The Best of the Grateful Dead Live
Compilation album by Grateful Dead
Released	March 23, 2018
Recorded	1969–1995
Genre	Rock
Label	Rhino
Grateful Dead chronology
Dave's Picks Volume 25 (2018) The Best of the Grateful Dead Live (2018) Fillmore West 1969: February 27th (2018)

The Best of the Grateful Dead Live is a compilation album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. It contains songs that were recorded live in concert and previously released on other Grateful Dead albums. It was released on March 23, 2018.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Production

According to producer David Lemieux, "We wanted to follow up the 2015 The Best of the Grateful Dead studio set with a live counterpart, and have focused our efforts on the band's primary live albums as well as some key tracks from archival concert releases."^[1]

Critical reception

On AllMusic, Timothy Monger said, "Created as a counterpart to their 2015 two-disc Best of the Grateful Dead studio collection, The Best of the Grateful Dead Live includes highlights culled from the band's commercially released concert albums on the Warner Bros. and Arista labels as well as a handful of live selections from their own personal archives."^[6]

In All About Jazz, Doug Collette wrote, "The Best of the Grateful Dead Live doesn't purport to be comprehensive, but it does offer the novice virtually all the necessary touch-points by which to become more intimately acquainted with the unit's entire body of work (the exception, omitted no doubt by time constraints: any example of Ron "Pigpen" McKernan's extended stage spotlights)."^[7]

Track listing

Personnel

Grateful Dead

• Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals
• Bob Weir – guitar, vocals
• Phil Lesh – bass, vocals
• Bill Kreutzmann – drums, percussion
• Mickey Hart – drums, percussion on "St. Stephen", "The Music Never Stopped", "Estimated Prophet", "Friend of the Devil", "Feel Like a Stranger", "Fire on the Mountain", "Bird Song", "Ripple", "Eyes of the World", "Touch of Grey", "Blow Away", "So Many Roads"
• Ron "Pigpen" McKernan – organ, harmonica, percussion, vocals on "St. Stephen", "Bertha", "Wharf Rat", "Sugar Magnolia", "Jack Straw", "Truckin'", "Morning Dew", "Brown-Eyed Women"
• Tom Constanten – keyboards on "St. Stephen"
• Keith Godchaux – keyboards on "Sugar Magnolia", "Jack Straw", "Truckin'", "Morning Dew", "Brown-Eyed Women", "The Music Never Stopped", "Estimated Prophet"
• Donna Jean Godchaux – vocals on "Sugar Magnolia", "Jack Straw", "Truckin'", "Morning Dew", "Brown-Eyed Women", "The Music Never Stopped", "Estimated Prophet"
• Brent Mydland – keyboards, vocals on "Friend of the Devil", "Feel Like a Stranger", "Fire on the Mountain", "Bird Song", "Ripple", "Eyes of the World", "Touch of Grey", "Blow Away"
• Vince Welnick – keyboards, vocals on "So Many Roads"

Additional musicians

• Merl Saunders – organ on "Bertha", "Wharf Rat"
• Branford Marsalis – saxophone on "Eyes of the World"

Charts