more about him than the band. He wrote a follow up, and a third was promised, although I don't think that ever materialised. As the first two were shameless exercises in self promotion, this might not have been a bad thing.

My favourite was "The Music Never Stopped" by Blair Jackson, that came out about 1983. It opened with a great review of them playing Ventura, and the appendix had a review of tapes. This was the first time I had ever read about tapes, and I used to read his review of them and wonder how on earth you got hold of them. Little did I know what was just round the corner..

I haven't read many of The Dead books that have come out over the last 10 years. Rosie McGhees is one that interests me. A really good book that refers to the Dead throughout, "Heads -A biography of psychedelic America" by Jesse Jarnow.

"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool". Shakespeare-"As You Like It".

"The Jefferson Airplane and the San Francisco Sound" by Ralph J. Gleason (Ballantine Books, 1969)

Subtitled "The story of The Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Fillmore Auditorium, Bill Graham, The Family Dog and the coming of age of rock 'n roll in San Francisco"

That covers pretty much everything one could wish for. Of course the venerable Mr. Gleason was there right in the thick of it so he knows as much, if not more than anyone. It also contains 16 pages of photos and a 22 page interview with Jerry Garcia, the guru and a pretty comprehensive 10 page list of San Francisco bands.

This has been out of print for decades and is probably incredibly hard to find now, unless it has either been reprinted or published in digital form. Well worth seeking out.

https://www.dead.net/features/blog/literary-underground-grateful-dead-r…

There are used copies out there but they are not cheap.

Yes, the Ralph Gleason book on San Francisco bands is another good one. I have just remembered the Garcia one-"A Sign Post To New Space," which I thought was excellent-although I seem to remember reading that Garcia himself was subsequently embarrassed by it.