Grateful Dead Discography
The discography of the rock band the Grateful Dead includes more than 130 albums, the majority of them recorded live in concert. The band has also released more than two dozen singles and a number of videos.
The Grateful Dead formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1965 amid the counterculture of the 1960s. They had many musical influences, and their music evolved to a great degree over time. They made extensive use of improvisation, and are considered one of the originators of jam band music. The founding members were Jerry Garcia on guitar and vocals, Bob Weir on guitar and vocals, Phil Lesh on bass and vocals, Bill Kreutzmann on drums, and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan on organ, harmonica, percussion, and vocals. Pigpen died in 1973, but the other four remained with the band for its entire 30-year history. Second drummer Mickey Hart was also in the band for most of that time. Others who were band members at different times were keyboardists Tom Constanten, Keith Godchaux, Brent Mydland, and Vince Welnick, and vocalist Donna Jean Godchaux.
While they were together, from 1965 to 1995, the Grateful Dead released thirteen studio albums and nine contemporary live albums. The nine live albums were recently recorded and mostly contained previously unreleased original material. They filled the role of traditional studio albums, and were an integral part of the contemporaneous evolution of the band. (The Dead's second album, Anthem of the Sun, was an experimental amalgam of studio and live material.)
In 1991, the band started releasing retrospective live albums, a practice that has continued to the present time. There are several series of these albums. The "traditional" live releases were created by remixing multitrack recordings of concerts. A second series of live albums, from 1993 to 2005, was Dick's Picks, concert recordings selected for their musical excellence but made using stereo recordings that did not allow the different musical parts to be remixed. This was followed by a similar series from 2007 to 2011 called Road Trips, and then, starting in 2012, by Dave's Picks. Another series of albums was released only in the form of digital downloads.
The Grateful Dead's video albums include some albums that were released as both audio CDs and concert DVDs, either separately or together, and some that were released only on video, as well as one theatrical film. The band has also released several compilation albums and box sets.
Read more about Grateful Dead Discography: Studio and Contemporary Live Albums, Compilation Albums, Box Sets, Videos, Singles, Live Albums By Recording Date
Famous quotes containing the words grateful dead, grateful and/or dead:
“What a long strange trip it’s been.”
—Robert Hunter, U.S. rock lyricist. “Truckin’,” on the Grateful Dead album American Beauty (1971)
“The only ones who are really grateful for the war are the wild ducks, such a lot of them in the marshes of the Rhone and so peaceful ... because all the shot-guns have been taken away completely taken away and nobody can shoot with them nobody at all and the wild ducks are very content. They act as of they had never been shot at, never, it is so easy to form old habits again, so very easy.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“Rosencrantz. What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?
Hamlet. Compounded it with dust, whereto ‘tis kin.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)