Some of the shorter numbers on the album are tight, but almost all of them seem to lack this energy that the Dead can inject into a song to lift it far above any version any other group could do.

Quite a few of these shorter songs suffer from a common fault--they are almost skeletal compared to the usual concert versions. Many of them consist of precious little beyond vocals and a short instrumental break. And, as any good Dead freak knows, vocals have never been the Dead's strongest point. So, in effect, one often gets a tantalizing whiff of what the Dead can be, rather than a substantial a taste of what the Dead are. "Mama Tried" and "Me and My Uncle" epitomize this lethargy.

The Dead have done much better versions of many of the songs on the album, as a single listening to the bootleg album of the Dead at the closing show of the Fillmore West will show.

The Dead's choice of material for the album is disappointing. Anyone who has seen the Dead in the last six months knows that the group has some incredibly good new originals that were not included. The album could not have suffered if a version of "Morning Dew" or another of the Dead's long numbers was released instead of "The Other One."

Garcia's performance on this album is truly superb, as it has seen on every other Dead recording. His playing seems to be more mature, with fewer of the acid pyrotechnics and a much more reserved, flowing style. He is beginning to show the almost lyrical influence of the pedal steel guitar, especially on the country numbers that the Dead do.

Weir and Lesh both turn in amazingly good performances, although the Dead have mixed Lesh too low again. Weir's vocals have also improved amazingly in the last two years.

Pigpen, for one who has stolen the show as often as he, seems to have been slighted on this album. The Grateful Dead should have included one more of his better concert numbers, such as "This is a Man's World" or "Hard to Handle."

Kreutzmann's drumming is adequate throughout, even good in places. However, it is simply impossible for any one drummer to replace the Hart-Kreutzmann combination of Live Dead.

One thing that is incredibly irritating about this album is that there is so little music on it. There is no one side with as much as 19 minutes of music, and two sides don't even top 18 minutes. When Captain Beefheart can squeeze 28 minutes of music onto a side of a live album, there is no reason for the Dead to be content with 18.

Grateful Dead cannot be seen as anything but a good rock album. Unfortunately, it does not approach the near-perfection of which the Dead are capable.