Grateful Dead: Grateful Dead: Amazon.ca: Music

1. Bertha

2. Mama Tried

3. Big Railroad Blues

4. Playing In The Band

5. The Other One

6. Me & My Uncle

7. Big Boss Man

8. Me & Bobby McGee

9. Johnny B. Goode

10. Wharf Rat

11. Not Fade Away/Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad

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Customer Reviews

24 Reviews

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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Average Customer Review

4.6 out of 5 stars (24 customer reviews)

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3.0 out of 5 stars Hasn't held up with time as well as other albums, Jun 12 2003

By

J. Polsgrove "tucson_deadhead" (Uh, Arizona) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Grateful Dead (Audio CD)

I remember listening to this the first time and being blown away by the entire side of an album beging taken up by The Other One. Some of the other tunes also caught my ear, and it must have caught others' ears as well, as this was the Dead's first "Gold" album. Over the years, though, the emergence of the Dick's Picks series, and the fine, fine job done on the remastering of Live/Dead and Europe '72 just tend to overshadow this CD and reveal its weaknesses. It's not a BAD two-LPs on one CD set, and the remastered version sounds good, it's just that just doesn't hold up to other material released around the same time. Dead completists are, of course, going to want this. But IMHO there are better quality live Dead releases out there, and I'd recommend this only after the other CDs have been purchased. It's funny, but that 18-minute or so The Other One that was so great 30-odd years ago now seems so incomplete, because I know it went from The Other One into something else, instead of just fading off at the end. This CD would have been fun if it had been expanded to 2 CDs and The Other One jam and the songs leading into and out of it had been included. This, along with Bear's Choice, was a hodgepodge thrown together by the band (see Steal Your Face for more on that!) to fulfill their Warner Bros. contract and go their own way. Not a horrible CD, but compared to what else is available, skip it for now...

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5.0 out of 5 stars American Rock and Roll's ultimate live album, Oct 6 2002

By

David Haggard "river minstrel" (Kansas City, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Grateful Dead (Audio CD)

This album is well reviewed by various listeners. I appreciate Alan Sandler's review pointing out Bob Weir's work on the bridge between Not Fade Away and Goin'Down the Road. Another excellent example of Bobby's ability to lead the transition between songs in medleys can be found in Europe 72's China Cat/I Know You Rider combo. In both of these recordings, Weir lays out the plot with Jerry providing punctuation, then when the mood is set, Garcia is able to elaborate on the story with soaring lines that truly define the Dead during this era. Listen closely to the stereo separation on these recordings and it becomes easier the distinguish these two very different guitar styles that blended so seamlessly together.

Another facet of the Skull and Roses recordings that is underappreciated in my mind is the drumming of Bill Kreutzman throughout this album. Kreutzman once said that drumming should feel like dancing, and if you want to hear a drummer dancing to the sound of a band in its prime, just listen to the drum tracks here. I love Mickey Hart and his contributions not only to the Dead, but to percussion in general, but to my ears,the single drum set on this recording lends a simplicity and purity that is seldom evident on Dead outings with the full double drum set-up.

One more item that stands out and separates this live recording from others that came before and after, was the engineering of the sound. The Dead were surrounded by technical people who loved the music and found a way to give it life on vinyl (and digital media). The sound here is remarkable, especially in light of the fact that the technological leaps that were just around the corner, were not at the disposal of the bands at that time. It wasn't long before the Dead jumped into the world of digital effects and processing, pioneering new sounds and techniques, but the pure energy of the band always sounds best to me right in the grooves of Skull and Roses.

I claim this as the best live American Band recording, fully appreciating some other fantastic live albums (The Allman Brothers, the Band's Rock of Ages, and many others). I admit to a slight bias having followed the Dead since 1968, but I have never been a fan with blinders, unaware of the band's shortcomings, or of the great efforts from all over the American Rock and Roll map. Still, this album can give me the same sense of euphoria that I felt listening all those years ago.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Real Live One--Buy this one!, Aug 24 2002

By

George H. Soule (Edwardsville, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Grateful Dead (Audio CD)

Released in 1971, this is the Dead's second live release for Warner Brothers and for me it's more satisfying than the earlier "Live Dead." That is in part because of its return to roots. I guess that this album has been cited as being more country than what came to be expected from Captain Trips and company. But the pre-Dead Garcia was known as a folk musician in the Bay Area--mostly as a bluegrass banjo player. And this album is a refreshing revelation of roots. Not that that hadn't been the whole focus of the band from the beginning. "Working Man's Dead" and "American Beauty" always seemed to me to be direct responses to the Rolling Stones' 1966 collection "High Tide & Green Grass." "Working Man's Dead" and "American Beauty" have songs that talk about American music within its tradition. And those albums are true to what the Brits were gleefully reclaiming (or stealing) from our version of the tradition. So in "Grateful Dead" we have prototypes. Garcia plays guitar that Chet Atkins country fans would recognize in "Bertha," and "Mama Tried" (a Merl Haggard song). "Me and My Uncle" is another outlaw ballad, and then there are blues covers "Big Railroad Blues" and "Big Boss Man." This version of "Playing in the Band" is among the best, and Jerry, who said early on that he took a long time to figure out tunings for early rock 'n roll guitar, demonstrates that he's solved the mystery of Chuck Berry in this rendering of "Johnny B. Goode." The band still sounds like the Dead with crisp contrapuntal Bachian interplay and lots of repetitious riffs. But they are playing the music that satisfied their souls--a mixture of country and blues and folk music--whence they came. To be sure, we also have the stuff of the jam band in "The Other One" with a drum circle solo and some long noodles and great improvisation featuring said interplay. This is good Dead, and the absence of feedback and excessive road crud doesn't detract from the authenticity of the sound at all.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Raw, gritty, powerful jamming
For Deadheads looking for the sound they loved in the 1980s and 1990s, this will be a bit of a surprise. Read more

Published on Nov 12 2001 by Dean Esmay

5.0 out of 5 stars One stop shop for all your Dead needs
The Skull and Roses album is a wonderful live Grateful Dead album. It contains a lot of variety. It has everything from 50's rock (Johnny B. Read more

Published on July 31 2001