The Grateful Dead American Beauty (Vinyl, Warner Brothers Records, 1970) *****
Genre: San Franciscan pop/rock
Places I remember: Real Groovy Records
Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Uncle John's Band
Gear costume: Box Of rain
Active compensatory factors: I was a relative late comer to The Grateful Dead. Basically, it was after reading Ken Kesey and Tom Wolfe's books and collecting albums by Jefferson Airplane and David Crosby, that I decided to see what the fuss was all about.
Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Uncle John's Band
Gear costume: Box Of rain
Turns out the fuss was all about a whole lot of stuff! I started with the Europe '72 Tour album (coming next to Goo Goo) and then decided to go for some studio albums.
These two were both from 1970 and they are radically different from the weird drug fueled sixties albums in that they employ harmonies and what is now known as more natural Americana sounds than studio trickery.
Workingman's Dead came out first and American Beauty then refines and perfects the sound.
The other change was the type of song they were singing. Gone was the psychedelic experimentation and in was (relatively) clear-eyed observance from Jerry Garcia and lyricist Robert Hunter. This is the Dead that I love!
Where do they all belong? A lot more Dead to come on both formats.
Where do they all belong? A lot more Dead to come on both formats.
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