In my humble opinion, the Grateful Dead started going down hill in the early 70s, and sounded as if they caught the disco virus and never recovered.
As far as I am concerned, the Dead died when Pigpen died.
Yes the pig pen era is THE ERA
I Saw him with them at the end
It was sad
He was in bad shape to be so young
I stayed thru mars hotel where Donna actually does decent
Last time I visited uncle Sid was Dead at Tuscaloosa 77
It was good too
The drive back to Jax Miss was looong and paranoia filled lol
2 am and half the cars are cops knowing there was a dead show east central Bama
And I had to drive the “spaceship “
It wasn’t like bad but only boomers a few times after that
People today take much lower doses which is smart
I don’t condone psychedelics
I did witness life altering casualties
During the show they really hit the good stuff
I listen to it on archives occasionally and tell my kids I can heart myself yelling for Sugar Magnolia
Finally the encore lol