Lyricists: John Perry Barlow; Robert Hunter.

Grateful Dead: Phil Lesh (bass guitar); Donna Jean Godchaux, Jerry Garcia, Keith Godchaux, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir, Brent Mydland.

Personnel: Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir (vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar); Hamza el Din (vocals, oud, hand claps); Keith Godchaux, Brent Mydland (vocals, keyboards); Phil Lesh (vocals, electric bass); Nubian Youth Choir (vocals, hand claps); Donna Jean Godchaux, Lowell George, Sarah Fulcher (vocals); Doug Sahm (12-string guitar); Matthew Kelly (harp, harmonica); Vassar Clements (violin); Steven Schuster (flute, reeds, horns); Tom Scott (saxophone, lyricon); Martin Fierro (alto saxophone, tenor saxophone); Frank Morin (tenor saxophone); Joe Ellis , Bill Atwood (trumpet); Pat O'Hara (trombone); Ned Lagin (synthesizer); Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann (drums, percussion); Benny Velarde (timbales); Jordan Amarantha (percussion); Bob Bralove (programming).

Additional personnel: John McFee (pedal steel guitar); Hamza el Din (tar); Doug Sahm, Joe Ellis , Jordan Amarantha, Lowell George, Martin Fierro, Matthew Kelly , Ned Lagin, Paul Buckmaster, Steven Schuster, Tom Scott, Benny Velarde, Bill Atwood, Sarah Fulcher, Frank Morin, Pat O'Hara, The Nubian Youth Choir, The English Choral, Martin Ford Orchestra, Vassar Clements.

Audio Mixers: Grateful Dead; Don Healy; Tom Flye.

Liner Note Authors: David Lemieux; Dennis McNally; Rip Rense; Andrew Clarke; David Gans; Ihor Slabicky; Andrew Clark; Rip Rense; Dennis McNally; Joel Selvin; Peter Coyote; Tom Anderson ; David Fricke; Gary Lambert; Steve Silberman; Blair Jackson.

Recording information: Ace's, Mill Valley, CA (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Air London, London, England (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Alpine Valley, East Troy, WI (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Automated Sound Studios, New York, NY (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Capitol Theater, Passaic, NJ (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); CBS Studios, San Francisco, CA (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Club Le Front, San Rafael, CA (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); EMI Abbey Road Studios, London, England (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, CA (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Gizah Sound & Light Theater, Cairo, Egypt (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Jai-Alai Fronton, Miami, FL (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, PA (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Marin Veterans Auditorium, San Rafael, CA (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Meta Tantay, Carlin, NV (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); PNE Coliseum, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Rambler Room, Loyola University, Chicago, IL (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Record Plant, Sausalito, CA (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Schaefer Stadium, Foxboro, MA (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Skywalker Ranch, San Rafael, CA (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Sound City Studios, Van Nuys, CA (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Springfield Civic Center Arena, Springfield, MA (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Studio X, Petaluma, CA (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Trident, London, England (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA (03/28/1973-10/20/1989); Winterland, San Francisco, CA (03/28/1973-10/20/1989).

All tracks have been digitally mastered using HDCD technology.

Illustrator: Stanley Mouse.

Photographers: Richard Pechner; Ron Rakow; Ed Perlstein; Adrian Boot; Michael Putland; Susana Millman; Jay Blakesberg; Bob Seidemann; Janie Belson; John Werner ; Hugh Brown; Bruce Polonsky; Richard McCaffrey; Larry Hulst; Mary Ann Mayer; Herbie Green; Robert Minkin; Kurt Mahoney; Jim Marshall ; Peter Simon; Cornelius "Snookey" Flowers; Ken Friedman.

Unknown Contributor Role: Margaret Fabrizio.

Arrangers: Grateful Dead; Bob Weir.

Beyond Description (1973-1989) is a companion set to 2001's 12-disc box The Golden Road (1965-1973), which collected all of the Grateful Dead's albums for Warner Bros, adding bonus tracks to each album, along with a double-disc collection of early pre-Warner recordings called "Birth of the Dead" for good measure. Beyond Description picks up the story after the Dead started their own label with 1973's Wake of the Flood and runs all the way to 1989, when they released their last studio album, Built to Last. Like The Golden Road, each album here is enhanced with bonus tracks, running the gamut from as little as three (on Built to Last) to has many as 16 (a full-length bonus disc added to 1980's live acoustic Reckoning), but there's nothing quite as enticing as "Birth of the Dead." Indeed, "enticing" is not a word that's frequently associated with the albums in this collection. Even among Deadheads, these records, with a couple of noteworthy exceptions, aren't highly regarded, and the additional studio outtakes, demos, and live tracks don't necessarily help matters either; after all, if the foundation is shaky, it's hard to add an expansion. That's true here. It's certainly nice to have this material excavated, particularly for legions of dedicated fans, but none of the bonus tracks are revelatory. None of them offer a new perspective on the album, nor are there any lost gems here (not even the version of "Good Lovin'" sung by producer/Little Feat leader Lowell George on Shakedown Street qualifies as a hidden treasure). Instead, the bonus material ranges from the merely pleasant (the bonus discs on the live Reckoning and Dead Set), to the somewhat interesting (an early take of "China Doll" on Wake of the Flood), to the forgettable (most of the studio outtakes), to the actively irritating (a long acoustic demo of "Weather Report Suite," tedious jams on Blues for Allah). It's material that fans will hear once and file away, next to their large collection of Dick's Picks discs. Conversely, the individual albums featured in Beyond Description do pack some surprises. Certain records live up to their reputations -- Wake of the Flood remains one of their strongest, moodiest affairs, From the Mars Hotel is an underrated record, In the Dark is an assured comeback -- but others sound both better and worse than they did in memory. In particular, Go to Heaven, while far from their best, sounds much better than its reputation suggests -- it may not be much of a Dead record, but it's warm and well-crafted, a good fusion of the Doobie Brothers and Little Feat. Built to Last, however, is an outright embarrassment, a rushed sequel to In the Dark constructed with overly slick synthesizers and cavernous drums that sounds even more dated than the disco cuts scattered throughout Terrapin Station and Shakedown Street (neither of which sound inspired, but are fascinating in their tentative attempts to streamline the Dead). Ultimately, it matters little whether the albums themselves are all that strong or weak -- this is a package for the diehard, the one who will buy the bad albums just to complete his collection. In that regard, Beyond Description is every bit the equal of The Golden Road -- the remastering is good, the packaging has been assembled with loving care, the liner notes are solid. It's all enough to make this a necessary library piece for truly dedicated Deadheads. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

In the first seven years of its existence, as chronicled on the GOLDEN ROAD box set, the Grateful Dead went from a garage R&B band to LSD-fueled experimentalists to acoustic country rockers. The stylistic expanses traversed during the subsequent phases of the group's lifetime were just as great. THE GOLDEN ROAD's companion piece, the dozen-disc box BEYOND DESCRIPTION, contains all of the Dead's post-Americana-period releases up to their final studio album, 1989's BUILT TO LAST. Each is buttressed with numerous outtakes, demos, live versions, etc. Most impressively, in the case of the back-to-basics acoustic live album RECKONING, there's an entire disc of bonus material.

Over the course of BEYOND DESCRIPTION, we witness changes on several levels; following organist/singer Pigpen's death, the arrival of keyboardist Keith Godchaux and his vocalist wife, Donna, helped edge the band beyond its blues/country roots toward such jazz-rock excursions as "Eyes of the World," while Bob Weir expanded his horizons as well with the ambitious contemporaneous piece "Weather Report Suite." By the mid-'70s, bold conceptual works were the group's stock in trade, from the prog-rock shadings of "Blues for Allah" to the side-long epic "Terrapin Station." After Keith's death, new arrival Brent Mydland at the turn of the decade helped revitalize the band with his more soulful approach, and the Dead moved back to the rich, rootsy sound it had embraced 10 years earlier. This approach eventually earned the band a whole new generation of fans via the 1987 hit "Touch of Grey." The whole journey is laid out here, and spiced with so many extras that even hardcore Deadheads will find themselves waylaid in wonderment.

Shrewd purchasers of the Grateful Dead's 12-CD collection Beyond Description 1973-1989 (2004) who bought their copies through the band's website www.dead.net were treated to this 77 minute premium, containing eight selections that wouldn't fit into the box set. Despite their absence in the larger package, these are far from average performances. The contents are presented chronologically, commencing with the penultimate "Weather Report Suite" taken from October 17, 1974 during the so-called pre-hiatus `retirement' run at Winterland Arena. In addition to being an all around exemplary rendition, Phil Lesh (bass) contributes some intense interplay in the extended jam in the final movement, "Let It Grow". Next are a couple primordial renderings of tunes that would turn up on Blues For Allah (1975). The Grateful Dead -- minus Donna Jean Godchaux (vocals) -- are joined by Ned Lagin (electric piano) and Merle Saunders (organ) for their initial post-hiatus outing at the Students Need Athletics Culture & Kicks (SNACK) benefit. The half-hour instrumental features the "Blues For Allah" theme bookending an improv heavy syncopated fusion of rock and jazz titled "Stronger Than Dirt Or Milkin' The Turkey". Jerry Garcia (guitar) is definitely at the helm exchanging incendiary lines with Lesh and the keyboard trio of Keith Godchaux (piano) as well as guests Lagin and Saunders. The affable "Showboat" is a rare number that the combo never did for an audience. The song initially appeared on the Godchaux's eponymous solo effort. The cut comes from a rehearsal preceding the Grateful Dead's formal debut of the entire Blues For Allah album on a coast-to-coast FM radio broadcast. That show was eventually released as One From The Vault (1991). A spry "Shakedown Street" from August 13, 1979 follows, as Brent Mydland (keyboards/vocals) quickly establishes his role and Bob Weir(guitar/vocals), Garcia and Lesh immediately fall into an energetic groove that they ride from start to finish. "Far From Me" is an early Mydland number and the ragged-but-right version from August 31, 1980 is highlighted by Garcia's expressive fretwork and Mydland's soulful vocals. The goodies conclude with a limber "Estimated Prophet" that, despite the brief audio anomaly [read: static, presumably on the master tape] is exemplary with Garcia unleashing an imposing flurry before the coda of the first verse. Sadly, it fades out before steering into "Eyes Of The World". To discerning ears, these tracks could be considered `Primal Dead' and kudos go to the powers that made them available. ~ Lindsay Planer