Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Touch of Greatness, August 1, 2000
The best thing about this record is the song you're least likely to have heard on the radio.The last track, "Black Muddy River," is Jerry Garcia's response (put to words by Robert Hunter) to recovering from a diabetic coma that nearly killed him in 1986. When Garcia revived, his coordination was fried and he literally had to re-learn how to play guitar. His joy in doing so successfully was evident in exuberant performances over the next few years. This song captures both that joy and its terrible cost, without ever referring directly to these events. The tune is plaintive and affirming at the same time and, sadly, was the last number Garcia sang lead on with the Grateful Dead. It's well worth many listens. As to the rest of the record, the Amazon review correctly points out that many of the songs were concert staples from the mid-to-late 80s. In fact, with the exception of "Black Muddy River," the best numbers -- Garcia/Hunter's "Touch of Grey" and "West L.A. Fadeaway;" Mydland/Hunter's "Tons of Steel;" Weir/Barlow's "Throwin' Stones," and "Hell in a Bucket" -- were live favorites for years BEFORE they were recorded. Small wonder, then, that the album (and the ensuing hit status of "Touch of Grey") felt anticlimactic to longtime fans. The album's use of electronic gimmickry (motorcycle sounds on "Hell in a Bucket;" guitar processing on "Touch of Grey," etc.) to "enhance" the songs only underscores the futility of trying to capture their live energy. Nevertheless, the songs ARE strong, and this album stands among the Dead's best studio efforts, excepting the magnificent "American Beauty" and "Workingman's Dead." For my money, THOSE records are the best overall introduction to the music of the Dead.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Must have for any music fan., February 29, 2000
As many deadheads and other rock fans know, In The Dark was the Grateful Deads most commercially sucessful album, and for a good reason. Besides opening with Touch of Grey, the bands only top 10 hit, the whole album is classic. On Touch of Grey and Black Muddy River, Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunters writing combined to make supurb rock songs that could be enjoyed by anyone. Bob Weirs Hell in a Bucket and Throwing stones stand out in this album as well, though for different artistic reasons. Brent Mydlands Tons of Steel shows an imaginative writer coming in to his own. Overall, this is a Grateful Dead album that can be enjoyed by anyone.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not a bad record; no American Beauty, July 27, 1998
By A Customer
"In the Dark" stands out from the vast array of Grateful Dead records for a few reasons: The first cut, "Touch of Grey" ("We Will Survive") is perhaps one of the most played (some will agree, over-played) radio songs of the Dead (I still like the song a lot despite this); I read once that it was the only song of theirs to become a number one hit in the U.S., though I can't back this up. "Throwing Stones" ("Ashes, ashes, all fall down...") also received a great deal of commercial recognition. Perhaps it is this aspect of "In the Dark" that causes me to less than love the record; the Dead were about as un-commercial and un-mainstream as an American band could be and still be widely recognized. It thus seems out of place how slick the mixing and production of this record are; there is something affected about the tone of the album; that's the reaction I had after listening to it for a few weeks. There is one s! ong, "Black Muddy River", that I thought was excellent. Though somewhat similar in tone and topic to "Brokedown Palace" from "American Beauty", "Black Muddy River" is a haunting, melancholy, beautiful cut that, on its own, deserves to be placed beside the band's greatest songs from earlier albums. This song was definitely responsible for at least one and maybe even two of the stars in the rating I submitted. Overall, "In the Dark" is not a bad record, but it is no "American Beauty".
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