Line #1 YMMV/TheGratefulDead


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2	* ArchivePanic: In addition to a strong 13 studio releases, the band has ''hundreds'' of live albums – and '''thousands''' of bootlegs. They are the most thoroughly documented rock band in history.
3	* AudienceAlienatingEra:
4	** Fans generally don’t speak too highly of 1978’s {{disco}}-influenced ''Shakedown Street'', which is a borderline case of FanonDiscontinuity. The previous year’s ''Terrapin Station'', which also had some disco influence, is more warmly regarded, though still considered a flawed effort. Most songs from both albums are much more highly regarded in live performances, and indeed, 1977 in particular is regarded as one of the band’s golden ages in live performance, with several candidates for Best Show Ever appearing that year. This may be at least partially because ''Terrapin Station'' producer Keith Olsen insisted that they rehearse its material repeatedly until they could play it flawlessly; while they understandably chafed at this, since they had a reputation for never performing songs the same way twice, it probably also resulted in their live performances from the era being tighter than usual. 1980’s ''Go to Heaven'' is also sometimes considered part of the band’s studio Dork Age.
5	** ''Dylan & the Dead'' is rarely spoken of by fans of either artist; sometimes it’s even considered the worst release by either of them. Oddly, they’re considered to have had much better performances together than the versions that appear on the album, so it’s not clear why those particular recordings were selected. However, even it still has its defenders.
6	** Despite being in a few fan favorite shows, Keith Godchaux's playing is generally agreed to have declined in quality in the late seventies[[labelnote:*]]Though fans are in disagreement as to when his decline actually started, with the years ranging from 1975 to 1978.[[/labelnote]], so much so that even [[http://www.dead.net/band/keith-godchaux?intcmp=topnav/keith-godchaux the band's official website]] admits as such. By then most of the band, Keith included, had developed nasty drug habits and struggled with juggling the band and their families. In Keith's case, it actively hampered his playing; before the hiatus he played a unique piano style that took influence from dixieland, bebop, and classical music, but by the late 70's, he had slowly but surely shifted to a more conventional "comp the chords" style, occasionally copying Garcia's licks. And on top of that, he and Donna would argue viciously behind the scenes with both each other and the other bandmates. Because of all this, the Godchauxs would leave in February 1979.
7	** Fans usually consider the 1990s to be the worst part of their career. The band, and Garcia in particular, were demoralized and heartbroken by Brent Mydland's death in 1990. Garcia let his health go shortly thereafter, and his guitar playing and on-stage composure suffered. Although the band mostly sounds fine through 1992 (and especially whenever Bruce Hornsby was behind the keyboards), many of the concerts from their last two years (1993-95) usually have pretty bad reputations with Deadheads. By comparison, Music/{{Phish}}, the Dead's heirs apparent on the jam scene, were going through something of a golden age in concert in that same two year stretch. The difference in quality between the shows of the two bands caused more than a few Deadheads to follow the younger band instead, well before Garcia died.
8	* AudienceAlienatingPremise: They are up there with Music/FrankZappa and the Mothers of Invention and Music/LouReed and Music/TheVelvetUnderground as defining unconventional music of the 1960s. Jerry partially lampshaded this with the "licorice" quote.
9	-->''We're like licorice. Not everybody likes licorice, but the people who like licorice really like licorice.''
10	* BaseBreakingCharacter:
11	** Donna Jean Godchaux’s live vocals can be this. Her performances on their studio records from the time period are generally pretty well loved, but some listeners feel she was off-key in some of the live shows (her wails on "Playin' in the Band" are a frequently cited reason). Others defend her by pointing out that the rest of the band members weren't terribly good singers themselves and by claiming that she can sing very well most of the time, but the fans often judge her worst moments as being indicative of her singing as a whole.
12	** Brent Mydland, the Godchauxs' successor in the band, is a different kind of base breaker. While his keyboard parts are generally well-liked, his voice is very polarizing, with some liking his vocal range and harmony contributions, and others feeling his soulful, raspy voice was ill-suited to the band's style.
13	** Paul Buckmaster’s (Music/EltonJohn, amongst others) string arrangements on ''Terrapin Station''. They’re sometimes considered to clash with the songs themselves, and the band members themselves didn’t like them; Garcia in particular complained that the rhythms of his arrangements for the title suite clashed with the song’s rhythm: Buckmaster and producer Keith Olsen "changed it from a dotted shuffle to a marching 4/4 time". The song was never performed in its exact studio configuration live, though the first three movements (with an extended instrumental coda) stayed in rotation until the band’s dissolution. “Terrapin Transit”, “At a Siding” (with no lyrics), and "Terrapin Flyer" were performed once (on March 18, 1977 at Winterland, San Francisco); the final segment, "Refrain", was apparently never performed live.
14	* BrokenBase: As could be expected given the band’s massive discography, there are disagreements about almost every aspect of their output. They rarely get as heated as a lot of other Internet arguments, but almost every release in their canon has its defenders and its detractors, and you’ll also find disagreements about which band members were best in which positions in the band, ''when'' they were at their best, and even which ''songs'' were best ''in which performances''.
15	** The most obvious split is "who was the best keyboardist," with the most common contenders being Pigpen, Keith, and Brent. Pigpen fans praise his personality and charisma, and enjoy the blues touch he brought to the Dead's early sound. Keith fans enjoy his creative playing style (especially pre-hiatus), and credit him with pushing the Dead's jams to interesting new territories and helping the Dead recover from Pigpen's decline. Brent fans hail him as a point of consistent creativity who crafted a unique sound with his innovative Hammond organ playing, and also enjoy his songwriting and singing touches in the discography. Sometimes Bruce Hornsby is added to the list for balancing his already-established solo style with the greater Dead sound. TC and Vince Welnick aren't mentioned as often, but even they have their fans.
16	** The band’s {{disco}}fied single version of Martha Reeves and the Vandellas’ “Dancin’ in the Streets”. Live performances of the song from the same era are still well loved, probably because the jamming that Deadheads love is still present then.
17	* CoveredUp: A lot of listeners probably know songs like “Not Fade Away”, “Mama Tried”, “Morning Dew”, and “Turn On Your Love Light” better from the Grateful Dead’s live cover versions than they know them from the original artists (in these four cases, Music/BuddyHolly, Music/MerleHaggard, Bonnie Dobson, and Bobby Bland, respectively). “Morning Dew”, in a rare case of a song being CoveredUp by two separate artists, was also performed by Music/JeffBeck on ''Truth'' (with Music/RodStewart on vocals!), though it probably doesn’t help the fame of Dobson’s version that she didn’t record a studio version until 1969, by which point Beck and the Dead had both already recorded theirs. Also notable is “Me and My Uncle”, written by John Phillips of Music/TheMamasAndThePapas. Phillips didn’t even remember writing it, as he had been incredibly inebriated at the time; the first commercial recording of the song was by Music/JudyCollins, who had recorded Phillips making it up on the spot and then recorded her own performance. The Dead apparently learned it from Curly Jim Cook. Phillips would later joke that every time a royalty check for the song came in, he would regain a little of his memory of writing it.
18	* EnsembleDarkHorse: Despite not lasting long in the band's tenure, founding member Ron "Pigpen" [=McKernan=] is a fan-favorite member among Deadheads. In spite of his noticeably messy habits, Pigpen was one of the most artistically-driven members of the Grateful Dead, performing many of the band's best songs (especially on ''Workingman's Dead''), and was known as being one of the [[NiceGuy kindest members]] of the band. [[FanNickname Wharf rats]] especially grew to like him, as while he was a chronic alcoholic, Pigpen refused to do drugs like the other members did. His [[WeHardlyKnewYe untimely death in 1973]] saddened many a Deadhead, and gave them more time to look back on Pigpen [[PosthumousPopularityPotential even more fondly than ever]].
19	* EpicRiff: Again, a veritable goldmine of them; indeed, their epic riffs are often the main reasons their songs are ear worms. ("Terrapin Station" alone probably has about five of them.) Not just on guitar, either - bassist Phil Lesh certainly could contribute his share as well (the bass line on "Truckin'" is probably just as much an EpicRiff as the guitar is). And for that matter, some of their drum patterns are pretty much Epic Riffs too - when Hart and Kreutzmann come out of a drum solo to go into "Not Fade Away", you’ll know exactly what song is coming up before any of the other instruments come back in.
20	* FandomVIP: The band's biggest fan (figuratively and most likely literally) is [=NBA=] hall of famer and colour commentator Bill Walton who has been a lifelong Deadhead. He has said he's attended over 800 Dead concerts, stretching back to 1967 when he was still in high school and well before he became a famous basketball player. He also frequently references them during commentary and displays his love for them by often wearing tie dye shirts. He's also an AscendedFanboy as he's actually been a friend of the band for many years.
21	* FriendlyFandoms: Apart some friction in the early 90s, Deadheads have gotten along just fine with the fanbase for Music/{{Phish}}. It's not uncommon to find people who are fans of both bands.
22	* FridgeBrilliance: “Friend of the Devil” was introduced as a fast-paced bluegrass-influenced tune on ''Music/AmericanBeauty''. By the mid-’70s, it was retooled with a much slower reggae arrangement. The first line of the chorus is, “I set out running but I take my time”; the song evolved in the exact same way.
23	* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: “Comes a Time”, a gorgeous Garcia/Hunter ballad that also doubles as a TearJerker.
24	-->Been walkin' all mornin', went walkin' all night\
25	I can't see much difference between the dark and light\
26	And I feel the wind and I taste the rain\
27	Never in my mind to cause so much pain\
28	\
29	Comes a time when the blind man takes your hand\
30	Says, "Don't you see?\
31	Gotta make it somehow on the dreams you still believe\
32	Don't give it up, you got an empty cup\
33	That only love can fill, only love can fill, only love can fill"
34	* HoYay: Arguably, anytime Donna sings along with the male vocalists on a love song, since they're basically all directed towards women.
35	* ItsPopularNowItSucks: The surprise success of “Touch of Grey” was a mixed blessing for the band and longtime Deadheads who were known for their peaceful, mellow hippie attitudes with nothing seriously bad happening at shows to…[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfFG33IROLM Maybe this video will explain it a little better]]. As a result, many longtime fans took out their disgust on the song itself, which was previously a well-liked concert favorite for years before the band recorded it. This has largely subsided since Jerry Garcia died, and the song now has a much better reputation, but it isn't uncommon to find older fans who do not like "Touch of Grey" or the ''In the Dark'' album.
36	* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: The band's harmonies, particularly by the time of ''Music/AmericanBeauty'', frequently qualify as this.
37	* NewbieBoom: "Touch Heads", the fandom name for those who became fans of the band because of the success of "Touch of Grey" in the late '80s. The Touch Heads had a reputation (and not an unearned one) for being a bunch of college frat boys who had heard about the scene outside of Dead shows and the ease of acquiring drugs therein, and were coming to concerts to party, not for the music. This resulted in several ugly or violent incidents outside of the shows that were not at all common before the song became a hit, and were thus blamed on the new fans. That strain of Touch Heads wasn't representative of the whole of the band's new and younger fanbase, but they did make it difficult for some newer fans in the late 1980s and early 1990s to admit that they had fallen in love with the Dead and become Deadheads after first being exposed to them through "Touch of Grey".
38	* NightmareFuel:
39	** "What's Become of the Baby" probably ruined a rather large number of LSD trips back in the day.
40	** "Blues For Allah", especially the second movement "Unusual Occurrences in the Desert." The dissonance continually grows throughout the piece, becoming a chaotic whirlwind (or sandstorm, as the case may be) of dizzying instrumental mayhem.
41	* PosthumousPopularityPotential: When Jerry Garcia passed away, not only was there increased demand for the albums, but also for his line of men’s ties and even Ben & Jerry’s “Cherry Garcia” ice cream, which had existed since the mid-’80s and went from being one of its better selling flavors to the brand’s biggest selling flavor of all time.
42	* TheScrappy: Vince Welnick, the band's last keyboardist often saw himself as this due having to fill [[ToughActToFollow Brent Mydland's]] shoes and his relative lack of improv chops. This worsened after he was excluded from several of the post-Garcia reunion concerts. This may have been his depression manifesting itself.
43	* SignatureSong: By album...
44	** ''The Grateful Dead'': "The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)" or "Morning Dew"
45	** ''Music/AnthemOfTheSun'': "Born Cross-Eyed" or "Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks)"
46	** ''Aoxomoxoa'': "St. Stephen", "Dupree's Diamond Blues", or "What's Become of the Baby"
47	** ''Live/Dead'': "Dark Star", "St. Stephen"[=/=]"The Eleven", or [[CoveredUp "Death Don't Have No Mercy"]]
48	** ''Workingman's Dead'': "Casey Jones"
49	** ''Music/AmericanBeauty'': "Box of Rain", "Sugar Magnolia", "Ripple", or "Truckin'"
50	** ''Skull and Roses'': "Bertha" or "Wharf Rat"
51	** ''Europe '72'': "Cumberland Blues", "One More Saturday Night", [[CoveredUp "You Win Again"]], "Brown-Eyed Woman", "Tennessee Jed", or "Morning Dew"
52	** ''The History of the Grateful Dead: Volume One - Bear's Choice'': [[CoveredUp "Dark Hollow"]], "I've Been All Around This World", or [[CoveredUp "Hard to Handle"]]
53	** ''Wake of the Flood'': "Let Me Sing Your Blues Away", "Here Comes Sunshine", or "Eyes of the World"
54	** ''Grateful Dead from the Mars Hotel'': "U.S. Blues", "Scarlet Begonias", or "Ship of Fools"
55	** ''Blues for Allah'': "Help on the Way"[=/=]"Slipknot!"[=/=]"Franklin's Tower", "The Music Never Stopped", or "Sage & Spirit"
56	** ''Steal Your Face'': "Cold Rain and Snow", [[CoveredUp "El Paso"]], or "Sugaree"
57	** ''Terrapin Station'': "Passenger" or [[EpicRocking "Terrapin Station Medley"]]
58	** ''Shakedown Street'': The title track or "Fire on the Mountain"
59	** ''Go to Heaven'': "Alabama Getaway", "Althea", "Easy to Love You", or "Don't Ease Me In"
60	** ''Reckoning'': "Cassidy" or "Bird Song"
61	** ''Dead Set'': "Deal" or "Loser"
62	** ''In the Dark'': "Touch of Grey"
63	** ''Built to Last'': "Foolish Heart", the title track, or "Standing On the Moon"
64	** ''Without a Net'': "Looks Like Rain" or "Eyes of the World" with Branford Marsalis
65	*** Overall: "Casey Jones", the ''Music/AmericanBeauty'' signatures, and "Touch of Grey" tie for the top spot, sharing the wealth with "Dark Star", "Wharf Rat", "One More Saturday Night", "Dark Hollow", "Scarlet Begonias", "Sugaree", and "Fire on the Mountain".
66	* SugarWiki/SweetDreamsFuel: Some of the band’s folk material probably qualifies – "Attics of My Life", for example.
67	* ValuesDissonance: Such was the group's belief in LSD as an agent of spiritual awakening and change that they and their entourage became known for spiking fans' drinks with it in attempt to get them to see the light. Drugging people without their consent would absolutely ''not'' fly in the present day.

Context YMMV / TheGratefulDead