Now the album everyone knows and rightfully so, American Beauty. The Dead's 5th studio effort. The most accessible, but honestly, one of the most well written and focused albums of their career. This album follows "Working Dead", which I'll review next (out of order). and continues the country and folk-rock mashup established on that album. Both albums were prolifically churned out in the same year. Lesh's Box Of Rain, opening the album, is simply one of the best songs they've ever ...

This was the record that started it all. They had a long history at this point, playing parties and drug fueled orgies where they had attempted to keep the music tune with the "feel" of the scenes they played but this was the first recorded effort on their part. Many of the songs, including the opener Golden Road (to unlimited devotion) is acreditted to McGanahan Skjellyfetti which was he authorial pseudonym used by The Grateful Dead for group compositions. The name comes from Kenneth Patch...

LP1 one of the dead's more popular and successful albums, a live album - of course. This album collects the highlights of their Europe 72 tour. it's a triple album that was eventually certified gold, which is super rare for an album of this length. Opening with Cumberland Blues off the Working Man's Dead album, the album gets right to the point with the guitar and piano jamming away through this take. Next up is the mellow "He's Gone", which is based on Lenny Hart's embezzlement of band...

I usually get into Elvis, the Drifters, Motown, Bob Marley and Dave Matthews come summer time, with healthy sprinklings of 80s pop and pop rock. But this year I'm adding surf rock to the mix. I'll start with this one, easy and familiar for the most part. Opening with Beach Boys - Surfin Safari. I don't really know how to review songs that are so saturated into the public consciousness outside of a Beavis/Butthead analysis of "i like it" or "i don't". It's a straight forward, surfin, ha...

https://www.discogs.com/release/12774929-Various-Confessin-The-Blues This is an amazing collection of blues songs, compiled by the Rolling Stones. The compilation weaves though Chicago blues, Delta blues, and toher forms of electric blues and R&B, and a little sprinkle of early rock. It's probably the most impressive physical vinyl set I own, next to maybe Tool's Fear Inoculum or the White Zombie It Came from NY Collection. It's on 5, 10" LPs, in a sort of "book". The records provid...

This is an incredibly slick album, from a production standpoint, compared to most Dead fare. Garcia is not present on side A at all from a vocal standpoint. Estimated Prophet is one of my favorite Dead songs. It' an uptempo rocker who's bass lines seem somewhere between funk and reggae. The Martha and the Vandellas cover "Dancin in the Street", they've covered many times in the past in live shows, but this rendition gives it a bit of spit and polish. Like most of their covers, they'r...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_from_the_Vault Starting with the 3 strong opening tracks from Blues for Allah, these songs, as expected, pop a bit more in a live enviornment. "It Must Have Been the Roses" is a good detour away from the BfA album and fits surprisingly snug following it up. As the album continues, it contains the entire Blues for Allah album within the set, but additions of the aforementioned, plus Eyes of the World, a Chuck Berry cover, Sugaree, Big River, The Other One,...

Probably good to showcase my bias: I don't pretend to have "taste". Not in film or music. More than anything, I've been thirsty to consume and experience it all. I've always been fascinated with what can be done with instruments and just what journeys, textures, soundscapes, and such people can craft. Some times i like it poppy, sometimes its about nostalgia, sometimes it exploits a certain range of human emotion and perspectives, sometimes it's high art. I trend to aggressive or dark mu...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues_for_Allah I've listened to most Dead albums at this point. To the point I'm familiar with most - but find myself unable to sing along to almost nothing but the most obvious 'hits'. I know they're a 'live act' more than a studio band, and I suppose we'll get to that. But Blues for Allah and Terrapin Station have also held interest for me as they seem pretty exploratory musically and venture, at times, into progressive rock. Released in '75 and it sees...