Rhino / Wea
2006
The Very Best Of Jerry Garcia
About This Album
Now this is how you're supposed to do a compilation -- especially by someone who isn't making music on this plane anymore. Rhino's double-disc Very Best of Jerry Garcia is arguably exactly that. It's true that there's a bunch of stuff missing here: there are no cuts from Hooteroll? with Howard Wales, or the early Merl Saunders/Garcia Live at Keystone stuff recorded for Fantasy, but it's OK. Fans will quibble about what was left off, but not about what's here. Beginning with tracks from the first Jerry Garcia record, of which there are five, there's also a pair from Garcia (Compliments) and three from Reflections. The rest of disc one is filled out by three cuts each from the various Cats Under the Stars and Run for the Roses. This is all good and well as far as it goes, but the rest of the story, the part that really matters, is told on disc two, which is compiled of live recordings. From various editions of the Jerry Garcia Band -- thank goodness their version of Bob Dylan's "Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)" is here, as are live versions of "Positively 4th Street," Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come," and "Deal" from the Way After Midnight album.
Track List

Disc 1 (try tracks 8,13,15 and 16)

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Disc 2 (try tracks 1,2,3,5 and 8)

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