BUCKET LIST UPDATE No. 184: Listen to the Grateful Dead’s “Live/Dead” from start to finish

Original 'Live/Dead' album cover. 

About a year after I graduated from high school, Jerry Garcia, the lead guitarist and singer for the Grateful Dead, died from a heart attack in a California rehab clinic. At the time, there seemed to a renewed interest in the Grateful Dead’s music, and while, like everyone else, I’d heard of the Grateful Dead, I couldn’t honestly say that I’d ever listened to any of their music. In fact, I couldn’t even name a single one of their albums.

A couple of years ago, I read about a group of Grateful Dead fans called the “Deadheads.” This group of dedicated fans followed the band around from concert to concert, and some of these fans kept it up for years. With that in mind, I promised myself to investigate the music of the Grateful Dead more closely, and added their album “Live/Dead” to my “bucket list” last year.

I picked “Live/Dead” because it was the most highly ranked Grateful Dead album on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” Released in November 2003, this list ranked “Live/Dead” at No. 247. Other Grateful Dead albums on Rolling Stone’s list included “American Beauty” (No. 261), “Workingman’s Dead” (No. 264) and “Anthem of the Sun” (No. 288).

“Live/Dead” was released on Nov. 10, 1969 and was recorded over a series of live concerts between Jan. 26 and March 2, 1969. The album is a little over an hour and 15 minutes long and includes seven songs. Songs on the album are “Dark Star,” “St. Stephen,” “The Eleven,” “Turn On Your Love Light,” “Death Don’t Have No Mercy,” “Feedback” and “And We Bid You Goodnight.”

If you’ve never listened to this album before, be forewarned. It’s somewhat unusual. The first song, “Dark Star,” is the longest song on the album and is a little over 23 minutes long. Other long songs on the album are “Death Don’t Have No Mercy” (10 minutes and 28 seconds) and “Turn On Your Love Light” (15 minutes and five seconds). On the other end of the spectrum, you have “And We Bid You Goodnight,” which is only 35 seconds long.

Also, while listening to the album from start to finish on Sunday afternoon, I tried to follow along on a Web site that showed all the lyrics to the songs above. This proved pointless because much of the album is improvised and the lyrics didn’t match up. Also, at least one of the songs (“Feedback”) doesn’t have any lyrics at all and some of the long songs included long stretches of music with no vocals at all.

As it turns out, by my count, “Live/Dead” was one of 22 albums produced by the Grateful Dead. The complete discography (and year that they were released) includes:

- “The Grateful Dead” (1967)

- “Anthem of the Sun” (1968)

- “Aoxomoxoa” (1969)

- “Live/Dead” (1969)

- “Workingman's Dead” (1970)

- “American Beauty” (1970)

- “Grateful Dead (Skull & Roses)” (1971)

- “Europe '72” (1972)

- “History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear's Choice)” (1973)

- “Wake of the Flood” (1973)

- “From the Mars Hotel” (1974)

- “Blues for Allah” (1975)

- “Steal Your Face” (1976)

- “Terrapin Station” (1977)

- “Shakedown Street” (1978)

- “Go to Heaven” (1980)

- “Reckoning” (1981)

- “Dead Set” (1981)

- “In the Dark” (1987)

- “Dylan & the Dead” (1989)

- “Built to Last” (1989)

- “Without a Net” (1990)

In the end, how many of you like the Grateful Dead? What’s your favorite Grateful Dead album? Let us know in the comments section below.