Best Grateful Dead recording?

Agree with Slipknot. One quick correction: "Nightfall of
Diamonds" was actually from the October 16, 1989 show at the
Meadowlands (yes I was there - Bob Weir's b-day). "Dozin' at the Knick" is a
compilation of the 3-night March, 1990 run at the Knickerbocker
Arena in Albany, NY (yeah I was there too). Both are awesome
soundwise and perfomance-wise but I like "Nightfall" better
simply because it is a single complete show.

Yeah 1988 - 1991 was truly a peak period for the band
(certainly the last). Another great live release on Arista
is "Without a Net" which is a compilation of live recordings from the
Fall 1989/Spring 1990 tours.

Also agree that the May 1977 tour may be one of their best
ever and there are at least two Dick's Picks releases from
that tour: Dick's Picks Vol. 3 (5/22/77) and Dick's Pick's
Vol. 29 (5/19/77 and 5/21/77).

The thing to keep in mind about the Dick's Picks releases
are that they are live-to-2-track soundboard recordings not
carefully produced multi-track recordings like the ones on
Arista. That being said the sound quality is generally
quite good for the Dick's Picks series.

meister,
Thanks for the correction. i did mix the dates from Dozin' and Nightfall...

Jerry's first solo album is my personal favorite for sonics and music.

Any recording from 1971-4, in my opinion and many others the absolute peak for the band. Many of these are available as Dick's Pick's as stated above. A personal favorite of mine is the recent release of a run of shows documenting the closing of the Fillmore East in 1971. It is a four disc set and the sound and music are both spectacular. Generally speaking you are lucky, there is so much good music out there, once you start exploring you may never stop!

Jond:

Thanks for the information on the Fillmore East release. That sounds like a "must have", along with The Closing of Winterland.

Tom.