The 2025 MusiCares Persons of the Year Gala will help raise vital funds to support music professionals in need, including those impacted by the Los Angeles wildfires. Donate to MusiCares' Greater Los Angeles Fire Relief Effort to make a difference.
The Grateful Dead were musical innovators and pioneers, infusing bluegrass, folk, country, jazz, blues, and rock to create sounds (and songs) that changed constantly. As four-time GRAMMY nominee Lenny Kaye wrote in his review of Live / Dead in the Feb. 7, 1970 issue of Rolling Stone, "their music touches on ground that most other groups don't even know exists."
The Dead's archives are deep. Hailed as godfathers of the jam band, they released 13 studio albums, beginning with the self-titled debut in 1967 and ending with 1989s Built to Last. Their official catalog also includes 77 live records; each year, new live recordings are released from their vaults. As a result, creating a comprehensive Grateful Dead soundtrack is challenging for any music scribe, devout Dead Head or not.
Just as their shows had no set structure, becoming a Dead Head has no defined musts besides being guided by a kind spirit and being open to letting the music take you on a cosmic journey. The only other certainty, due to the Dead's improvisational approach — and extended instrumental jams during their concerts — is that the destination is always different.
Before original band members Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann and Bobby Weir, along with the late Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh, are honored on Jan. 31 as the 2025 MusiCares Persons of the Year, rediscover the diverse palette the Grateful Dead painted over the course of their 60-year career with this special playlist.