Entertainment For Lively Minds
Grateful Dead - Where to start
Posted by craig42blue on 17 October 2010 - 3:13pm.
Ok.. I think I have quite a broad spectrum in my collection..
Like many of the Massive I like Dylan, Miles Davis, Richard Thompson, John Martyn and quite a bit of prog ... BUT I have never really heard any Grateful Dead... Suggestions would be welcome on where to start - preferably legit stuff, although I realise there is loads of semi-legit stuff out there - (the RED dye in the swimming pool that is the interweb)*.
Cheers
* - http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/nothing-comes-free#comment-323539
- More from craig42blue.
- Login or register to post comments
-
By no means an expert on The Dead
so I'll recommend the only two albums by them I own.
American Beauty & Workingman's Dead.I'm sure there must be a few Deadheads among us who are better qualified than I to guide you though.
Thanks
Thanks for this - I was looking at those 2 plus "Blues For Allah" in my excellent local emporium "Action Records" in Preston.
I'd normally be happy to try anything in "Action" at £4 or £5 but I thought I'd ask as the new remasters are a bit pricier.
Been there
Last year I had an explore of the Dead. The two recommended are greta in an American kinda way, and Blues for Allah is excellent and more jazzy/bluesy.
As the house Deadhead I'd agree
go with American Beauty and Workingman's Dead as a start.
If you get on with them then I'd suggest Europe '72 as a way into the live Dead experience.
Here's a taster :-)
From the Mars Hotel
is IMHO a very good Dead studio album. Good songwiting and playing. 8 tracks, no duds
Allow me
I asked the very same question a long while ago.
Bountiful replies here:
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/grateful-some-dead
From memory, I know you
have the following:
Workingman's Dead
Skull & Roses
Blues For Allah
Terrapin Station
After a suitable period of listening, whaddya reckon to those four?
What a long, strange trip it will be...
Some uncharitable souls might add "tedious", but of course I would do no such thing.
I think John Peel's description of the Fall applies equalliy
to the Dead... "Always different, always the same"
'Golden Road' to the 'Festival Express'
'Workingman's Dead' and 'American Beauty' for sure.....but as an end not a beginning.
Save yourself from having to wade through 4-CD Box Sets of concerts and outtakes and, frankly, pretty much any post-60s stuff, and look at the date of release first, usually you'll have the increasingly dire graphic design of the 1970s and the appalling 1980s to help you.
Wake of the Flood
is pretty good and includes the extraordinary Weather Report Suite.