Customer Reviews

Stolen Roses: Songs of the Grateful Dead

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I picked this CD up on the second day it was out, which also happened to be Aug. 9, the fifth anniversary of Jerry Garcia's death. I was hoping this would be a fitting fifth anniversary tribute, but it falls flat for the most part. The 77-minute CD opens with a nice Cumberland Blues by the Cache Valley Drifters, then slumps with a theatre troupe's performance of High Time and a weak version of B.E. Woman by the Pontiac Brothers. Then comes the worst part of the CD, an audience recording of Dylan doing Friend of the Devil. The performance is undated, but surely Dylan could've provided a soundboard. The audience recording is poor and Dylan's voice is whiney. I saw him in San Diego a month ago and he was great, so this performance is probably from his lost whiney period of a couple of years ago. What I'd hoped would be the CD's high point, the David Grisman Quintet doing a 10-minute Dark Star, instead turned out to be b-o-r-i-n-g, with none of the subtle nuance and dancing notes that trickled from Jerry's guitar in this eternal Dead classic. Surprisingly, one cut that I thought would be bad turned out just the opposite: Henry Rollins doing Franklin's Tower. OK, you can't tell it's Franklin's, but Rollins -- and I'm not a fan of his -- takes the tune and makes it his own. Probably the most enjoyable moment comes from a sad, plaintive version of Black Peter that Patti Smith cut on 8/9/95, the day of Jerry's death. She and band were in the studio working on Gone Again when they heard of Jerry's death. An impromptu version of Black Peter came from Patti's soul and its deep darkness conveys the sadness of that day five years ago. For Dead fanatics like myself, this CD is OK. For the average person, find someone who's got the CD and tape Patti Smith. (An a capella Black Muddy River by the Persuasions is also a brief treat.) Overall, though, this album is just like the recent Gram Parsons tribute CD: it only serves to remind the listener just how great the original was. Nothing comes close to the real thing...

Eclectic. This is the word that I would use to describe this Grateful Dead tribute disc. I have heard about the disc for quite some time now, and I must say that I am pleased with the results. From the bluegrass styling of the Cache Valley Drifters ("Cumberland Blues") and Cumberland Blues Cast ("High Time") to the rocking riffs of Widespread Panic ("Cream Puff War") and The Pontiac Brothers ("Brown Eyed Women")-plus everything in between. Listening to the disc just reminds of me how many influences there were to the Grateful Dead's music: bluegrass, folk, jazz, and rock. And hearing the vocal harmonies on "Black Muddy River" (by the Persuasions) reminds me of the first time I had heard "Uncle John's Band" on the Workingman's Dead album-those boys were no slouches themselves.

Anyway, my favorite tracks on this disc are the Bob Dylan cover of "Friend of the Devil" and the "Dawg-music" take on "Dark Star" by David Grisman. I have given this disc a four star review on account of the Wartime cover of "Franklin's Tower"-it just doesn't seem to fit within the flow of the disc (in my humble opinion). This will probably be the one track that I skip over on this otherwise fine tribute to the Grateful Dead.

In the end, it's all about the music. And it is quite apparent that the music and legacy of the Grateful Dead has touched a great number of people in number ways. I give two thumbs up to the producers, the artists, and lastly, the Dead, themselves, for putting out a great disc.

I hope that Garcia is smiling, like he always had been, in the astral plane.

Many of my favorite Grateful Dead songs are their interpretations of others' music, e.g., Bob Dylan.

Producer David Gans has provided us here with the opposite, interpretations by others of Grateful Dead songs.

Any serious fan of the Grateful Dead will love this album.

My favorite tracks are by Elvis Costello: Ship of Fools/It Must Have Been the Roses, Bob Dylan: Friend of the Devil, and Joe Gallant and Illuminati: Unbroken Chain.

The finale is by the Stanford Marching Band: Uncle John's Band. No kidding....it'll make you laugh!

I strongly recommend "Stolen Roses". It is a thing of beauty; not at all your run of the mill tribute record. In their various and varied re-interpretations by performers ranging from Dylan, to Patty Smith, to Henry Rollings, to The Persuasions, the power and simplicity of Garcia and Hunter's songs leap into relief. They beg the question, how was it that their immense talent with song-craft went so long popularly unrecognized?

Patty Smith's "Black Peter" (a thing of astonishing, ragged and just right beauty, in itself) was recorded the night of Garcia's dispatch to his chores in Hell. Her band was in the studio for a date that just fell apart and into an all-night jam on Dead tunes. Rollin's take on "Franklin's Tower" transforms sunshine into pure, liquid metal-shearing evil. Dylan does a "Friend of the Devil" that owns the bank on loneliness and desperation. The Persuasions' "Black Muddy River" is just the thing if you're in the mood for wisdom rendered in sweet aural molasses. There's a ton of other great stuff on the disc, too.

Oh, and Elvis Costello reveals his secret Deadhead-dom in his liner-notes!

Let me start by being very clear: I not only like the Grateful Dead, but I really enjoy good covers of their material. In fact I think that, like Bob Dylan, the Dead's best songwriting often becomes most apparent when someone else does the performance. The Grateful Dead often gave wonderful performances, but just as often other artists have done even more wonderful things with the same material.

A case in point is the Persuasions' collection of Dead material, MIGHT AS WELL. Another is the DEADICATED benefit of a couple of years ago.

Unfortunately, this collection lacks any sense of cohesion, and many of the performances are rather simple and uncreative. There are two or three gems on here, especially material by Elvis Costello and the Persuasions, but unfortunately there's a lot of chaff you have to separate to get to the wheat. Worth picking up if you're a diehard fan who just must have all things Dead, but otherwise, don't bother. Check out some of the other cover albums first, or just get one of the better collections of material actually performed by the Dead, like ONE FROM THE VAULT, EUROPE '72, PEAKIN' AT THE BEACON, or SKULL & ROSES.

If you're still in initial stages of Jerry Garcia Death Grief (take your time, please, it's completely cool) it's painful to hear anybody even try these songs. For anybody graced enough to have made reasonable-to-good progress on JGDG this album is big fun; fabulous validation from an amazing, if not eclectic, collection of camps; and even a little about movin' on, getting out of the "GD & related artist/sound only" box, opening it up a little. Imagine the collective music intelligence of Dylan/Costello/Smith/Rollins/Persuasions, etc. tasked with interpreting, well, c'mon it's Dead songs -- those were great songs!

Deadicated was a good start, but studio-ized, compared with this wild, rich collection which exudes a soulful, musically intelligent yet humorous quirkiness that is definitely within the essence of deadheadedness. It's a perfect album to give to anyone with any musical taste at all, even if they never quite "got" the GD sound -- especially if they never quite got it -- because something on here will definitely be something they can relate too. The variety of sounds, applied to solid songwriting make for a very interesting collection, from the very first cut. Stolen Roses has me enamored with the idea of the rumored "might as well" whole-Persuasions album. The Rollins piece was unbelievable. I couldn't recognize the song for a solid 30-40 seconds the first time thru. Heck, you can even play Stanford's marching band for your great gramma. Total must have.

I was listening to an NPR interview of the producer of this album, having a very, very bad day. It boosted my morale as I heard the reasons about each recording, especially about Elvis Costello annoucing his, until then, love and adminiration of the dead. As the interview ended the last cut on the album was being played. I smiled, I was on a record album reviewed by NPR. The Stanford Band aka LSJUMB, was where I first heard enough dead to like and then love them. Cha, Cha, Cha.

These songs just do not compare to the originals nor do they have much if anything to add to the originals. There is no rhyme or reason to the song order and the collection is so all over the map I cannnot think of any time or place in which one would want to hear the whole thing, or even half of it. One or two good moments (a fresh Cumberland, a virtuous Dark Star) do not make up for some of the really annoying stuff (a self-indulgent Franklins, an overdosed Pasta on The Mt., Cream Puff War, High Time) or the boring (a faux old-timey Ripple, a wannabe Unbroken Chain). The two greats on here, Dylan and Patti, deliver surprisingly sub-par and sonically disappointing performances as well. A bizarre set. The cover is the best thing about this production. Commended to fanatics only. The Grateful Dead Tribute Album cottage industry needs to wrap it up. All been downhill since Deadicated. Time to move on!

If you are someone who was fortunate enough to see the Grateful Dead just one time, you would understand that Deadheads showed up with open minds AND ears. That makes this the perfect tribute album for old school Deadheads. These selections take you from goosebumps and a mesmerized smile to belly laughs with a wall to wall grin. It's delightful to hear yet another way these old friends could be sung and arranged -- songs that the Dead themselves never played exactly the same way from one show to the next. It's brilliant.

but what great parts they are! Each take on this disc, with one or two exceptions (The Pontiac Brothers being the most obvious), is great or unusual enough to be worth a listen, but the disc as a whole is too diverse, in both mood and sound quality, to be a cohesive set - the disc doesn't hold together. Most of the individual selections are worth multiple listens, but it's unlikely that I'd put the disc in and play it from start to finish, as it doesn't sustain itself. The cuts range from great re-interpretations (The Bobs, Henry Rollins, David Grisman) to heartfelt renditions (Elvis Costello, The Persuasions, Patti Smith) to mediocrities (The Pontiac Brothers) to novelties (The Stanford Marching Band), but there's no heart to the disc (as opposed to individual takes). Worth having, but "Swingin' to the Grateful Dead", "Laughing Water" or "Blue Light Rain" (by Jazz is Dead) and "Fire on the Mountain" (two discs of Dead tunes done by reggae artists) are all much more original and, frankly, fun tributes than this odd assortment.