Ronald Charles McKernan, known as Pigpen, was an American singer and musician. He was a founding member of the San Francisco band the Grateful Dead and played in the group from 1965 to 1972.
Live/Dead is the first official live album released by the rock band Grateful Dead. Recorded over a series of concerts in early 1969 and released later the same year, it was the first live rock album to use 16-track recording.
Robert Hall Weir is an American musician and songwriter best known as a founding member of the rock band Grateful Dead. After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead. Weir also founded and played in several other bands during and after his career with the Grateful Dead, including Kingfish, the Bob Weir Band, Bobby and the Midnites, Scaring the Children, RatDog, and Furthur, which he co-led with former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh. In 2015, Weir, along with former Grateful Dead members Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, joined with Grammy-winning singer/guitarist John Mayer, bassist Oteil Burbridge, and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti to form the band Dead & Company. The band remains active.
Anthem of the Sun is the second album by rock band the Grateful Dead, released in 1968 on Warner Bros/Seven Arts. It is the first album to feature second drummer Mickey Hart. The band was also joined by Tom Constanten, who contributed avant-garde instrumental and studio techniques influenced by composers John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Aoxomoxoa is a 1969 album by the Grateful Dead. One of the first rock albums to be recorded using 16-track technology, fans and critics alike consider this era to be the band's experimental apex. The title is a meaningless palindrome, usually pronounced.
Grateful Dead is an album by rock band the Grateful Dead. Released on September 24th, 1971 on Warner Bros. Records, it is their second live double album. Although published without a title, it is generally known by the names Skull and Roses and Skull Fuck. It was the group's first album to be certified gold by the RIAA and remained their best seller until surpassed by Skeletons from the Closet.
Europe '72 is a live triple album by the Grateful Dead, released in November 1972. It covers the band's tour of Western Europe in April and May that year, and showcases live favourites, extended improvisations and several new songs including "Jack Straw" and "Brown Eyed Women". The album was the first to include pianist Keith Godchaux and his wife, vocalist Donna Jean Godchaux, and the last to feature founding member Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, who died shortly after its release.
Fillmore West 1969: The Complete Recordings is a limited edition box set, released in November 2005, featuring four complete concerts by the Grateful Dead on 10 CDs. These concerts, performed on four consecutive nights from February 27 through March 2, 1969, were the basis for Live/Dead. Thus, unlike Dick's Picks, Road Trips, Dave's Picks, and certain other of the band's archival series of live album releases, which are simply two-track stereo recordings made from the soundboard during the concert, the shows in the box set were all recorded on a 16-track multitrack recorder and were mixed down to stereo just prior to the box set's 2005 release.
"Dark Star" is a song released as a single by the Grateful Dead on Warner Bros. records in 1968. It was written by lyricist Robert Hunter and composed by lead guitarist Jerry Garcia; however, compositional credit is sometimes extended to include Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, and Bob Weir. "Dark Star" was an early Grateful Dead classic which the group often used as a vehicle for extended jamming sessions during live performances. The song is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list and was ranked at number 57 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time.
Skeletons from the Closet: The Best of Grateful Dead is the first compilation album from rock band the Grateful Dead. It was originally released in February 1974. As with other such packages, the album was a way for Warner Bros. Records to capitalize on the Dead's back catalog, after the band had left the label. It was followed three years later by a second compilation, What a Long Strange Trip It's Been.
The Golden Road (1965–1973) is a twelve-CD box set of the Grateful Dead's studio and live albums released during their time with Warner Bros. Records, from 1965 to 1973. After 1973, the band went on to create its own label, Grateful Dead Records. Also included in the box set is a two-disc bonus album, Birth of the Dead, containing very early recordings of the band.
"Truckin'" is a song by the Grateful Dead, which first appeared on their 1970 album American Beauty. It was recognized by the United States Library of Congress in 1997 as a national treasure.
Ladies and Gentlemen... the Grateful Dead is a four-CD live album by the Grateful Dead. It was recorded at the April 25–29, 1971 shows at the Fillmore East in New York City. Some songs on the eponymous live album Grateful Dead were recorded at these shows as well. The album, released in October 2000, was certified Gold by the RIAA on January 6, 2002. Unlike Dick's Picks, Road Trips, Dave's Picks, and certain other of the band's archival series of live album releases, which are simply two-track stereo recordings made from the soundboard during the concert, the shows on Ladies and Gentlemen were recorded on a 16-track multitrack recorder and were mixed down to stereo just prior to the album's 2000 release.
The Very Best of Grateful Dead is a single-CD compilation album chronicling all the years of the San Francisco psychedelic band the Grateful Dead. It is the first release to document every label the band recorded on: Warner Bros. Records, Grateful Dead Records/United Artists Records and Arista Records. It was released on September 16, 2003.
Rockin' the Rhein with the Grateful Dead is a Grateful Dead triple live album released in 2004. It was recorded April 24, 1972, at "Rheinhallen", in the German town of Düsseldorf, during the band's European tour of 1972. The complete concert is included, but the order of the tracks on the CD was altered to fit the show on three discs, while preserving groups of segued tracks.
Road Trips Volume 2 Number 1 is two-CD live album by the American rock band the Grateful Dead. The fifth in their "Road Trips" series of albums, it was recorded at Madison Square Garden in New York City on September 18, 19, and 20, 1990. It was released on December 10, 2008.
Road Trips Volume 2 Number 2 is two-CD live album by the American rock band the Grateful Dead. The sixth in their "Road Trips" series of albums, it was the first to contain a complete concert — the February 14, 1968 show at the Carousel Ballroom in San Francisco, California. Bonus material on Disc 1, as well as the bonus disc offered to early purchasers, comes from the Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service "Tour of the Great Pacific Northwest", immediately preceding the Carousel Ballroom show. The album was released on March 21, 2009.
Road Trips Volume 3 Number 2 is two-CD live album by the American rock band the Grateful Dead. The tenth in their "Road Trips" series of albums, it was released on February 24, 2010. It contains the complete concert recorded on November 15, 1971, at Austin Memorial Auditorium in Austin, Texas. This concert was the 16th concert after Keith Godchaux joined the Grateful Dead on piano. Ron "Pigpen" McKernan did not perform at this or any of the October and November, 1971 concerts due to poor health.
The Warner Bros. Studio Albums is a box set of five vinyl LPs by the rock group the Grateful Dead. It is a reissue of their first five studio albums: The Grateful Dead (1967), Anthem of the Sun (1968), Aoxomoxoa (1969), Workingman's Dead (1970), and American Beauty (1970). These albums were originally released by Warner Bros. Records. The box set was released by Rhino Records on September 21, 2010.
Dave's Picks Volume 30 is a 3-CD live album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. It contains the complete early and late shows recorded on January 2, 1970 at the Fillmore East in New York City, along with five songs from the band's performances at the same venue the following night. It was released on May 3, 2019 in a limited edition of 20,000 copies.
