I’ve been taking a break now, but I’ll get back into it. Brief opinions

The Grateful Dead (1967) - fun ’60s rock album. The organ reminds me of The Animals. I’ve always liked this one, and it’s aged well, since the songs sound good and alot different from the live versions. I’m sure that everyone hears many live renditions of most of these songs first, so it’s novel to hear these.

Anthem of the Sun (1968)- I know that this is when they really become The Grateful Dead, but they got better later, and I always thought this was underwhelming and more dated than most of their releases.

Aoxomoxoa (1969)-Uneven, but more “real” songs. Weird to hear those backup vocals on China Cat Sunflower.

Live/Dead (1969)- Wow, hadn’t heard this in a long time and it’s still amazing. This is where the band really starts for me (at least in terms of these original albums). This Darkstar might really be their greatest track, even after hearing who knows how many other versions.

Workingman’s Dead (1970) & American Beauty (1970) - fantastic folkrock psuedo-double album. I used to think Workingman’s Dead was not on the same level as AB, but now I’m not hearing what was missing for me before.

Grateful Dead (Skullfuck/Skull & Roses) (1971) - I didn’t own a physical copy of this one and am not as familiar with it as I am the other really big albums. It’s good, but now that all the new songs they debuted here aren’t as big a deal, it doesn’t stand out that much. The Ladies and Gentleman, The Grateful Dead boxset is taken from these concerts and that was one of my first Dead purchases (thanks George, unironically) and is a better document of this era. This verion of Playing In the Band doesn’t have the trademark jam, which makes it seem like a demo.

Garcia - It could have been one of the better Dead studio albums, but Jerry wanted to buy a house, so he made an album where he played everything but drums and got all the money but the drum money. I’m not doing all of the live albums, but this one has a bunch of songs they played live all the time. Side one is four very good-to-great songs. Side two is boring until it ends with The Wheel.

Ace - A Bob Weir solo album, but the entire band plays on it, so it’s barely a real solo album. These songs are mostly good but mostly not great, and all but one became live staples. This has Playing In the Band on it, with the best jam on any of their studio albums, making the version on Skullfuck even more useless.

Europe ‘72 (1972)-It’s doctored with overdubs, but it’s probably still the best intro to the band.

History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear’s Choice) (1973)-Mostly Pigpen, this is good if you treat it as a weird rarities release. It doesn’t make much sense out of its historical context.

Wake of the Flood (1973)-I remember liking this, but now it’s boring. These songs would be better live. Here it’s too tame and slick.

From the Mars Hotel (1974) - Wow, this has some embarassing songs on it. Boring is one thing, but who expected AOR sleeze like “Money Money”? Unbroken Chain is a promising song that they apparently never played live until the dismal final months of Jerry’s life. This has Scarlet Begonias on it, but so do alot of live albums that don’t suck. I’m not sure I’ve heard this album more than once before.

Blues for Allah (1975)- mercifully, I still like this one. Cool jazzy album that doesn’t seem like a waste of time even after hearing the live versions.

Steal Your Face (1976)-I thought I’d probably heard this before, but clearly I haven’t. It deserves the hate it gets. The version I listened to is supposed to sound better than the original release??? It’s live. The sound quality is terrible, and the track listing has no jamming and doesn’t feel at all like a real setlist. Nobody needs to hear this ever again.