Customer Reviews

Live / Dead

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dear God, please put this on Heaven's jukebox.

What is Dark Star? THE qunitessential acid-rock voyage. A band of hippies attempting to transcend reality. From the first few notes off Phil's bass to the monumental peak before the second verse (over twenty mintues later) this version of Dark Star is unmatched. Every member at their best, entwined in ecstasy. NAILING every twist and peak. Jerry Garcia loved this version. So far beyond the countless other versions I've heard. You'd swear there was a higher power at work on that stage.

You don't have to be on drugs to enjoy this disc. Just into improvisation. Followed by Saint Stephen and a rollicking, super-charged The Eleven, the Dead never sounded tighter, more direct. Plugged into your synapses. Toying with you. Ear candy.

Obviously beloved by Deadheads. I recommend this for any fan of live music. It simply cannot be done better.

You need not buy into the entire Dead hippie bathos in order to enjoy this album. Any fans of improvisition will thoroughly enjoy this album. The Dark Star is arguably the Dead's finest moment. The immediacy of the playing captures the ear. The band seems genuinely excited to play the material unlike later material. The music is engaging on its own without the, uh, chemical adjuncts. Also we are spared of much of the faux-country fodder, that often leads me to press the fast forward button on other Dead releases. Obviously the Dead are best when they are playing live and their more classic pieces. The first three tracks here are beautiful. As odd as it may sound, I think Sonic Youth may have been listening to this album while producing A Thousand Leaves. Listen to the two albums back to back if you don't have exclusionary music tastes. The jamming styles are very alike.

this is IT! This live performance demonstrates the transcendence of the Dead's improvisations at their best. You'll hear something new with every listen.

Dark Star defines the Dead's music and this is one of the finest examples on CD. Lesh's unique melodic bass playing drives the beast. Garcia and Weirs' guitars taunt each other to great heights. Hart and Kreutzmann's wonderfully open and then powerfully meshed drumming allow the dynamics of Dark Star to range from the beautifully poignant through chaos to the consumately powerful.

The first three songs are a continuous jam for around 40 minutes. After Dark Star, I love listening to the rhythm transition from the St. Stephen (in 4:4 time) to The Eleven (in 11:8 time).

There is magic here --- a spontaneous, synergistic symphony. This is what I listen to the Dead for. This is what I listen to music for.

When these guys were on they were as good as it got back in the late '60's, early '70s. I saw them numerous times at the old Fillmore/Avalon Ballroom and at Winterland, Keyzar Stadium and numerous other venues. The Keyzar show would have been a complete bust, had Waylon Jennings not been on hand to rescue the show. The Dead had OD'ed and they couldn't combine for a note. Pure drivel.

Yet when they had the right "chemistry" there was no finer band in the land. They could take a collective consciousness and pin it on its ear. In fact I lost part of my hearing in my right ear from sticking my head too close to one of those huge stadium speakers to try to find my way into the "source" of the sound one crazy night at Winterland. At least I lived to tell the tale.

To make a long review short, just take your nearest listening device, attach some headphones, and listen to "Turn on Your Lovelight" on this CD. I was listening while out walking the pooch this morning and ended up boogying for about half a mile or so. My neighbors probably thought I was having a grand mal seizure or was practicing my St Vitus' Dance or both, and they were probably right. If that cut isn't one of the best live recordings ever, I don't know what is, and if it doesn't get your tail to wagging, then Jack, you a Zombie! This CD ranks right up there with the Dead's Live in Europe double album as amongst their best. Buy it or download it and alarm your nighbors, too!

BEK

I am a huge fan of live music by many different bands and as I close in on age 40, I have yet to hear a better, more perfect, more fluid live recording then the incredible "Live/Dead". It is simply perfection and a CD I have been listening to in one form or another since the late 1970's. The improvisational jamming is unmatched and nothing before or since can garb you, bring you in and hold you like this masterpiece. The band is flawless and mistake free during this show as the opening 4 song, hour plus jam can attest to. Starting with the incredible, powerful and spacey "Dark Star" into the exhuberant and fun "St. Stephen" continuing into the powerful and thumping "The Eleven" and closing out with the tightest version of "Turn On Your Lovelight" you will ever here! Master musicians at the top of their game and bringing it on home! One thing that stands out about this recording is that all the members of the band are obviously having so much fun and enjoying themselves that it comes through loud and clear and helps you enjoy it more too, if that is possible because it is simply the greates, most enjoyable live recording ever made. Grab "Live/Dead" you'll be very happy you did and will find yourself listening to it more then you ever imagined! As a side note, if you want an example of what an extended version of "Live/Dead" might be like then grab "Dick's Picks, Volume 16", recorded at the Fillmore Auditorium on 11/8/69. It showcases an incredible jam that starts on CD #2 and continues to CD #3 consisting of "Dark Star-The Other One-Dark Star-Uncle Johns Band Jam-Dark Star-St. Stephen-The Eleven-Caution-The Main Ten-Caution-Feedback". It's truly memorable and also contains a 25:30 version of "Turn On Your Lovelight". Awesome stuff but still a notch below "Live/Dead".

If you are looking for a CD with live concert music, this is the CD for you. If you haven't heard Live Dead before, and you think people are just exagerating the GRATEness of Dark Star, they aren't! It's 20 minutes of bliss and beauty and it will make your head spin and heart churn because Dark Star is stellar. St. Stephen is a great follow-up and ending with We Bid You Goodnight couldn't be more perfect.

Whether you're stoned, trashed, or just high on life, this CD is for you.

This is one of the greatest live albums - dead or otherwise.

I think the beauty of their improvisation will always be appreciated and find a home in listener's hearts - and I hope more people come to know this album as one of their greatest works. Sit back - click on a few sample mp3 links above and enjoy - poetry in music, the amalgamation of jazz and rock.

Summer will never be complete w/o an afternoon in the hot sun listening to some Dead.

This was not the first Grateful Dead album I had ever purchased (Aoxomoxoa was the first, back in 1988), nor did I consider this one to be as accessible as their first album was, but this was the first Dead album I ever appreciated and it was the one that turned me on to their live performances.

After a few attempts at "Dark Star," one day I was checking out the middle section of this version, and I listened closely to a Jerry Garcia note that sounded, in the context of his bandmates' contributions, like an excerpt from Part I of Yes' "Close to the Edge." As I was a huge prog-rock fan, I felt as though I had found something in this song to latch on to. From the perspective of someone who daily listened to more challenging compositions, the Dead had simply sounded like nothing more than an overglorified San Francisco bar band to me up to that time. Okay, but I could not hear what all of the fuss about them was about.

That is, until the next time I gave "Dark Star" a try. I went with that aforementioned middle section and all at once, I felt and heard the mounting tension of the spiraling notes emanating from the guitars of Garcia and Bob Weir with the organ abstractions of Tom Constanten in the background, then the intensity of Garcia's urgent screaming tones, only to immediately move into a lighter, spacier version of this musical motif, then the rest of the piece and the band's interplay, and as they say, I was "on the bus."

It has been said that all of the best works of art require multiple exposures to in order to begin to get what the artist(s) was (were) attempting to accomplish, and also that said works of art reveal ever more with each exposure to them. Over the years, this rendition of this tune has spoken to me in a variety of ways, emotionally as well as musically. And all of this album's other selections are just as amazing. From the off-kilter hard rock of "St. Stephen" to the high-tempo jazz-rock of "The Eleven" to the blues rave-up "Turn On Your Lovelight" to the spacy blues comedown "Death Don't Have No Mercy" to the extra-terrestrial avant-garde improvised soundscape "Feedback" (which is my second favorite piece on the album) to the concluding a-cappella gospel traditional "We Bid You Goodnight," Live Dead goes to a wide number of places and back again, just like any Grateful Dead concert did, to varying degrees.

Although not a complete show (as most enthusiasts prefer), this recording stands out mostly for its historical significance. This was the first successful attempt to capture the essence of a live show and share it with most of the world who had never seen them on stage--it was the stage that made them legendary not the recording studio. Subsequently this recording helped in the later successes of "American Beauty" and "Workingman's Dead."

For me this one is special because it was my first experience, way back when, with "Dark Star" a classic the withstands the test of time.

"Turn on Your Love Light" is the full length version that was shortened for their first greatest hits album, "Skeletons from the Closet." I'm sure this was to make it more attractive for the radio. When one hears the full version one wonders why someone would ever think of cutting it!

It's too bad all live albums from this period aren't recorded so well. The story goes that they used a new 16 track recorder and essentially just feed microphone signals right in with minimal processing. The result... a crisp sound where the sound of every instrument is clear as a bell. Garcia's guitar never sounded better.

There's a vibe to this album unlike any other I can think of. The Dark Star has been analyzed, immortalized, and often cited as one of the all time favorite renditions of this number.

The music takes you on a journey, and at times will send tingles down your spine and raise the hairs on your neck. While this isn't music from a single nights performance, the sequence followed was very common at that time. Plus, check out the way Bob Weir's second guitar perfectly compliments Garcia's leads.

While it does sound terrific on headphones, I suggest playing this one played LOUD through a quality amplifier and good speakers to get the full effect. Dark Star in particular sounds so good, you can almost smell the tubes heating up in the amplifiers.

This was one of the first Grateful Dead recordings I had, and I still listen to it quite a bit.

Shawn