Customer Reviews

Dylan & The Dead

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

Over the years, I held off on purchasing this disc due to the almost uniformly scathing reviews blasting it - some of the most virulent and sarcastic can be found here on Amazon. However, the intriguing pairing of these two classic artists (and I'll admit like other reviews state - the beyond cool album cover) got the better of me and I bought it used as a hedge.

I've taken a listen - what do I think? a) Dylan and The Dead is not the place to start your collection of either artist; b) There are better commercially available live albums of each artist individually; and c) keeping those caveats in perspective, this is a ragged, free-wheeling, and ultimately satisfying performance that I will go back to from time to time, because I seek out this type of music for the feel and inspiration it gives me.

Contrary to what I have read, Dylan's vocals are acceptable, and they are intriguing for what he chooses to include and leave out given the generally accepted crossroads he was at in his career. The Dead's sound is unmistakable, and provides an interesting filter to standard and not so standard selections within Dylan's substantial song catalog.

Finally, I find this unique album (it will never happen again with all the same key players present) every bit as listenable as any of the countless live Dave Matthews/Phish/String Cheese Incident/You Name It albums out there that I have heard bits and pieces of but would never be motivated to purchase based on their meandering sound and lack of songcraft.

All and all, a worthy album that you will be surprised by if you are a fan of either artist, given the amount of negative reviews associated with it.

OK, if you can get the tape of the Oakland show of this tour you will be astounded because that tape has tight, enthusiastic, rocking performances. For some reason this cd's tracks were culled from the early, more tentative performances on the tour, and not the later West Coast swing. At the time of the release Garcia and Hart complained that Dylan just picked the tracks and put the thing together with either minimal input from the Dead or any critical distance. Also, I have heard tapes of the rehersals and Dylan's heart just isn't into it, he stops songs halfway and you can hear the Dead's disappointment with their idol. All in all, an interesting cd that could have been a whole lot better.

The remastering sounds really good on this. It's not compressed too much, and there's nice low end from Phil Lesh and the drummers. Jerry Garcia turns in some decent guitar solos, although the tempos rush and drag here and there. Not the poo-poo stick many claim this to be, but it's not fantastic, either. I'll reach more often for Dylan/The Band's "Before the Flood," which has quite a bit more punch and grit.

I saw the Editorial review above. Well I WAS there at the Foxboro Stadium (Sullivan/Patriots Stadium) Dylan and the Dead concert on 4th July 1987, as a Welsh/Brit, 19 year old, from Swansea, whilst on a five month visit to the States. A kind lady from Easton Mass., now sadly deceased, gave two tickets to my friend and I, and we accompanied two local girls to the concert in their car. (We drew lots for the two 'spares' in Peggy's back garden and the other lads with us were devastated not to win). It took hours to get from South Easton, near Brockton, southern Mass, to the stadium, such was the whole carnival feel to the day and heavy traffic. At the arena we stood to the left as Dylan looked out to the crowd from the stage, maybe half way up the stand. The whole atmosphere in and around the stadium was "tie-dye" (everyone had one) and there was an unmistakeable smell of pot everywhere. People were having BBQs in the car park. Knocking at Heavens Door is often played, by lots of bands. This one at Foxboro was one of the genuine classics to be there for. The concert was in several ways historic, first of this tour with Dylan, enabled the Dead to live perform with Dylan on some newly live performed tracks, now taken as granted as some of their best/classics, and fantastically received, the "era" was very much Grateful Dead's height of celebration of an old band (steeped in americas musical 60's history) still going and appreciated even more than originally by a new generation of USA youth, I felt, and this CD which I treasure, probably like other CDs of great shows, will of course, as a recording of these events then, never quite live up to the real event nor tell the full story. Listen to it with thought of the whole historic feel of the occasion, and the fact that this particular summer was the Joshua Tree historic breakthrough tour by U2, so if there were two bands that encapsulated 1987 in USA, it was U2 and the Dead. I hope this eyewitness and personal account of the day (4th July 1987) and my own experience of it helps others enjoy and appreciate how important this CD and this Grateful Dead tour was for the memory of the legendary Garcia/Weir/Dylan and the entire Dead's legacy on American culture not just musical but social. Buy the CD, and imagine the scene I described, in the moment it was then, just fantastic.Dylan & the Dead

Being a Dylan fan of sorts (moreso early than later)and a so so Dead fan I found this album of interest and after listening to it several times decided it's not bad at all, in fact it has some bright spots. It's probably Dylan at his worst or as some reviewer put it, his most relaxed??? But Garcia and the Dead are the bright spot here. I'm not sure who was back up for whom. Perhaps this is a Garcia interpretation having listened to Dylan all those years, but whatever the case, there is merit here. If you do nothing else but listen to Garcia this is an excellent album and one that I'm glad I purchased despite almost not doing so because of the negative reviews. Besides, the price was right.

Two of the most important performers in rock history and you would think they would come up with something better than this. This is really a sloppy mess.

It is as if they never practiced before playing. There are no harmonies. They sing over each other and the timing is off. There are no great musical moments.

The sound is also horrible. It is very noisy and you can't make out the instruments and sometimes it is hard to hear the vocals.

This by far the worst Grateful Dead live recording I have heard. I think it is also the worst Bob Dylan recording. Bob Dylan could be uneven in concert, and he does have some very good live album and some really bad ones. But, I think this one tops the list of bad. It is even worse than Real Live. At least on Real Live there are some redeeming moments with Mick Taylor on guitar. Here, Garcia does not even come through to save the day.

When you see this many negative review about a CD on Amazon, you need to take notice. The CD is probably bad. Typically, reviewers on Amazon just go to the CD's they love and write reviews. So most CD's get really high ratings (even when they don't deserve it). It usually takes a really bad CD to get people to write something negative about it.

Note that many of the people who give this good reviews are the people who were at the concerts. It is something you see a lot on Amazon. "I was there, man, it kicked ass, man, you just have to buy this CD, man, because I was there".

If, like me, you admire both Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead but do not necessarily worship at the altar of either act, then you may find much to appreciate on this much disparaged '88 live release. If you're not as emotionally invested, well, you're no so likely to be disappointed, I guess. And you're not as likely to have heard the numerous bootlegs of other (presumably better) live recordings and rehearsal takes that are reportedly vastly superior to what actually wound up on the official release. Yada yada yada. We non-hardcore types may be in a unique postion to actually be able to appreciate the record's virtues. And there are a few.

Someone once wrote that if you view DYLAN AND THE DEAD as a cover album, on which the guest singer just happened to be the songs' author, you're more likely to appreciate it. That's a very witty observation, but there's a lot of truth there too. It implies, correctly I'd say, that it really is a Dead album with Dylan as a "guest" vocalist. The Dead were just too quirky to be anyone's back up band, and while the listener gets the sense that they had to struggle a little to keep up their equally quirky "guest vocalist," their instrumental fills are always interesting. Garcia and Mydland are especially impressive.

The one thing they do not do is jam extensively. Reportedly, their jams were saved for their own section of the program. But they do wind up extending some of the tracks a tad, and the version of "All Along The Watchtower" included here comes off as more along the lines of the Hendrix version than the intriguing near-fragment from JOHN WESLEY HARDING. And it's well worth hearing.

No one could deny that vocally, Dylan is going through the motions on several of these tracks. But then there was a long spell when he tended to do that in almost any concert. Since he was never a strong singer in the conventional sense, he really needed to rely on phrasing (however you want to understand the term) in his readings of his own texts. When he made the effort, he was often brilliant, which is why many fans and critics maintain, to this day, that there is no better interpreter of a Dylan song than the man himself.

But when he was bored with a song, his cursory readings would come off as not only harsh, but perversely indifferent to his material. You feel like saying, "Hey, if you don't feel like singing "Just Like A Woman," don't SING "Just Like A Woman." But then, he turns around and turn in a solid version (with some fire in his vocal, if not in his belly) of "Queen Jane."

Speaking of perversity, was Dylan taking some kind of twisted pleasure from forcing free spirits (and presumably free thinkers) like the Dead to accompany him on not just one but TWO songs from his "Christian" era? If so, there's no real harm done. The Dead seem open to anything (and have certainly used Christian imagery before). "Slow Train" and "Serve Somebody" are among this CD's best tracks, in fact.

Now that this album can be had at rock bottom prices, there's no reason for the curious not to check it out. You may be suprised at how listenable you find it.

Just bought this again, after losing custody of it many years ago. It's just as great as I remember it. What could be finer than Dylan with the Dead? How could anyone with a brain or a heart not like this?

In an era when stadium shows defined the summer concert scene, 1987 had a pairing of two iconic figure in rock/pop culture - Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead - on a six city tour.

The seven numbers which clock in a few ticks over 43 minutes highlight Dylan on guitar, harmonica and vocals - with the Grateful Dead as his backing band - that were recorded during four of the half-dozen July dates that comprised the tour.

With uneven performances, the album - released in 1989 - is a choppy capsulation of the collaboration, but is interesting nonetheless for fans of the artists or those seeking an audio slice of rock during an era when bigger was seen as better from the perspective of record company executives, concert promoters and artists.

Recorded live in 1987 this albums pairs Bob Dylan & The Grateful Dead. Mostly this recording seems like it just floats along without any real purpose. This album seems fairly weak to me. None of the music stands out, and it all blends in a bad way. While I don't love or hate either Dylan or the Dead I think that other albums should be purchased before this one. The recording quality seems fine although it could benefit from remastering. On the tracks nothing really stands out.