Reckoning [Live]

Grateful Dead | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 27, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: Arista
• ASIN: B000002VF3
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,409 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Dire Wolf

2. The Race Is On

3. It Must Have Been the Roses

4. Dark Hollow

5. China Doll

6. Been All Around This World

7. Monkey and the Engineer

8. Jack-A-Roe

9. Deep Elem Blues

10. Cassidy

11. To Lay Me Down

12. Rosa Lee McFall

13. On the Road Again

14. Bird Song

15. Ripple

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A TRUE DESERT ISLAND DISK, August 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Reckoning (Audio CD)

Reckoning is absolutely beautiful. Disks of this caliber are rare in any genre. It is truly a joy to listen to and full of wonderful performances. Take it to that hypothetical 'deserted island' with your other 9 favorites.

Every year my family reunites in a mountain cabin. I have an 85 year-old grandmother, a 10 year-old second cousin, and an aunt who plays cello in a symphony orchestra (to name a few of them). Despite the wildly-differing musical tastes, Reckoning has become a cabin favorite. It has such a great sound and a wonderful accompanying vibe. Even the people who purport that they "can't stand the Grateful Dead" have to say "...except for that album."

I have probably bought about 8 or 10 copies of Reckoning over the years. It makes a great gift and an excellent addition to anyone's CD collection.

I have been a big fan of the Dead for a long time; I have almost every album and a big library of show tapes. But Reckoning is the absolute best work of the Grateful Dead, in my opinion. Every song is a sensitive, perfect work of joy. I defy any Deadhead to find a more beautiful "Bird Song" or "Cassidy". Shoot, I'm going to put it on when I get home and have a beer on the front porch.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, how did I miss this?, April 9, 2002

By 

John S. Ryan "Scott Ryan" (Cuyahoga Falls, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reckoning (Audio CD)

I mean, it's not as though I used to follow the Grateful Dead around the country with a trunk full of bootleg concert tapes or anything. But I thought I'd heard most of their albums at one time or another, even the ones I didn't own. (And I have a fairly tall stack of them -- for a non-Deadhead, that is. Commercial releases only.)

Somehow I managed to overlook this one, though. Well, no longer; it became one of my favorites the day I received it. And if (like me) you love the late-and-much-missed Jerry Garcia's _Almost Acoustic_ and/or his work with David Grisman, or if _Workingman's Dead_ and _American Beauty_ are your favorite Dead studio albums (as they are mine), you'll probably love this CD as much as I do.

If you've read the other reviews on this page, you already know what it is -- namely, a collection of live acoustic performances recorded during late 1980, culled from the first sets of a series of shows in September and October. (The second sets of these shows were electric material, like the stuff on _Dead Set_.) The lineup consists of the full 1980 band -- Garcia and Bob Weir on acoustic guitar, the always reliable Phil Lesh on bass, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann on deft and gentle percussion, and the late-and-also-much-missed Brent Mydland on piano. All I can add is that the performances are terrific. The Dead were just a helluva band.

And look at that song list! It includes not only some Dead tunes (e.g. "Dire Wolf" and "Ripple," two of my all-time favorites) but also songs from the (comparatively) solo albums released by Garcia (e.g. "Bird Song" from _Garcia_, "It Must Have Been the Roses" from _Reflections) and Weir (e.g. "Cassidy" from _Ace_), interspersed with traditional material (e.g. "Deep Elem Blues," which Garcia also did on _Almost Acoustic_) and cover songs (e.g. the old George Jones number "The Race is On," written by Don Rollins -- which Weir pulls off pretty convincingly, by the way).

This is a great CD and I find myself agreeing with some of the other reviewers that it _may_ be the Dead's finest release. At the very least it's one of their best live albums, and a fine collection of acoustic music to boot.

One more thing: I'm told that there's a track missing from the CD; the original two-LP set also included "Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie." Since I didn't have the original album I don't miss it, but I thought some of you might like to know. (Hey, maybe someday the Dead will release a CD consisting of all the songs cut from the CD versions of their vinyl releases. That may be the only way some of us ever get to hear "My Brother Esau" again.)

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great acoustic dead, February 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Reckoning (Audio CD)

This is one of those albums that i have in my cd collection that is like a warm blanket on a cold day. I put it on and i get all warm and fuzzy inside. I just have to close my eyes and listen to the harmony on dark hollow or the intricate guitar on jack- a -roe, wonderful stuff i tell ya. for anyone even remotely interested in the dead i recommend this album, reminiscent of those gem shows from the fillmore east in '70 the acoustic music of the grateful dead is outstanding folk,blues,bluegrass,rock fusion of members of the greatest band ever, the dead cannot even be divided into seperate individuals or instruments, the dead are one instrument--and how sweet it sounds----this album is a must have!