Where Should I Start With The Grateful Dead?

[Banquo]

You'll need hygeine products...



And a uniform...



And don't forget to give the cops a reason to pull you over...

[rapidfirerob]

I like all their albums through American Beauty. Europe 72 bores me, even though Pigpen is on it. With Pigpen they were a psychedelic rock band, after that, boring. There are some exceptions. Dead Heads will disagree. Unbroken Chain is a good song.

[Digital_Man]

I always wanted to get into the Dead more but something about them always pissed me off. To be honest it's more about the fans and the deadhead culture. Most GD fans don't own any albums they just have bootleg recordings and are the stereotypical hippie tie dyed crowd and do lots of drugs(not all but about 90 percent it seems). That always bugged the shit out of me and I've never really been able to get over it. LOL. That said, I do enjoy American Beauty. I also used to have the In the Dark album on cd but don't remember much about it.

[hippypants]

Most GD fans don't own any albums--ridiculous generalization. Most of the fans I've met including close friends or just fans in general, are fanatics, but hold regular jobs, and even the ones born in that era, respect them for what they are/were innovators of a certain style of music from the Frisco area.

[Frumious B]

Not an expert, but I'd say dip your toes in with Workingman's Dead and American Beauty and then try something live. I really like Dick's Picks 3 myself.