The Grateful Dead were one of the most successful live acts of the rock era. Performing more than 2,300 shows between 1965 and 1995, the Grateful Deads reputation as a live band wasand continues to besustained by thousands of live concert recordings from every era of the groups long and colorful career. In Live Dead, musicologist John Brackett examines how live recordingsfrom the groups official releases to fan-produced tapes, bootlegs to Betty Boards, and Dicks Picks to From the Vaulthave shaped the general history and popular mythology of the Grateful Dead for more than fifty years. Drawing on a diverse array of materials and documents contained in the Grateful Dead Archive, Live Dead details how live recordings became meaningful among the band and their fans not only as sonic souvenirs of past musical performances but also as expressions of assorted ideals, including notions of liveness, authenticity, and the power of recorded sound.