All the Years Combine, Ray Robertson
All the Years Combine, Ray Robertson
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

All the Years Combine
The Grateful Dead in Fifty Shows

Author: Ray Robertson

Narrator: Christopher Grove

Unabridged: 7 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/25/2024


Synopsis

A Grateful Dead concert, Ray Robertson argues, is life.

Like life, it can be alternately compelling and lackluster; familiar and foreign; occasionally sublime and sometimes insipid. Although the Grateful Dead stopped the day Jerry Garcia's heart did, what the band left behind is the next best thing to being there in the third row, courtesy of the group's unorthodox decision to record all of their concerts. Meaning that it's possible to follow the band's evolution (and devolution) through their shows, from the R&B-based garage band at the beginning, to the jazz-rock conjurers at their creative peak, to the lumbering monolith of their decline.

In All the Years Combine: The Grateful Dead in Fifty Shows, Robertson listens to and writes ecstatically about fifty of the band's most important and memorable concerts in order to better understand who the Grateful Dead were, what they became, and what they meant—and what they continue to mean.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Erik on January 30, 2024

An outstanding look at historic Dead shows. This is a book about 50 important shows, not necessarily their 50 best. Very interesting, and the book got better as it went on into the later years. Robertson knows his Grateful Dead, but it's also apparent that he is not a an of the drummers.......more

Goodreads review by M. on August 04, 2023

In the fall of 1968 as Jerry Garcia’s and Phil Lesh’s instrumental abilities were increasing, as well as their musical ambitions, Bob Weir’s and Pigpen’s were deficient. Garcia called a band meeting to attempt to ease the two stragglers out of the band. …And here’s what’s so Grateful Dead about the......more

Goodreads review by Stevejs298 on February 09, 2025

2.5 stars. I almost gave him 1 star for referring to Dead & Company as a "Dead cover band with three former members." It doesn't seem like he's been to any of their shows. In fact, it's not clear that he ever saw the Grateful Dead. The author does seem to have a musical background and understands so......more

Goodreads review by Mike on March 24, 2025

Probably best for the Dead Heads out there. Excellent career progression and recap through 50 setlists and shows. There is quite a bit of insight within the show reviews. And with the tapes online, the reader can pick and choose shows to listen too and see if they agree with the author's assessment.......more

Goodreads review by Paul on December 28, 2023

Perfectly cromulent bit of Deadanalia.........more