Playing live music is like being in a rowboat in the ocean.” The shows were the Dead’s principal art. Garcia famously once said: “Making a record is like building a ship in a bottle. Grateful Dead: Dark Star (live) – stream Spotify Contrary to most of the Dead’s output, these are songs that were best served on their concise studio recordings. There are rockers, too, namely Truckin’ and Sugar Magnolia, classic rock radio hits that inspired monster live expansions in the years to come. Box of Rain, written for Lesh’s dying father, raises grief to the level of high art as the band harmonises: “What do you want me to do, to do for you to see you through?” Big-bearded Garcia seems cuddly, but on Friend of the Devil takes on a rakish, outlaw persona. Brokedown Palace has Garcia trading his blazing electric guitar for a pedal steel, and Ripple is an acoustic campfire song with touching, simple lyrics. Attics of My Life groups leader Jerry Garcia with rhythm guitarist Bob Weir and bassist Phil Lesh in close vocal harmonies – a rebuke, perhaps, to those who accused the Dead of jamming by the seat of their pants.
The countrified tunes are the stars of the show. American Beauty, more than anything else, shed some of their soupy psychedelic baggage, replaced it with mellifluous folk-rock, and helped them reach a wider audience. There is a degree of truth to this assessment, but there are many different phases to the Dead. It is easy for people unfamiliar with their music to dismiss the Grateful Dead as amorphous jamming for dirty hippies whacked on LSD. Grateful Dead: Box of Rain – stream Spotify
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