{"product_id":"best-of-the-grateful-dead","title":"Best of the Grateful Dead","description":"Only the second major career-spanning retrospective of the Dead, The Best of the Grateful Dead -- released in the spring of 2015, just before a series of farewell shows in the summer -- takes advantage of the extra disc 2003's The Very Best of Grateful Dead lacked. Weighing in at 32 tracks -- a full 16 cuts longer than Very Best -- The Best of the Grateful Dead also follows a strict chronological sequence, so it takes a little while for the psychedelic haze to lift and the Dead to settle into the rangy, rootsy groove that characterized so much of their existence -- right around \"St. Stephen\" and \"China Cat Sunflower,\" both from 1969's Aoxomoxoa. From there, many -- but by no means all -- of the group's warhorses are marched out, all in their studio incarnations. This structure perhaps invites some griping about their sometimes ill-advised attempts to ride commercial waves -- there's no disguising the disco diversion of \"Shakedown Street\" -- but by celebrating the warts and providing space for that unexpected late-'80s commercial comeback, The Best of the Grateful Dead is a good capsule history of a band that usually defies such straightforward narratives. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine","brand":"MovieMars","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50255007711519,"sku":"081227954659","price":46.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0679\/7833\/0399\/files\/1f6e8981a19b71439f76898a3b929897_60b2d0fb-f5a5-4129-9d32-702a185a4f1b.jpg?v=1777820751","url":"https:\/\/www.moviemars.com\/products\/best-of-the-grateful-dead","provider":"MovieMars","version":"1.0","type":"link"}