Side 2 has a 15-minute cut-and-paste compendium of dull soloing and odd, aimless percussion ("The Alligator"), plus a blues-like, semi-improvised story-song with a long coda of random, sputtering feedback noise ("Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks)"). It's tough going: they drown the catchiest tune ("Cryptical Envelopment") in an eight-minute collage of random noise and live jamming ("That's It For The Other One"). (JA)Įarly 1968 was the peak of acid rock experimention, so the Dead tried to keep up with a seriously "far out" album. The album eventually went gold after the Dead captured a mass audience with their two 1970 studio albums. But there are a bunch of originals, one of which is a ten-minute monster ("Viola Lee Blues"). There are a couple of covers here: the Yardbirds' "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl," Howlin' Wolf's "Sitting On Top Of The World," and Tim Rose and Bonnie Dobson's "Morning Dew," also covered at about this time by Jeff Beck. Mydland died, 1990, replaced by Bruce Hornsby and later Vince Welnick. Godchaux and Godchaux dropped, Brent Mydland (keyboards) added, late 1970s. Donna Godchaux (vocals) and Keith Godchaux (keyboards) added, Pig Pen died, 1972. Mickey Hart (percussion, drums) added, 1968. Jerry Garcia (lead guitar, pedal steel, vocals, some keyboards), Robert Hunter (lyrics), Billy Kreutzmann (drums), Phil Lesh (bass, vocals, some guitar, keyboards), Ron "Pig Pen" McKernan (organ, harmonica, vocals), Bob Weir (rhythm guitar, vocals).
Grateful dead albums full#
And in my mind that's definitely a good thing.īefore I let you move to the reviews, I'll apologize in advance for not being able to offer full coverage of the Dead's catalogue. If anyone's still a hippy all these decades later, it's got a lot to do with their efforts. So the Dead eventually triumphed just by trudging along as one fad after another passed them by - ironically, only disco really seemed to grab their attention. And other San Francisco bands like Moby Grape didn't last long enough to make a difference. Santana is Santana, and Sly is Sly the comparison isn't fair. Quicksilver had a pile of great musicians, but they never shook out of their stoned slumber long enough to record a great album. Janis was a fine singer, but her miniscule corpus (ahem) of original song material hardly puts her in the first rank. The Airplane were great and everything, but they couldn't keep their act together either literally or figuratively, and they couldn't make their minds up about whether to lead the revolution or soak the public with commercialized corporate rock. There is something to be said for persistence.
Now that I've got all that off my chest, I'll try to kiss and make up before my mail box gets bombed by 10,000,000 Deadheads.
But they're a drag none of the original members could sing worth a damn, they've got nothing to say lyrically, the only musical innovation they can lay claim to is Mickey Hart's internationalized drum noises, and their sprawling live jams are an affront to rock 'n' roll. And yeah, this is the band led by Jerry Fuckin' Garcia - I've got to admit that he was an outstanding guitarist and versatile to boot. Yeah, the Dead lasted longer and sold more records than any other 60s West Coast hippy rock band. Yeah, millions of loyal fans followed these guys around for three decades. Let me get everything out in the open: I grew up despising this act, and in some part I still do. Workingman's Dead - American Beauty - Grateful Dead - Europe '72 -īlues For Allah - Terrapin Station - Shakedown Street - Go To Heaven
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