A veritable who's who of the San Fran acid-rock scene plays on this, aggregated by radical-in-chief Paul Kantner, and it's no accident much of this resembles the material from the Volunteers record. There's even a "Wooden Ships" part 2 called "Starship". It ends up sounding like an all-star cast paying tribute to the group that created the previous record. Grace Slick faithfully tags along on piano and would team with Kantner for two more records in the next three years. Another intriguing if erratic JA-related release.

Their first studio LP since the double punch of Workingman's Dead/American Beauty is a good cure for insomnia. If not for "Eyes of the World", the disc would be a complete throwaway, but like everything else here it sounds thin and laggard. For whatever reason, the band usually couldn't translate their live energy to a studio record, and Wake of the Flood is no exception.

This was Bear's choice? Maybe someone else should have made the decision then. It goes without saying that this was yet another live record from the Dead. One side acoustic, the other electric, but the end result was bland, bland, bland. Next.

The Dead take Europe with a boot scammed from a Monopoly board. I guess the thimble was taken. This time around, it's a triple live record culled from performances from their 1972 tour of Western Europe. Close to 2 hours of more of what we heard on the last live album! Oh well – at least they're consistent.

This was immediately more approachable than Live/Dead, which came down at the end of the turbulent, more determined 60's. The "skull" album fit in with 70's grooves and attitudes. An innocuous set stuffed with enough covers and assorted blues and country-isms to more than delight hardcore Dead Heads. The drum duel makes for a nice, extended intermission – if you don't like such things. At the end of the day, it's a moderately fun and sometimes mind-numbing Dead live record.