I am exactly the opposite. I don't have the desire to get a a degree in deadology to the extent that I can wade through all those tapes and find a decent one. Most of my stabs at listening to live dead shows have been disappointing, shitty sound quality or lackluster performances. I buy the dead from the dollar bin at the record store, salvation army or garage sales, I don't see any of those fancy "dicks picks" albums getting into my collection anytime soon. I do remember liking "Live Dead," but seem to have lost my copy years ago.

I really like several of their studio albums. "American Beauty" is a fantastic pure American style album. "Aoxomoxoa" is a masterful work of psychedelia. "Blues for Allah" shows that they had some serious progressive chops. I like that even these earlier albums show a great deal of variety. I'm sure that that I would enjoy other studio and live albums in I was guided in the right direction, but am reasonably satisfied to enjoy the stuff I have, it's all a bit too monolithic for me.