Customer Reviews

The Golden Road (1965 - 1973)

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a perfect box set, doing what all good box sets should. It is comprehensive (Over 100 pages worth of essay and liner notes. It has excellent sound (recieving the digital remastering treatment). And it has plenty of unreleased material. (Over 7 hours, stretching each disc to 80 minutes in length) You can't go wrong with a 12 cd box set covering the golden era in Dead history.

Birth of the Dead: The Studio Sides- A disc of the Dead's earliest sessions in their entirety. This captures the Dead as a very loose garage band. Shows much influence from the music of early electric Bob Dylan and other folk rock acts of the day. 5 Stars

Birth of the Dead: The Live Sides- Some early material. Relatively typical of an early Dead concert as they explore folk, blues, and rock and spice it up with their own charisma. Though not as engaging as more legendary Dead performances still good. 4 stars.

The Grateful Dead- The first official album. Could have been good, but the Dead seemed to be rushing it and unlike Birth of the Dead couldn't loosen up to the studio. Does contain classic versions of Cream Puff War, Sitting on Top of the World, Morning Dew, and Viola Lee Blues. On live performances the Dead let loose, and are raw and rocking. Album: 4 stars Bonus Tracks: 5 stars

Anthem of the Sun- The second album, containing studio and live tracks merged together to make for a very experimental and interesting album. The Dead are looser and more psychadelic, most notably on their always essential That's It For the Other One jam and the bluesy Caution. Excellent live medley of alligator and caution in the bonus set. Some of the Dead's most psychadelically experimental rock. Album: 5 stars Bonus: 5 stars

Aoxomoxoa- Step backward. Less experimental and a more pop sound. Does contain classic cuts St. stephen and China Cat Sunflower. Another excelent live jam set in the bonis tracks. Not as exciting as Anthem but still a good listen. Album 4 stars Bonus 5 stars

Live/Dead- The Dead's first full length live album is certainly one of the best psychadelic albums ever. Grabs you and doesn't let you go. All time classic jams such as Dark Star and The Eleven make this an all time Dead essential. 5 stars

Workingman's Dead- The first great studio album. After their first two studio albums (Anthem doesn't count) the Dead to come back to simple Americana music. Workingman's dead is mostly lighthearted folk and country, containing such classics as Uncle John's Band, Cumberland Blues, and Casey Jones. While most rock fans will want to ignore, fans of roots music will certainly enjoy it, and it is without a doubt the Dead's best studio album Bonus tracks are not as engaging. Album; 5 stars Bonus: 4 stars.

American Beauty- Much of the same. Catchy, lighthearted, and shows the Dead's maturity as musicians in full bloom. Mellow classics such as Sugar Magnolia, Box of Rain, Ripple, and Truckin' make this one of the Dead's greatest. While not as good as Workingman's Dead it is definetely great relaxation music. Bonus set is average and rather boring. Album: 5 stars Bonus 3 1/2 stars

Grateful Dead- The one originally to be Skull F***. With this live effort the Dead proved they could still be an awesome psychadelic rock band, pumping out a riveting The Other One and the all time greatest Dead song Playing with the Band, not to mention the classic ballad Wharf Rat and the classic medley Not Fade Away/Going Down the Road Feeling Bad. Impressive live outing. Fine bonus set. Album: 5 stars Bonus: 4 stars

Europe '72: The all time greatest Dead album. Two live discs of essential Dead, churning, folk and country rock favorites along with one of their greatest live jams (Truckin', Epilogue, Prelude, Morning Dew). '72 captures them performing at their loosest and most charismatic on stage. Not just for all Deadheads, but for everyone who loves good music as well. Excellent bonus set along the same guidelines. Album: 5 stars Bonus: 5 stars

History of the Grateful Dead (Bear's Choice): An album used to end contract with Warner Bros. Fine album that captures the Dead unplugged and playing the blues very impressively. Many impressive moments from Pigpen, who died before this album was released. A fine live album with a fine bonus set. Album: 5 stars Bonus: 5 stars

So if you have some cash to spend then might I consider the most comprehensive Grateful Dead set in the world. Even if you already have these albums you shall not regret it, I guarantee!

This was a big investment for me. One of those things I buy without telling my wife because I feel slightly guilty (I should have spent the money fixing the water pump ...). That's the first thing you'll consider before buying this, of course, the price tag. In the end I took the plunge. I have all the Dead stuff on vinyl, but hadn't listened to them in a long while. I never considered myself a Deadhead. I'm suspicious of all the Deadhead marketing push, the merchandising, and I didn't revere Jerry Garcia. His decline left me cold. Something about accepting responsibility for your own choices. But anyway. This box.
First off, the packaging is just gorgeous. And that matters. Nothing skimpy here, no compromises. A heavyweight foil-stamped box with a lithographed metal panel. Beautiful. Individual albums in stiff card digipacks with proper booklets. A substantial book packed with great pictures and written without the eulogising that earmarks the dyed-in-the-hemp Deadhead. Nice dry humor. There's even ribbons glued into the box to help you lift out the heavy stacks of CDs. All this stuff matters. If you buy a box set, you're paying for the packaging - the CDs themselves cost about as much as postage stamps to produce.
Then there's the music. Yahey. What a surprise I got. The sound is stunning. To think all this sonic information was always there, but hidden by the medium. All the criticism of the Dead as being [poor] in the studio is revealed as a myth. Not only could these guys play, they could write too. The singing ... I was always the first to admit they're not a vocal band. Their lack of a great vocalist was extraordinary. Maybe they thought it was too showbizzy or something to draft in somebody who could carry a tune. Bob Weir's blue-eyed soul grunts. Jerry's wheezy and cracked straining for the note. This is something that a lot of people who would otherwise enjoy the band are simply never going to get over. And that, as they say, is their loss. I can't say I'd ever listen to a Dead album for the vocals, but they don't bother me. They're part of the texture. And the music is stunning, in its variety (jugband blues to acid rock, lovely country tunes to barrelhouse rock and roll to spaced-out jazz-inflected jams), in its virtuosity (they played off each other like no band before or since), and now, at last, in its sound.
Revelations: plenty. What a fantastic and under-rated album Aoxomoxoa is. The depth of sound on American Beauty. The treasure trove of bonus tracks (not a bummer amongst them).
This box reawaked my appreciation of a great band. It does them justice. It's cheap at the price, and I don't care that the water pump still leaks.
It's that good.

Okay, if you are into the Dead, you know that the music on these CDs is up to par. Well, it's better than you thought. You will most likely hear things on the remastered studio tracks that you never heard off of CD or vinyl before. The bonus material is of equal quality with the previously released studio/live music. And it is both massive and broad. If you are not into the Dead, but you have even a slight interest, this is the thing to get.

The presentation is where this box set excels. Each digipak has the original front and back album artwork (varying between 100% to 85% size so that it fits nicely). Eveything down to the Mouse Studios logo on American Beauty and Workingman's Dead is included. The liner notes are extensive and sometimes enlightening. But overall the set just has a nice, classy, almost literary look and feel to it.

As far as value, this is the nicest box set I have seen. A heavy dose of original art (including many concert poster images) and writing along with twelve 70+ minute, superbly remastered CDs priced at less than [$$$] each makes this a rare value in today's music merchandising. If you are a Deadhead this set is a must-have--even if you already own most of these albums. If you are thinking about buying a pre-1974 Grateful Dead CD, save some more money and get this instead. Its value stretches far beyond the price.

Being keeper of "The Vaults" must be one of the greatest and yet one of the most difficult jobs I can imagine. After the wealth of releases under "Dick's Picks" (#23 has just been released) you can't imagine that there could be anything good left. Surprise! Not only do the Warner Brothers albums sound incredible, but the additonal unreleased tracks that fill each disk are simply amazing.
For example, listen to the clarity of That's It For The Other One on Anthem of the Sun. The LP sounded rather garbled and mushy, on this you can hear 12-string guitar that I had never heard before. The clap track on New Speedway Boogie. The crystalline harmonies on American Beauty and Workingman's Dead. Listen to the previosly unreleased two minutes added on to the beginning of Dark Star on Live/Dead. Beautiful interplay between Jerry, Bob and Phil.
Listening to all of the WB disks is like rediscovering the music all over again. Listen with headphones.
There are two disks of unreleased material (one live and one studio) of the Warlocks days. The studio material is interesting, but the live material is at times breathtaking, considering it was recorded in 1966.
Each gatefold CD has an essay by former associates of the Dead and by various journalists. A lot of insight into the recording process Bear and a detailed track listing with info. on dates, etc.
All in all this is an excellent package. One that I will treasure and pass down to my kids.

I am new to the Grateful Dead. Prior to this year, I only heard "Truckin'" and a few songs like that on the radio and I thought, "Ugh. Spacey music for Sixties drop-outs and wannabes."

But the more I got into "jam bands" like Phish, Umphrey's McGee, Particle, moe., and others, the more the roads led back to the Grateful Dead.

So two months ago I bought The Golden Road and started to listen with an open mind. I wanted to know what I'd been missing, if anything.

Holy crap! I missed a lot!

I was immediately hooked by The Golden Road -- especially by the live CDs in this set. Like all jam bands, the Grateful Dead excelled on stage. The studio albums are okay, but bands like the Grateful Dead were able to demonstrate their chops on stage.

Rhino did a fantastic job with these CDs! I heard one of the original CDs and compared it to a remastered version and was floored by the difference. Rhino's remastering is exquisite. Phil's bass lines are now right there where they belong. And the vocals are crisp and clean.

It's obvious Rhino approached this material with reverence, for the sound is just one of the outstanding elements of this package. Everything here is first rate. The box is first rate. The big ol' booklet that comes with The Golden Road is first rate, loaded with pictures and information. (I poured over it for hours and hours, enjoying every word and photo.) Even the price for allof this was reasonable.

My favorite CDs in this set are Live/Dead (one of the greatest live recordings of all time!), American Beauty, Anthem of the Sun and Workingman's Dead.

I know seasoned Dead-heads will see my review as being shallow, lacking in critical thinking or knowledge of the finer points of this or that performance. But all I can say is that I approached this box set as a music lover first and foremost. I approached it with an open mind. And now my mind is made up: the Grateful Dead were an extraordinary band that (I think) too often suffered under its own fame. They became caricatures of themselves. And that's why people like me misunderstood who and what the band really was. I didn't take them seriously.

The Golden Road strips away the larger-than-life persona they assumed and allows those of us who are late to the game hear what they had to offer the world.

I wholeheartedly recommend The Golden Road to anyone who loves good music. Forget what you think you know about Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead and just sit back to listen to these CDs. They'll tell you everything you need to know.

I noticed that nobody has mentioned the hidden tracks at the end of the CDs.
On ANTHEM there is a remix of 'Born Cross-Eyed'
On LIVE/DEAD you get the studio version of 'Dark Star' plus a promo.
On AMERICAN BEAUTY there is a remix of 'Ripple'
On EUROPE '72 there is an in between song joke told by Pigpen.

Enjoy.

This box set is manna from Rhino heaven if you're just now getting seriously into the Dead; you're obsessed to the point of wanting total immersion NOW; and you're able to scrounge up the not-inconsiderable amount of change for a pleasure like this. If you're a longtime fan, and already own most these albums, I could see being peeved that the (remastered with bonus tracks) CDs are not being sold individually. The bonus track of Pigpen singing "The Stranger (Two Souls in Communion)" on "Europe '72" is one of the best things I've ever heard.

The packaging is gorgeous, if a little careless in a few aspects. (In my copy, the little booklets and plastic CD trays tend to be crookedly glued onto the cardboard digipaks; and it's weird to see the splotches of glue beneath the clear trays themselves.) The main booklet is nice, with well-written, authoritative text; and the individual CD booklets have good supplemental info on each album. (It's a little bush-league, though, how the photos in the CD booklets seem to be mostly repeats from the big one. Minor quibbles.)

All in all, this is a fantastic box set, and having it around is a real treat. If you're just getting into the Dead, also highly recommended are "Two From the Vault" (one of my favorite live Dead albums, with playing that, in my opinion, shreds the versions of the same songs on "Live/Dead") and the three studio albums between Warner and Arista ("Wake of the Flood," "Mars Hotel," and "Blues for Allah"). The "Arista Years" collection is a good sampler of the later material. After that, you'll be primed to delve into the many Dick's Picks and the treasures that await therein...

10 of the 12 CDs here exceed 79 minutes in length! Each digipak contains a 15-page booklet with notes and pictures that are specific to that album. The 16th page is glued to the inside cover of the digipak. Two of the digipaks are trifolds for 2CD sets, so there are 10 digipaks total. They are seated in two stacks with ribbons to facilitate removal from the box. The 80-page (not 75 as stated in the Amazon review) booklet rests on top. The dimensions are 11.5 x 6.5 x 2.5" deep. Overall, a class-act presentation. What about the music? Well, I'm a newbie so I'll leave that to the others. In any case, if you're looking to get a Grateful Dead collection in one fell swoop, I say go for it and pick this up.

This is a fantastic boxset, even for the casual Grateful Dead fan. But, it is not worth buying if you already own most of the original CD's or if you have the LP's and still own a working turntable.

This boxset is a very good deal if you need most of the Grateful Dead's Warner Brothers CD's. You can get the essential Grateful Dead albums cheaper than buying them individually, plus you get a ton of bonus material. But, each of these remastered albums is available individually. So, if you only need a few of the CD's, it is better to buy them individually.

This boxset comes with a ton of bonuses, but I don't think that they make this boxset worth buying on their own. There is a 2 disc CD called Birth of the Dead. It is an interesting historical artifact, but you would probably only play it once, especially when you have all these other great CD's that come with the boxset.

Rhino has added bonus material to every CD so that every second of the 80 minute length of the CD is used up. Some of this bonus material is great, and some isn't. On Aoxomoxoa, the bonus material is actually better than the original CD. On American Beauty, most of the bonus material is junk and detracts from the CD. There are some interesting bits, like the original radio commercials for the albums. Then there are stupid things, like Bob Wier telling a really bad joke. In some cases, it is like all bonus material didn't quite fit, and it just gets chopped. What I like best is that there is always a 10 second pause between the end of the original album and the start of the bonus material.


Rhino Records has done a wonderful job with the reworking of these CD's. The sound has been remastered and recorded in HDCD. (HDCD is a enhanced format. You need an CD player with that feature to get all the benefits, but it is supposed to provide better sound on standard CD players, also). But, the original CD's had pretty good sound also. So, I am not sure I can notice the improvement.

All the albums have new cardboard cases with fold out booklets and extensive liner notes. (There is also a booklet included in the boxset).

This is the Box Set that all future Box Sets need to be measured against. Rhino have gone above and beyond the call of duty with this set. In one word: Incredible!
The book is awesome with tons of tidbits about the Grateful Dead. Each digipack CD is a gorgeous reproduction of the original releases. The digital re-mastering brings out every intonation of the Dead's music. The music has never sounded sooooo good! A must have for every Grateful Dead fan and for anyone who just likes music that is packaged together in a glorious Box Set. Record companies, please look at what Rhino has done, and try to do things similar. Although, I doubt anyone will be able to beat this one!