Live Dead (Remastered)

For me, the very best part of this version of Live/Dead is the ability to hear it complete, one long continuous piece of transcendent music, without the fade ins and outs that denoted the album side breaks (I.e. between Star and Stephen). What a difference it makes! Do yourself a favor: put on a pair of your favorite, most comfortable headphones, lay down in a nice, quiet, solitary cosy spot, close your eyes, and press play. It's a journey, it really is; and don't be surprised if, when it's over and you open your eyes again, everything seems a little different than before - like when you've spent a week away from home and return. Way back when I was just a kid, this is the experience that taught me that there was so much more to music than could ever be written, rehearsed, planned out in advance and then reproduced - either on stage or in a studio. Music that lives. Even though it's certainly true that not every song the Dead played were of that nature, the ones that were were what made them what they truly were, that unlocked the potential for something that could live and breathe, be familiar and yet fully unique, for something that could rise above notes and beats and just be, and be beautiful. This album demonstrates exactly why there was no one else like the Dead for exploring that Place.

So much so, that if you covered the bottom 2/3 of the back of the album, the word " A C I D" appeared. More than some of their later works, this album captures the essence of the Dead; long, creative jams and a commitment to the Haight region of The City. Highly recommended; it's part of the soundtrack of the real 60's, not the pop culture that was promoted in later years.

I never followed the Dead when I was young. I would hear "Truckin'" on the radio (which I enjoyed), but I was never curious enough about them to buy an album. I recently picked up "Skeletons from the Closet" on CD, and I was intrigued by the edited version of "Love Light," so I finally took the plunge and bought "Live/Dead." I was pleased to find out that you don't need to be high to enjoy the music; "Dark Star" is an amazingly inventive bit of period jamming, and the rest of this set does a great job of showing why the Dead were such a dynamic live act. In fact, the only thing that keeps me from giving this album five stars is the quality of the recording, which borders on "bootleg" by modern standards. Definitely a sweet slice of the sixties!

bought the single song from this album for $1.25 but was dissapointed by the the poor sound quality and how the song just CUTS OFF at the end that some computer decides is over. I'm a big Dead fan but this is NG folks.

The album has 7 songs 3 are not on iTunes. That's four songs for 9.99. I'll just by the songs separately for 4.0o.

All I can say is that I had this on cassette, and played it so many times, the tape just wore out. That's it, plain and simple.

in my opinion this is the best grateful dead album with Dark Star Lovelight and St.Stephen

The term Jazz Rock was twenty years in the future and not even on their worst acid trip would they allow themselves to sink to such a dark place as that genre. . Jazz Rock was NEVER the rage in 1969. I was there for the record, get it straight.

The DarkStar on Live Dead is a major statement,if your a real deadhead you know this,normally I don't write theses reviews because I know whats good and whats crappy,but every once in a while I feel the need to enlighten newbies or new deadheads to whats really hot,in our culture,be it shakedown street were we vendor out t-shirts or via cyberspace ,this is the c/d of the ages ,check out the live Dick's picks years 1968-74 76 has some very good stuff and a different unset setlist,1977 is good but I feel like alot of older heads its overrated!! 1978/79 can be sloppy 80-82 great years 1983-4 hit and miss years 1985 had some good playing,1986 Jerry was recovering some really inspired shows,1987 some very good shows and the scene was getting really big alot of tour kids and the scene was getting some rifraf 1988 a very spacey year and in my humble oppinion 1989 the last fully solid year,1990 was a good year,but when Brent O.D.Jerry got depressed along with how poorly built to last did in sales,he started doing drugs again and slowly things got worst 1991-1993 some goood stuff but some hit and miss 1994 there were some good shows some sloppy playing as well and saddly "1995"there may be some gems one here some there but I hate to say it it was really a year of jerry withering away nodding on his guitar looking in pain,but then Jerry having said that would suprise us with some glimmer and spourts of energy and great color and boom a pretty song out of no were,then saddly the scene turned ugly and not everything but gate crashing,violence,so there we were the origional deadheads pretty much keeping to our own tribe and it was sad but this is a music review so there you good see deadbase,befriend some deadhead on the road were not all bad be well Larry

This recording was transformative for me in 1969, as so many other commenters testify. After a while I began to notice how sloppy and careless much of the album is ("two drummers and still no sense of rhythm," as one notable musician put it), and I became embarrassed about having been such a deadhead. Still Dark Star remained in memory—burned into my soul, it seems; even the truly awful lyrics. Several years ago I replaced my old vinyl with the CD and began to listen to it again. The album's sloppiness is more painful than ever, but in Dark Star it all comes together--and drifts apart--in a pulsation that seems biological, biology on acid. It is the one early Dead song in which each member improves the mix, even shines, and the synergy is often as amazing as I first found it. The drummers even manage to stay out of the way. Within a few years the band started to become professional, and this searing spark was just a memory, and a recording.