Grateful Dead: The Music May Never Stop

The keepers of the Grateful Dead vault, overseen by chief archivist David Lemieux, must have been hard pressed to adequately commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the iconic band's formation. After all, the recognition of the half-century milestone a decade ago found the curators homing right in on the most distinctive aspects of the group's thirty-year history with 30 Trips Around the Sun (Rhino, 2015).

In a reflection of the psychedelic warriors' own often inscrutable sense of logic, Lemieux and company adopt a somewhat more arcane point of reference for the sixty-year mark. Sixty CDs comprise Enjoying The Ride, while its three-disc companion piece, The Music Never Stopped, features at least one song from each of the twenty concert venues represented in the larger compendium.

So, the continuity is there, albeit slightly under the surface. And the same might be said for Gratest Hits, a nine-song collection issued subsequent to the aforementioned expansive title. Selectively (arbitrarily?) spanning six studio albums, it does not purport to the comprehensive reach of its own predecessor The Best of the Grateful Dead (Rhino, 2015). It is instead focused on those recordings most familiar to the wider audience demographic that grew exponentially in the wake of 1987's mainstream hit "Touch Of Grey."

Delineating such niceties of these titles is a roundabout way of stating each is a gem of greater or lesser value. And, like all jewels fine or not, the different facets of each are revealing in their own respective ways.

Grateful Dead
The Music Never Stopped
Rhino
2025

Two memorable selections out of a total twenty-seven is not a high ratio, but in the case of "Attics Of My Life" and "Days Between," the inclusions here are significant. Over the course of the near four-hours of music on three CDs, there are stirring moments throughout, if only at times at long stretches.

Waxing and waning as did the quality of the Grateful Dead's live performances over the years, the effort culled from the larger box does stand as a primer on the iconic band's work, both for those just discovering it and for inveterate followers refreshing their memories.

And it is not just the quality of the performances on full display here, it is the nature of the sound recordings by various and sundry engineers—including Betty Cantor Jackson and Dan Healy—as well as the differences in the tone and tenor of original material over the course of fifty-years.

Those two aforementioned rarities are also indicative of how the group could stretch itself in altogether surprising ways. The former. "Attics Of My Life," is one of the most emotive and evocative sets of lyrics the late Robert Hunter ever composed with his long-time songwriting partner guitarist Jerry Garcia and included as the harmony-laden closing for the exquisite American Beauty (Warner Bros., 1970) album, it is the pristine pinnacle of the Dead's singing together.

The voices are a bit shaky in this 1994 rendition, but it is a nonetheless valiant effort put forth to the audience in one of the group's most loyal repositories of support—Boston Garden: the earnest air is unmistakable. Virtually all the same is true of its companion piece "Days Between." One of the last co-authorings of Garcia and Hunter, it was never captured in a studio version acceptable to the group despite its inclusion in concerts more than once in later years.

The wistful words become fulsome as Garcia sings them in his most vulnerable tone and his guitar playing matches the gentle fragility of the sentiment. The near eleven-minute take of "Wharf Rat," from Madison Square Garden in 1987, ups the ante on those virtues. Toward the end, the titular lead of the group sounds like he is fervently singing his own story, not character August West's, while his guitar playing is the essence of catharsis.

Precious little else on this compendium is quite that memorable.Yet those instances that qualify remind not only how varied the Dead's song canon became over the years, but how imaginatively they could mix it up on stage: the segue of "Scarlet Begonias" and "Fire On The Mountain" became one of their most regular intervals, but this particular pairing finds "Touch Of Grey" inserted between them, three years before the song became the Dead's sole mainstream hit.

The group originally known as 'The Warlocks' were not at all averse to bringing back curios from early days such as Howlin' Wolf's "Smokestack Lightning." No doubt (rightfully) reasoning such exhumations from the past were testament to the durability of the song, in this case the choice is homage to its leader's original interpretation in a live setting; Ron 'Pigpen" McKernan was never really forgotten after his passing, though the Grateful Dead became a far different and less earthy ensemble in his wake.

As produced for release by chief archivist David Lemieux, The Music Never Stopped does not recreate the pacing of exemplary Dead live except on its first disc. There the rendition of "Hard To Handle" finds the latter vocalist and multi-instrumentalist in vintage form, just before almost twenty minutes of "Playing In The Band;" would that this pared down version of the milestone release contained the details of who recorded the individual cuts rather than the occasionally precious observations of writer Jesse Jarnow that populate most of the enclosed sixteen-page booklet.

Missing as well within this triple-fold slim-line package is a literal and thus practically informative explanation of the concept and source of this collection. Such pertinent information can only add to the edification of its owners, whether fans or dilettantes, and its omission undermines its status as a standalone title along with the Gratest Hits.

Grateful Dead
Gratest Hits
Rhino
2025

A 'Best of' is a natural choice for release in the milestone year of any artist because that is when publicity and word of mouth is more likely to bring attention to such anthologies. The play on words in the Grateful Dead name for this title may also represent a sly comment on the mercenary nature of the release, but the cynical aspect lessens through credits for David Glasser's mastering as well as the production of the compilation by David Lemieux (noted inside the gatefold design of Steve Vance for Helen Kennedy/Zazzcorp's wildly imagistic all around artwork).

But unlike Gratest Hits' earlier counterpart, the availability of the set on vinyl (as a limited edition item with the value-add of the superb cover art in lithograph form) also mitigates the purely commercial quotient. As does the viability of the release as the means to an end of various demographics (re) familiarizing themselves with the contents of the studio albums.

To be sure, the Grateful Dead had their difficulties in the recording studio both early and late in their career (just as, documented on the larger set, they played live in some shambolic manner during those same periods). But Workingman's Dead represents the essence of simplicity, just as the band intended.

Its potential attraction diminished by only including "Casey Jones," thereby forsaking "Uncle John's Band" (as well as or the unsung topical tune "New Speedway Boogie"). Perhaps the tough choices are grounded in formulating the running time on an LP for optimum audio quality (actual duration is 41.17).

In contrast, it is hard to argue the selective choices from that 1970 album's successor American Beauty (Warner Bros., 1970): "Friend of the Devil," "Box Of Rain," Sugar Magnolia," "Truckin.'" Yet that same discriminating approach well-serves the purpose of this collection in terms of culls from subsequent efforts From The Mars Hotel (Grateful Dead Records, 1974), Shakedown Street (Arista, 1978), Terrapin Station (Arista, 1977) and In The Dark (Arista, 1987).

Tallying "Scarlet Begonias," "Fire On The Mountain," "Estimate Prophet" and "Touch Of Grey," there's minimal overlap with its more expansive concert corollary. And while this array merely scratches the surface of the Grateful Dead's canon, the release of The Music Never Stopped renders further exploration both efficient and economical.

Tracks and Personnel

The Music Never Stopped

CD 1: The Music Never Stopped; Althea; Playing in the Band; Hard to Handle; Wharf Rat; Doin' That Rag; My Brother Esau; Deal. CD 2: Scarlet Begonias;Touch of Grey; Fire on the Mountain; Lazy Lightning>Supplication; Attics of My Life; Estimated Prophet; Eyes of the World; Brown-Eyed Women. CD 3: Truckin'> Smokestack Lightnin'; Big Boy Pete; Bird Song; Let It Grow; Black Muddy River; Days Between; Not Fade Away>Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad>Not Fade Away.

Personnel: Jerry Garcia: lead guitar, vocals; Bob Weir: rhythm guitar vocals; Ron McKernan: vocals, harmonica, percussion, organ; Keith Godchaux: keyboards; Brent Mydland: keyboards; vocals; Bruce Hornsby: piano, accordion, vocals; Tom Constanten: keyboards; Vince Welnick: keyboards, vocals; Phil Lesh: bass, vocals; Bill Kreutzmann: drums; Mickey Hart: drums.

Gratest Hits

Tracks: Casey Jones; Friend of the Devil; Box of Rain; Sugar Magnolia; Truckin'; Scarlet Begonias; Fire on the Mountain; Estimated Prophet; Touch of Grey.

Personnel:Jerry Garcia: lead guitar, vocals; Bob Weir: rhythm guitar vocals; Ron McKernan: vocals, harmonica, percussion, organ; Keith Godchaux: keyboards; Brent Mydland: keyboards; vocals; Phil Lesh: bass, vocals; Bill Kreutzmann: drums; Mickey Hart: drums.

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