Excellent live grateful dead - especially disc 3
I haven't met a person yet - Deadhead or not - who has listened to this collection of shows from the Fillmore East in 1971 and hasn't loved it!! Even those friends of mine who generally do not call themselves fans have always been impressed with the energy of Disc 3 of this collection. This is my favorite collection of live shows from the Grateful Dead and I would urge anyone who digs live Grateful Dead to pick it up!

Everything's great, but what I liked best:
Disc 1: Bertha and Bird Song are amazing; two of my favorite tunes and both are played excellently.
Disc 2: Ripple is sweet and relaxed, and as a tribute to Janis (as she passed away the year before), the band does a great rendition of Me and Bobby McGee.
Disc 3: If any single disc stands out of the collection, it's this one: from beginning to end it is phenomenal. It opens with the best China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider that I've ever heard. The second half of the disc is amazing: Dark Star > St. Stephen > Not Fade Away > Goin Down The Road Feeling Bad > Not Fade Away. After a long, awesome Dark Star, St. Stephen lights everything back up again, and you can just feel the energy of the band AND the audience.
Disc 4: A beautiful Morning Dew; fun Alligator; nice Cold Rain & Snow; plus the closing, We Bid You Goodnight, which is beautiful.

The above are just my personal favorite highlights... Everyone has their own favorites, and there's a lot here so you're bound to love something, if not everything, about this collection. It is a must have, in my opinion.

Let it Shine.........
This is a must have for Dead fans and I am also a huge fan of the streamlined 71 version of the Dead more than any other. Sure, Europe 72 has always been a keeper in my book and 100 Year Hall is even better than 72, but this is raw, focused, inspirational and the playing is phenomenal. The band rocks as a unit in the same manner than the Exile-era Stones did in the summer of 72, but even better. The highlight for me is the version of Turn on your Love Light on Side 3. It tops all others and Pigpen is on fire. Around 16 minutes into the song there is a special part where the band brings it down to an almost stop, leaving only Pigpen and the organ... As Pigpen leads the band back in to the song, it's like being in church. The reaction from the Fillmore crowd is something special. You can FEEL IT.... There are very few live albums with the exception of AAB at the Fillmore East that really has this type of effect on me. I made the mistake of lending Ladies and Gentlemen to another musician friend and never got the thing back. Now I understand why.

the best
i am not embarrassed to say i am one of grateful dead's biggest and long time fans. all things considered, this may be their best album. it shows the group as they really were; beyond belief, and a complete mess , sometimes in the same song. the 'beyond' parts make the experience more than worth the sloppiness and there are some chill inducing beyondo highs here. you dead lovers know what i mean. this is the album i always thought [hoped] they would release, but i believe they got cold feat, and scrubbed them up best they could. but we all knew better. for instance, when the dead would start a song that was special [i know; very subjective] like st stephen, the crowd would go nuts on that first note, but on other albums, what do you know, no crowd! not here, though. if you have been there, you'll get back that good old feeling. when the drum intro for alligator starts, and the crowd cries out in sheer joy, well, you get that experience of what it was like to be there in the audience. by the way, it is a great version , but they hit the wrong chords on the first change. now how can that be great? well, the rest hits the highs. if you had been there, let's just say you were able to forgive mistakes because you knew what was coming. there are great versions of st. stephen, casey jones, with bill graham acting up, bird song, cumberland blues, china cat/know your rider, a really exciting hard to handle, wharf rat, and dark star. i was actually at these concerts [ i think i missed one night, or i just can't find the ticket stubb] and i really can't believe that i can now get to be there again. so can you

Hey, who changed this album's name?
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Grateful Dead the cover states, and so the original issue was named. Did it get confused with the George Michael(!) release, or what?

Nevermind, this is an easy release to recommend, even to newbies. Think of the finest Grateful Dead albums, and put this one right beside those.

Yes, there's lots of Pigpen, but this really all about Jerry and Bob and Phil playing one great tune after another in that "bar band Dead" style that included Motown and Merle Haggard and psychedelia, during the era that made deadheads out of all who attended their shows.

Highlights include the St Stephen hints in the Alligator jam in disc four, routinely cited as one of the best jams ever, or the killer Hard to Handle right beside a Merle Haggard cover, or "Second that Emotion" or Bobby Weir's "Me and Bobby McGee" there are so many fine songs on this set. It's got a "Morning Dew" set opener!

This is Europe 72, less polished, with more Pigpen, and a Dark Star, and all concerned earnestly playing and singing and having a good time doing it.

Think of it this way: it's got Tom Constanten on the Dark Star, as good a Pigpen as you can find, and a ton rare tunes found seldom elsewhere, done very well, and Jerry and Bob and Phil playing together as well as they ever did, while right in the middle of the Workingmans and American Beauty era. So, you like those discs? You like Live Dead and the Skeleton Album and Europe '72?

Then "add to cart" and smile, smile, smile!

Classic Dead Collection
This is a great addition to any Dead collection. It has a great variety of classics and quite a few deep cuts. I think it was a great value and have been really enjoying it!