Grateful Dead - Flashback With The Grateful Dead (2001)

Review by Steve Leggett
The Grateful Dead, by the very nature of what they did both in live performances and in the studio, are particularly poorly served by a greatest-hits-type collection -- this was not a singles band (although with “Touch of Grey” they finally collected a hit single). More than anything, the Dead were a rolling, touring phenomenon whose jazzy, spacy take on Americana and penchant for encouraging the taping of live shows created a bonded community out of their fans. This ten-song budget compilation can hardly begin to catch the whole ragged familial appeal of the Dead, but it does, given its brevity, provide snapshots of the band at different points in time, which makes it a pretty nice and low-priced purchase for the absolute novice fan -- Deadheads will already have every song here ten times over and in countless versions.