I never liked the Grateful Dead when I was in High School. The albums Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty were played a lot and songs like “Sugar Magnolia”,”Box Of Rain”,”Uncle John’s Band”,and “Casey Jones” sounded like Country or Folk music to me and I wasn’t into that music then. In ’73 or ’74 I bought the Bears Choice record from a cutout bin for 29 cents. I hated the first acoustic side but the two tracks on side two “Hard To Handle” and “Smokestack Lightning” I thought were not too bad. I don’t have that record anymore,don’t remember what happened to it. Then in 1976 or ’77 I bought Wake Of The Flood from another cut out bin. It has the hole punch in the corner instead of the usual cutout. Another record I did not like much and hardly ever played.Then one day in the mid 80’s I heard “Dark Star” on the Grateful Dead hour and have been a big fan ever since. Listening to this record now after hearing these songs many times on their live records it sounds kind of thin. Like most Jam Bands there best music is performed live with studio albums being more of an afterthought. Most of the songs on this record have been played in their live shows throughout their career. The record sounds almost new since it was hardly ever played.