I like fresh salvia quids quite a bit...smoking not so much..
@ Roger - as I trust your opinion on everything else I'll give it a fresh shot. Thanks for the link, will do...
To be clear, I do like Anthem of the Sun, aoxomoma (spelling?? But a
fantastic ketamine album!) and Live/Dead...Workingmans Dead has a special place in my heart too, in a totally different way. I will admit not having listened much of their live stuff...I loved the stuff with Pigpen, but haven't heard much after that. My dad, an arbiter of good taste if there ever was one, kinda held the same opinions as me, but recently was going on and on about some of the Dicks Picks, from the era you mentioned. Mind you, this was shortly after I gave him a vial of good Lucy, so I think your advice holds some merit

I think I just expected their music to be way more in-your-face psychedelic, but I'm gathering it is a little more complex than that! I'll give it an honest shot!
I also great enjoyed their various autobiographies, and love the stuff Garcia did with Grisman. So, long story short, I will dig deeper with fresh ears, quite possibly ears enhanced with Lysergic frosting :D
@ Shammy - thanks, as always

Low, a fantastic band and the originators of "slow -core", did a fantastic cover of "Transmission"...Bedhead also do a lovely version of "Disorder"...there are actually quite a few decent JD covers out there, I'm just not on the right device to find and link them at the moment!
@knows better than he thinks - you aren't still in DC are you? I assumed back in Cali....I too had a fondness for the Lincoln Memorial...the first time I went to the various monuments in DC I was just going through the motions....I had been up all night on LSD, driving north from the Carolinas en route to NYC, and decided to drop in. The Lincoln Memorial brought me to tears, as did several others...but that one was the best. I didn't expect any emotional reaction to any of it, just novelty or duty or what have you, but I was surprisingly moved...I swore off America again shortly thereafter and moved back overseas to "work", but subsequent revisits always strike a chord...I spent many a year living overseas but after getting busted have been mostly here, save for one great probation violation in 2010 when I went to live in India and Nepal for a year...came back, paid the price, and haven't been able to leave since....it's almost over though. Been bouncing coast to coast, but have been the most stationary ever (save for prison har har) the last two years, farming in the NE. A very different world from my west coast roots, but it's been great. What am I rambling on about? Dunno....that try as I did, as I might, I am still and always will be an American, despite some soul twisting objections and frustrations about certain things. Shit is in my blood, even as the son of immigrants! So yeah, Lincoln Memorial FTW.
Carry on...