Every long, strange trip has to begin somewhere. For the Grateful Dead, that moment came in 1965, when the group began playing shows as The Warlocks before changing their name. And while the group’s successor, Dead and Company, concluded their final tour in 2023, the Grateful Dead continue to find new generations of listeners. Not surprisingly, they’ve also gone into their archives to release a number of live recordings that shed light on different aspects of the band’s sound.
As part of their 60th anniversary celebration, the Grateful Dead are set to release two new box sets collecting live performances from across their history. Beginning on May 30, 2025, diehard fans of the band will be able to buy Enjoying The Ride, a 60-CD box set, from their official site. For more casual Dead fans, a smaller version, The Music Never Stopped, which spans three CDs or six LPs, will be available more widely (and digitally). It isn’t every day that a six-LP set is the short version, but given the artist in question, it’s not that surprising.
“On these 60 CDs, you’ll find music spanning more than 25 years, from 1969 to 1994, with the venues and the millions of journeys to get to them, making an essential part of the story,” said archivist David Lemieux. “Going to see the Grateful Dead, following them from city to city, was likened to the modern equivalent of running away and joining the circus. These 20 venues are where the circus took us, and the show was something we never wanted to miss.”
You Don’t Have to Love Everything Your Favorite Musician Does
When is it okay to let go and admit that you don’t love a musician the way you used to?Enjoying the Ride features music from 20 venues total, including 17 recordings of full concerts. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Fillmore West is the most represented venue in the collection, with songs taken from three different 1969 concerts, along with a number of other significant moments in the band’s history.
“The collection David has curated is even more meaningful to me because it includes the official release of my first-ever Dead show — July 13, 1984 at the Berkeley Greek Theatre — with its epic ‘Dark Star’ encore,” said Mark Pinkus, president of Rhino Records. This show marked the start of a lifelong journey for me, and I’m willing to bet there are many shows in this fantastic set that will resonate with fans who also found community on the road.”
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