Grateful Dead - Aoxomoxoa [HDCD 4 bonus tracks] (1969)

♪ Year: June 20, 1969 (CD 2003)
♪ Label: Rhino Records (Germany), 8122-74394-2
♪ Style: Psychedelic Rock, Acid Rock
♪ Country: Palo Alto, California, U.S.
♪ Time: 79:24
♪ Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
♪ Size: 503 Mb

This is a mildly surprising collection of music, essentially because it is so mellowed. The tunes are soft and gentle, the lyrics graciously decipherable, the vocals hesitant and wavering. There is a remarkable lack of harshly inflected rhythms and scalding guitar, for which the Dead have been so justly famed. Instead, Axoxomoxa is a wider application of the ideas we saw in Anthem of The Sun: long, dreamy ballads, occasionally interspersed with rock passages, but more often content to float their own ethereal way. Very different, a bit sadly, from the driving power of the first album. But this third one is a delight. It's filled with surreal (What's Become Of The Baby) and romantic visions (Mountains Of The Moon), rural whimsy and funk, and some great old blues (Dupree's Diamond Blues and Cosmic Charlie).
Somehow, the Grateful Dead have done the impossible. They've kept their standards in the face of white-hot pressures to change. Not only have they remained an intact musical unit, they've improved their skills and sharpened and adjusted their technique, all of which indicates that they have retained their sanity. I find that pretty amazing.
Heavily in debt, much of it from back taxes, seeing their community fall down around them, the Dead have willingly and happily played innumerable benefits and free concerts in the park (Golden Gate), because they love the music. When a human being takes this course of action, when he faces and withstands the demands to mold himself to the social main-current, concentrating only on the realization of his constructive ideas, you call him by one word: artist. The Dead are artists. They've ignored packaging trends, preferring to wrap their albums simply, without folding covers and other little goodies. They've made no media appearances, save for three, which I can remember: a KPIX special on the Haight, some two years ago; an Irving Penn photographic essay, titled "The Incredibles," in Look; and about 10 seconds on a CBS documentary of Bill Graham. The Grateful Dead are considered, very simply, poor commercial material and a sight from which the eyes of America's children must somehow be shielded.
(full version: deadsources.blogspot.com/2024/10/1969-aoxomoxoa-review.html)

01. St. Stephen (04:27)
02. Dupree's Diamond Blues (03:34)
03. Rosemary (02:00)
04. Doin' That Rag (04:44)
05. Mountains of the Moon (04:04)
06. China Cat Sunflower (03:42)
07. What's Become of the Baby (08:13)
08. Cosmic Charlie (05:44)
09. Clementine Jam (10:51)
10. Nobody's Spoonful Jam (10:09)
11. The Eleven Jam (15:05)
12. Cosmic Charlie [Live] (06:47)

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Grateful Dead - American Beauty [MFSL-CD] (1970)

Year: November 1970 (CD Nov 17, 2014)
Label: Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (US), UDSACD 2138
Style: Folk Rock, Country Rock
Country: Palo Alto, California, U.S.
Time: 42:46
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 271 Mb

For once a truly beautiful album cover is more than matched by the record inside. The dead just refuse to keep within any normal limits, and I hope that it stays that way for a long time. Workingman’s Dead was a lovely album, lush, full, and thoroughly real in musical and lyrical content. American Beauty is a joyous extension of the last album. If possible there is even more care on vocal wok. Everyone in the band sings, and sings well alone and together.
A full contentment. The instrumentation is rich with sound that moves through, under, and into the listener. Damn it all, the album is American beauty, of the best possible kind. The positivity of the Dead just can’t be kept down. Look at the cover. “American Beauty” can also be read as “American Reality,” thanks to Mouse Studios. If more of the American reality were this album, we’d all have a lot more to be thankful for.
“Box of Rain” takes plenty of time, and moves surely. The band isn’t in any great hurry. Layers of music weave in seemingly simple patterns - deceptively simple patterns. Phil Lesh’s singing is just right. The chorus is fine: “A box of rain will ease the pain/And love will see you through.” “Believe it if you need it/If you don’t just pass it on.” Praised be Bob Hunter. Countrified Dead is so nice to listen to.
From “Box of Rain” they zip into “Friend of the Devil,” which is a snappy little country number, with some extremely fine bass and acoustic guitar interplay. Jerry Garcia’s voice now makes him a perfect wobbly cowboy.
Pigpen drops by with “Operator.” Pigpen songs are always enjoyable, because they’re Pigpen songs. That would be enough, but they are often good too, which is an added bonus, and this one certainly is good. Pigpen growls as ever.
“Ripple” and “Brokedown Palace” are coupled by a vocal chorus, a little reminiscent of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but only in a complimentary sense. The songs meld together and are strongly pretty and sad, as is “Attics of My Life,” which has some very, very nice harmony work.
The two songs that come closest to being rockers on the album are “Till the Morning Comes” and “Truckin.” “Truckin” is just the story of the Dead - going on the road, losing old friends, gaining new ones, trying to keep everybody happy, trying to play some nice music for people, and succeeding on all counts.
The Dead are getting pretty big commercially now, and if ever a band deserved it, it’s them. They have given us all something to treasure with this album. It’s one for now, and one for the kids in 20 years too. American Beauty’s like that, you know.
(rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/american-beauty-127772/) Review by Andy Zwerling. December 24, 1970

01. Box of Rain (05:20)
02. Friend of the Devil (03:25)
03. Sugar Magnolia (03:20)
04. Operator (02:26)
05. Candyman (06:18)
06. Ripple (04:10)
07. Brokedown Palace (04:10)
08. Till the Morning Comes (03:11)
09. Attics of My Life (05:15)
10. Truckin' (05:08)

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Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead [MFSL-CD] (1970)

Year: June 14, 1970 (CD Nov 20, 2014)
Label: Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (US), UDSACD 2137
Style: Folk Rock, Country Rock
Country: Palo Alto, California, U.S.
Time: 36:04
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 205 Mb

Looking at the sepia tone album cover of the Workingman’s Dead 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, I give away my age when I say I remember my older brother having the original on 8-Track tape back when it came out in 1970. I remember my seven-year-old brain being somewhat mortified of it because the men pictured on the cover looked like zombies to me ( which I attribute to the old-timey feel of the photo and the post – Night of the Living Dead mania of the day).
My fear didn’t last long, however. It subsided one day when my brother was not at home and I put the tape in his trusty Pioneer player and listened to the eight songs on the album.
I remember thinking during that clandestine listening session that the band sounded a lot like some of the other bands that my older sibling listened to like CCR or CSNY. What set them apart, however, was that unlike a lot of the other bands of the day, they sounded like they were actually having fun playing their instruments and singing. That impression has never left me.
Fifty years later as I listen to the same songs and pick up on some of the weighty themes of the record – the working life, the nature of existence, maintaining hope amidst despair, and staring down death, I still hear an exuberant undercurrent of love and compassion coming from the Grateful Dead’s music that continually sets them apart for me in the world of rock and roll bands. 
I still hear their love for music for music’s sake, but now I also additionally hear an affection for their musical forefathers and influences, for life itself, and for their fans. It is a love that literally pours out of the speakers when their songs are playing and is a love that helps explain the existence of an unprecedented and unmatched fanatical fanbase decades later.
The eight songs on Workingman’s Dead features the band displaying their amazing ability to synthesize elements from Bluegrass, Folk, Country, Blues, Jazz, Dylan’s early electric songs, and sixties rock and roll to masterfully forge a distinctly original sound of their own.
That all of these songs still sound fresh and lively now after a half-century has passed is a testament to the prodigious individual and collective talents of the band.
(americanahighways.org/2020/07/14/review-the-grateful-deads-workingmans-dead-is-still-quintessential-listening-50-years-later/)

01. Uncle John's Band (04:47)
02. High Time (05:15)
03. Dire Wolf (03:16)
04. New Speedway Boogie (04:09)
05. Cumberland Blues (03:18)
06. Black Peter (05:46)
07. Easy Wind (05:00)
08. Casey Jones (04:29)

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Grateful Dead - Live Dead [Live. 2LP on 1CD] (1969)

Year: November 10, 1969 (CD ????)
Label: Warner Bros. Records (Germany), 927 181-2
Style: Psychedelic Rock, Rock
Country: Palo Alto, California, U.S.
Time: 73:02
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 387 Mb

Live/Dead is the first official live album (and fourth overall) released by the rock band Grateful Dead. Recorded over a series of concerts in early 1969 and released later the same year, it was the first live rock album to use 16-track recording.
The title has a double meaning. It refers both to the band (the "Dead") playing live, and is an oxymoron, contrasting the two words in apparent contradiction. The artwork, created by Robert Donovan Thomas (aka Bob Thomas), also illustrated this juxtaposition. The word "Live" is seen on the front cover, and the word "Dead" fills the back cover of the gatefold. Additionally, on the back cover, the top portion of "Dead" somewhat cryptically spells out "Acid".
To assuage debt accrued with their record label from their recent album Aoxomoxoa, as well as fulfill their record contract, the band decided to record a live album. They were also interested in releasing an album more representative of their live performances and actual musicianship, as opposed to the in-studio experimentation of previous albums.
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live/Dead)

01. Dark Star (23:07)
02. Saint Stephen (06:32)
03. The Eleven (09:21)
04. Turn On Your Love Light (15:08)
05. Death Don't Have No Mercy (10:29)
06. Feedback (07:49)
07. And We Bid You Goodnight (00:34)

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