Search - Grateful Dead :: Anthem of the Sun

I Love Them, But I'll Pass On This One

Mark Nenadov | Lasalle, Ontario Canada | 05/16/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I love the Grateful Dead, and while I will concede the historical importance of this album and its revolutionary avant-garde and artist aspects, I'm not a big fan of it. It's a bit too trippy and raw for my tastes. Experimentalism is good, but this gets a bit excessive and furthermore one is hard pressed to find a few comprehensible lines of vocal lyrics in here.



The vocals are nowhere near the crisp greatness of American Beauty and Workingman's Dead. It was an important step in their development as a band, but thankfully not the final step. I get a kick out of New Potato Caboose, and I like long songs, but it is probably a few minutes too long. Born Cross-eyed has some great aspects to it. But the rest is pretty unremarkable in my opinion. I think they totally messed up the rendition of Alligator, they've done much better versions at their live shows and this version is just far too cluttered with the vocals and the kazoo sounds are way too overwhelming. Overall, the instrumentals are pretty darn good, if you can swallow the "experimentalness" and length of it all. This was basically the band members experimentation in the studio, where they got to experiment with some of the equipment for the first time and had full control of the production. They did a fine job of "sticking it to the record company", but that doesn't make this an appealing album. If you are going to grab this, make sure you also watch the film "Anthem to Beauty", which gives a lot of neat inside perspectives on how they made this. If you are going to get weirded out by this album, watching "Anthem to Beauty" ahead of time will increase your interest and the inside scoops will probably perk your interest and help you "swallow" it.



All this said, if you are a real fan, you just have to listen to this a couple of times. As for me, I've listened to it, and I will set it aside with the smug satisfaction of knowing that the Dead went on to do better things. The Dead were never as good at making albums as they were at live shows, but ultimately they DID make great albums and they made ones much better than this. In terms of maturity, more subtle instrumentation, vocal quality, and cohesiveness, American Beauty and Workingman's Dead totally eclipse this label, and so I recommend that anyone new to the Grateful Dead start there."

Under-rated

aspiring saint | in the moment zone | 04/01/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Some quite creative work, especially considering the year it was recorded. Most psychedelic studio album of Dead has. Solid jams mixed with craziness. Combination of studio work and live recordings thrown together in an electric kool-aid flavored tossed salad.



!! IF ITS NOT A LIVING BABY, THEN YOU'RE NOT PREGNANT !!!"

How Do You Categorize the Grateful Dead?

Paul | Davis Ca | 12/02/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There is little doubt in my mind that this record represents for many San Franciscans the Grateful Dead in all their psychedelic glory. Its an excellent example of impressionistic aural painting using both live and studio created components to layer a thick canvas of sound that so closely represents reality if "viewed" from afar, but when you drill down, is comprised of bits of noise, guitar, voice and electric instruments that seem like they are incomprehensible. Relax, enjoy, and let yourself go. They were so good at this live .. and they probably got closer to capturing that experience here than on any other record or bootleg you'll ever hear. If you're a fan, buy it. Its a must.



However, reading some of the comments by those who are not so thrilled by this record, I see that they may not have the common experience that this record speaks volumes of. It seems that many people point at other records recorded in the same time period by our heros and others as "better". I'm not so sure. While I would be the first to say that both Workingman's Dead and American Beauty are also high quality work, I feel like they are simply other sides of the Grateful Dead. Yes, there were times when I thought they were one of the best country rock or country blues bands. Jerry Garcia had roots in jugband, country, folk, banjo, Appalachian, and so many more styles of music. And Mr. Pen brought the funk, and down and out blues. But are the 3-5 minute format am radio style tunes "better" than this masterpiece of psycedelphia? Sorry, but I'm not convinced.



This is the band as I remember them on many a night in the Carousel Ballroom, the Family Dog, the ex-slot car track at Ocean Beach. Fantastic! And the references here of the Acid Test era, Neal Cassidy, the unbridled joy of dancing wildly to polyrhytmic Alligators in the swamps of the south only drives home how eclectic the Grateful Dead was coming out of the electric jug band sound they invented.



So how do you categorize them? I remember Bob Weir saying once if not many times "Talk among yourselves while we get tuned .. you know you have many selves, don't you?" The GD had many selves. AOXOMOXOA selves, Do Not Stop on Tracks selves, Love Lights selves, Live Dead (both kinds) selves, and on and on selves. Its true, they never managed to capture on a single record the experience in total, but here they capture a solid stripe of the experience. If this is the only Grateful Dead recording you own, I'm afraid you've got a long way to go to filling out what they had to offer, but none the less, this is CORE material. I highly reccomend it."