You probably saw resident Crasstalk hipster Tchotchke’s examination of why she loves the Grateful Dead. Like The Tchotch, I too love me some Dead. There are something like 700 different songs that the band performed in concert over the years, but here are Today’s Top 10 Grateful Dead Songs of All Time.
10. China Cat Sunflower
One of the prototypical songs of the 1960s Dead, check out the version on the Europe ’72 album.
9. Loser
Some of the best Dead songs seem to evoke the old west in a way that seems timeless and epic. “Loser” is a threatening dirge about being outgunned at the poker table.
8. Me and My Uncle
Here’s another old west tale sung by the band’s rhythm guitarist, Bob Weir. Note Bobby’s short shorts. Yeah, I don’t know either.
7. Help on the Way
Help on the Way is a jazz-rock fusion piece that the band often combined seamlessly with Slipknot and Franklin’s Tower. This is late-70s Dead at its finest.
6. Franklin’s Tower
Here’s the back end of that Help –> Slip –> Frank combo that so many fans love. Franklin’s Tower is pretty much the epitome of a rollicking Grateful Dead party anthem.
5. New Minglewood Blues
I didn’t find a live version of New Minglewood that I really liked, so I’m giving you the version from the Shakedown Street album. There’s a cockiness to this song that I love. “I was born in the desert, raised in a lion’s den.”
4. Scarlet Begonias
You know those hippie girls who put flowers in their hair and spin around in circles? This is their jam. It was also notably covered by, of all bands, Sublime, on their “40oz. to Freedom” album.
3. Estimated Prophet
Here’s another jazzed-out tune. Estimated was often played along with Help on the Way. There’s a great version of this track on the early-90s live album “Without a Net” that features Branford Marsalis playing sax.
2. Unbroken Chain
Bassist Phil Lesh rarely wrote the band’s songs, but one of the few he did write is Unbroken Chain. For some reason the Dead almost never played it live. I used to bump this so much when I was 17 that I can’t even hear two seconds of now without thinking back. What a strangely melancholy little tune.
1. Althea
With Althea I think they nailed all the contradictions and vulnerability and general fucked-up-ness that comes with being in a partnership. There’s something cynical and wry about this song that always hit me. We’re all basically basket-cases and we wonder why they stick with us — but they do.
