Customer Reviews

Grateful Dead

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I came to the Grateful Dead because--well, because of who they are, long before . . . very long before I actually was sober and straight-headed enough to contemplate their music. By and large I'm a Jerry fan and his signature guitar-work transporting (lazy hazy summer days in a lawn chair with a beer under a tree listening the Grateful Dead . . . camping . . . it's all good!). This album is grossly underrated because it really does underscore their popular genius despite their youthful musical limitations. The songs on this album capture the organ-tinged psychedelia of the Height-Ashbury scene, but do not totter into overly-indulgent "jams" that turn many listeners off (only one song does, and its a pretty good listen anyhow). Here, too, we get a strong sense of the Dead's blues roots, and why they let Weir sing. Early on, at least, Weir's youthful voice can actually carry a tune! The album is a good, head-nodding groove and rivals most of the studio albums that have been released to date. While the production and engineering is not top notch for its day, it really does highlight their talents. A must for any serious music collecter for its historical AND musical signficance. Ultimately, however, the reason why this album deserves high praise is because it manages to capture a sense of "fun." One of the best recordings of "fun" this century.

The vocals are disjointed, the levels are off, and the songs are generally way too fast. But it doesn't matter, and you won't care! This is the most raw Grateful Dead you will ever hear. Golden Road is a jolly good time, Minglewood and Beat it on Down the Line have got the fury, and Morning Dew and Viola Lee are the Dead we all know and love.

I don't agree with any assessment of this album as "rushed". It sounds to me like a solid debut album, up there with the Beatles and Buffalo Springfield and whoever else you care to mention, that prefigures the band's sound and approach for many years to come (a diverse, confident mix of blues, folk, and rock).

To those who complain that the tracks are too short to get "psychedelic", I point to the closing 10-minute version of "Viola Lee Blues" which is pretty trippy. Including the clever little trick that Jerry does which makes it seem as if the LP is stuck. On that track, as well as "Cold Rain and Snow", "Cream Puff War", and "Morning Dew", each sung by Garcia, Jerry comes across as by far the most interesting band member. But Pigpen and Weir each make reasonable contributions (singing covers).

It's "of it's time" and it holds together reasonably well. About half of it's brilliant, and that's a pretty good ratio.

If you care about the Dead at all, you need their first record. Word was that Jerry didn't really want to release this album because he didn't think the band was ready. In retrospect it's clear that Jerry was ready. At this point the band was a quartet with deep roots in the blues and American folk music. That was their reputation even before they had a reputation. One night when I was at the Matrix, a San Francisco club, one of the customers urged Garcia to play some blues, meaning some more formally identifiable 12-bar blues or a Chicago blues, and Garcia told him, "The last four songs were blues." And they were. The Dead were never far from blues as this collection shows. From Jesse Fuller's "Beat It on Down the Line" the effect is present. Pigpen's "Good Morning, Little School Girl" would play well in Chicago's South Side, particularly with his harmonica, and "Sitting on Top of the World" is practically a standard. The band was ready. Listen to Lesh's base line and Kreutzmann's drums and Pigpen's organ on "Cold Rain and Snow" and the tight shuffle in "Sitting on Top of the World." And hear Garcia's guitar--clean and quick even as it fades off into the recording studio. This was a band ready to become, and this debut album announced that to the world. The only question was what they were to become. Despite the impressive lead work, "Cream Puff War" is a little too much like the lesser San Francisco sound (psychedelic, anyone?), but "Morning Dew," "New, New Minglewood Blues," and "Viola Lee Blues" are benchmarks--songs that remained in the repertoire for the life of the band. In some respects, the band was never as ready as on this album because despite the reported hastiness of the recording, their music is careful and planned. Garcia may have surpassed the inventiveness of the solos on this album, but I'm not sure that he was ever more disciplined in his playing.

I noticed many of the people reviewing this album got it mixed up with "Grateful Dead", which is a completely different album. "THE Grateful Dead" was the Dead's debut and is a damn good offering. Not really as psychedelic as some people describe it. You can be completely sober and enjoy this. Lots of upbeat tunes that are really well written. The sound quality is what you'd expect from a 1967 debut but it adds to the charm in a way. I'm not a deadhead but I really like this album. Try it out.

This album is the first commercial release by the Dead in 1966, was release by Warner Brothers at the time. The opening songs, "The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)", first verse starts off with "Everbody's dancin' in a ring around the sun, nobodys finished we ain't even begun..." seems prophetic in that the Dead were around for almost another 30 years and 2000 plus concerts. Beat it on down the line is fun to listen to and then Pigpen does "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" which is also alot of fun. I especially like "Cream puff War", "Morning Dew" (always) and the "Viola Lee Blues" at the end is fantastic, although I have heard better on bootlegs. Bill Kreutzman is on this album as the only drummer and is referred to as Bill the Drummer. This is because there was a warrant for his arrest in Texas at that time.

Warner Brothers really didn't know what they had gotten themselves into when they signed the Grateful Dead in 1966. RCA had signed the Airplane, the Dead seemed really popular, and Warners didn't want to be left in the dust, so they hastily signed the wierdest group of hipsters, flipsters and tripsters to ever grace their hallowed corporate halls.

The band chose Dave Hassinger to produce their debut because he was on the engineer on all those great Stones tracks they cut in Hollywood in '65/'66 like "Satisfaction," "Get Off of My Cloud," etc. Overall, I think he did a decent sound of recording. But capturing the Dead's special brand of magic would prove elusive in the studio, and most Deadheads would agree that the only real Dead was live Dead.

Still, there were those studio highlights along the way, and their debut is one of them. It has to be taken on its own terms, though--not unfairly held up to some fondly recalled Dead show decades ago. This was pretty much played live, apparently after the ingestion of a lot of ritalin they had gotten their hands on, which gave the whole thing a speedy, jangly, decidedly un-Deadlike, edge. Except for "Viola Lee Blues," as another reviewer noted--that one, to me, captures a brief snippet of the true S.F. jamming spirit. There's a little bit of room for everybody to groove, and the band jells nicely together. A fitting closer to one of '67's overlooked gems.

i've never forgotten this album. this was the year i discovered myself thru the haight ashbury scene. i was a freshman in h.s. and i was going with Amy. we played the Grateful Dead,Surrealistic Pillow, Rubber Soul, Moby Grape, Country Joe & the Fish. every time i listen to any of these, i get a flash-back right to that wonderful time. the Grateful Dead, especially brings me back. a well made & fast party album.

I love this disc. Most people talk of it being commercial, but in 1967 most bands were in it for the money. To get a record deal back then was like finding a huge bag of weed. I think they were not ready for the studio, but they did manage to get thru the sessions with some of their best music of the time. Although, they were recorded in "single" format, they were blueprints for their live shows. That is what made them so fun. You would never know where a song would go, or what would all of a sudden pop up in there. That's one reason why I loved to see them live. Most concerts you hear them sounding "just like the album". Well just sit home and listen to the album. The magic is where a band can play off each other AND the audience.

I must admit that this first Dead album has been sitting in my collection for some years before I started to appreciate its value. In fact, now it's definitely one of my favourite Dead studio albums, and you know why ? It has a lot of enthusiasm, drive and freshness about it that reminds me a lot of the impact that the first Incredible String Band album has on me - it always makes me smile and want to shout and sing along. Whoever's complaining about sloppy vocals or the "poppy" quality of some songs or whatever may have good ears, but not for spirit and enjoyment.

Hans Wigman.