While the Dead set lists were in part noteworthy for the astonishing range of covers they performed over the years, and they seemed to be able to play anything by anybody, albeit in their own distinctive fashion, they amassed an equally astonishingly body of original material. Much of the best came from Garcia and his songwriting partner Robert Hunter, a musical partnership that dated back to their joint tenure in the Thunder Mountain Tub Thumpers in 1962. There were also notable contributions from another team, guitarist Bob Weir and his lyrical compatriot John Perry Barlow. Everybody who ever passed through the band, though, made some contribution and got some well deserved credit, singly or in any number of combinations. The bottom line is that the Grateful Dead became one of the greatest acts in American popular music because they had some of the best material any act ever had to work with.
Great songs make great performances.
Those songs are the focus of three new releases from Grateful Dead Records, and the reason I've been telling you all this. I can't resist telling the world that the boys in the band had a good deal more to offer than their legendary jams which have been variously described as mindless noodling and mind-expanding soundscapes. These were great songs, dammit, and here's the proof. Exhibit A is Stolen Roses , a compilation produced by David Gans. Gans, a journalist, radio host of the nationally syndicated Grateful Dead Hour and an accomplished performer in his own right, might be the single most qualified person on the planet to take on such a project.