Golden Road - Grateful Dead Song Review

Ahh, the "Golden Road," the full title is: The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion).

Everytime I hear this jumbled ball of energy, I am transported to pushing "play" on my Skeletons in the Closet cassette the first time (my first Grateful Dead album). It's the first song on side A and it just sounds like the Summer of Love come to life.  This song was also the first song off of the debut album for The Grateful Dead (called simply, The Grateful Dead) released in 1967.

This song is only 2:13 long and extremely catchy. There's a lot of overdubbed sounds on the track, many of which I can't identify.  During the chorus you can really hear Phil singing backup clearly and there is a lot of the band "singing over each other" during the song which is why I describe it as "jumbled" (in the best possible way).  This amount of vocal shouting kind of leads me to consider this song as a "chant" of sorts... and the title (the part in parentheses) also lends itself to this perception.  The lyrics as quoted on Dead.net for the chorus seem lacking: 

Hey hey, come right away

Come and join the party

Every day

I can't even hear these specific lines being sung in particular but I can hear a lot of other shouting and chanting going on. 

The First Shot Fired in the Grateful Dead Revolution 

I think of this song as "the first shot fired" in the Grateful Dead revolution. It's literally about the culture of San Francisco in the 60s that the band would embody and carry forth for decades.  The music and lyrics are credited to The Grateful Dead (as a whole, instead of individuals) and that's perfect.  

This line seems especially prophetic: 

Nobodys finished we ain't even begun...

How true was that statement? Wow.  Also, this one became kind of iconic for The Grateful Dead: 

Everybody's dancing in a ring around the sun

I remember often seeing a very particular sticker with this quote, I will try to dig up a picture and post here.

I always thought this song deserved more reverence in the Grateful Dead echelon of music, but I suppose that it wasn't really a live concert standby through the 70s/80s/90s.  

It's definitely 2:13 of pure bliss and a great way for me to have been introduced to The Grateful Dead - more than just a rock band.

The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion) Song Rating on a Scale of 1-10: 9.3

Disclaimer: This is part of my blog that reviews all things Grateful Dead for fun. Music is a beautiful thing because it is so personal and subjective, so keep in mind that this is one man's opinion.

Grateful Dead Debut Album - Grateful Dead Album Review

This album holds up the test of time. The main thing I would say about it is that it doesn't really have the character of the Grateful Dead we have come to know. Rather it sounds like a typical rock band from this time period.

The album is almost... cute in this regard. If you listen to Sitting on Top of the World with it's funny little punches and immediate fadeout when the guitar solo begins, it sounds like music that would be in the background of an old dated commercial.

In my opinion, the bona fide highlights are:

1. The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion) - a summer of love classic. I've loved this song since the first time I heard it (on the Skeletons from the Closet compilation cassette of course). This song does sound a little "un-Dead like" in it's rushed delivery and cumbersome overdubs but I've always really loved this tune

2. Cold Rain and Snow - on Wikipedia it says this song is a Grateful Dead composition but I've always assumed it was a traditional tune the Dead appropriated. Cold Rain and Snow is a real favorite Dead song for me and I always crank it up and I also enjoy every incarnation of it through the years (getting slower and slower).

3. (Walk Me Out in the) Morning Dew - considering the rest of the tracks on this debut LP and how pop/commercial they sounded, this one had the musical swell at the beginning and a decent length guitar solo and therefore sounds like the Grateful Dead were sounding like themselves rather than just making "Top 40" A.M. radio music.

4. Viola Lee Blues - the highlight really of the whole record in my opinion. It has a nice fat jam in the middle, plenty of soloing - now this sounds like early Grateful Dead - the psychedelic acid rock jam band from SF. Viola Lee Blues is a really cool and catchy song and I wish that it would've been played throughout more of the Grateful Dead's career but I know that Phil brought the song back sometime after Jerry's death so that's cool to know.

The rest of the songs are pretty good too. It kind of sounds like Jerry is trying to hard to "sing" and he is over enunciating everything and who knows maybe he wasn't very comfortable being in the studio and singing with headphones on etc. His voice sounds unnatural but still I like this.

One time I think someone told me that Cream Puff War was the only Grateful Dead song that Jerry wrote all music and lyrics by himself. It is a pretty cool song but not a favorite of mine per se. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl also deserves a mention for being such a great Pigpen song.

I don't consider this to be a great Grateful Dead studio album, but then again I've never considered the Grateful Dead to be that great in the studio.

Grateful Dead Debut Album Rating on a Scale of 1-10: 8.8

Disclaimer: This is part of my blog that reviews all things Grateful Dead for fun. Music is a beautiful thing because it is so personal and subjective, so keep in mind that this is one man's opinion (and be sure to read my blog manifesto to understand a little more about where I'm coming from).