Customer Reviews

Where the Beat Meets the Street

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This has to be one of the worst albums of all times. Complete junk. Makes me not want to listen to music.

1984 was the perfect year for this album: "War is Peace" "Freedom is Slavery" "Garbage is Music". I'm surprised hearing this album didn't kill Jerry on the spot. I actually like the first Midnites album - it's cheese, but it's honest cheese. This is cheese made from the toxic waste of early to mid-eighties rock, when the corporations said, "We're your only access to music - take it or leave it." Well, all music fans, not just deadheads, left this one in the Hefty bag it came in. You can't even find it for sale on the Dead's own website, they know how awful it is.

This is the type of album one makes to get out of a contract. Seriously, if you can listen to a song like "Lifeguard" and think it's good music, you should just download a whole bunch of Menudo onto your iPod, set it for endless repeat, put the earbuds on and never take them off. Real music will just hurt you.

Bob Weir and assorted session hacks get together and produce a real turkey stuffed with generic 80's rock. Forget the name players - this is truly dreck, and easily the worst album ever recorded by a member of the Grateful Dead.

Don't waste your $$$.

Bob Weir's worst work ever!!!!!!!!!!!!! A joke. What the heck was he on when he made this junk?

So, yes, I was starry eyed and naive to an embarrassing extent, a young deadhead who though Jerry, Bob and Co. could do no wrong. I listened to scratchy, poorly recorded tapes of mediocre shows, not to mention the ridiculous production on some of those late '70's Dead albums, and could hear no wrong. And then...this--in a nutshell, everything awful about the '80's that I was trying to escape by getting into the Dead in the first place, but worse. Dan Hartman and Rick Springfield seriously rocked compared to this dreck. Buy a copy only if really desperate to see just how bad it can get.

It's so bad, it's good! Check out "I want to live in America" on Youtube. Surely they did this album as a joke. Billy Cobham, probably the greatest living drummer, doing this kind of stuff?

FunnY!

The lineup on the album is incredible: Eddie Cochran's little brother, Billy Cobham, Bob Weir, the keyboardist from the Everly Brothers and one of the Mahavishnu Orchestra bassists along with surpise appearances by the likes of Brian Setzer. The album had all the hooks needed for an 80's album and could have achieved good commercial success with this set of crispy clean pop/rock numbers. The real value in this recording is the approach that fantastic musicians take in applying their talents to popular music. Cobham's drumming is serious, but tweezed more for pop than the usual explosive stuff you heard on "Spectrum" and has a definitive feel that no ordinary pop drummer could have achieved. This album is much more "commercial" [and dated to 1984] sounding than their previous effort which didn't sound too much different than your average Grateful Dead record. Most people hear about this band through their interest in GD and presumably banish this one to the bottom rack after one listen since very little of it is GD-ish in sound and attitude. Cochran can really sing and everyone in this band can really play. Great for musicians and lovers of 80's popular music (and die-hard GD fans I guess). Check it out.

I love this record, but then I think it is hilarious. Five of the world's best musicans get together and turn 80's corporate rock inside out. It is too well played to be terrible, and it is too ridiculous to be serious. The songs may be overloaded with musical and lyrical cliches (heck, even the cover is overloaded with cliches), but this band totally kicked ass live and the crowds loved them. Weir's perverse sense of humor combined with top-notch musicianship make this an album that works musically as well as ironically. But then maybe I have a perverse sense of humor too: I love playing this for unsuspecting friends just to watch their expressions of confusion and dismay. And one more thing: it is (of course) better loud.

folks that don't get the jazz and other influences (jazz greats Alphonso Johnson and Billy Cobham on bass and drums) won't get this album. It's not classic rock and it's not Weir's usual stuff. this is much more a group thing inlcuding Weir rather than a backup for Weir. Very intersting in itts own right, although the debut album (bobby & the Midnites) might be just a taste sweeter.