Live/Dead 1969 - Grateful Dead Album Review

If you separate the Grateful Dead into the studio act (not their native environment) and there more "natural" state as a live improvisational band, then this is kind of like their "debut" album as a live act. 

This album captures the band as they were during their formative years in San Francisco. You can imagine this album being the soundtrack for The Acid Tests and the Summer of Love. This incarnation of the band is the one that put the Grateful Dead on the map and Live/Dead is just a really great psychedelic rock album.  It actually got a lot of critical acclaim which The Dead would not always enjoy.

The whole band is great, but what I especially listen for when I put this album on is the frenetic and youthful playing by Jerry. Jerry's tone is treble-y and if I had to guess I would say he is playing a Gibson SG which is a guitar that he did not play much in the grand scheme of things. His playing at this stage still draws a lot from the blues tradition, but he definitely "steps out" extensively and you have to love the twangy sound and the rapid vibrato of a young master with a lot of energy.

The centerpiece of the album is the St. Stephen->The Eleven medley and the St. Stephen is probably the seminal version of the song on a major label release (because we're still waiting for Cornell 1977 and of course that version has Donna's errors on it).  Even so, I think The Eleven is even better than St. Stephen.  This track shows the band in a free form intro jam before Phil leads the way in to the 11/12 meter of The Eleven (a really impressive transition).  This is my favorite part of the album and never fails to give me chills.  There is definitely a little editing trickery of mixing different performances if you listen close enough to this recording, and there are overdubs on the album as well.

The rest of the album is filled with classics, Pigpen's Turn on Your Lovelight and Jerry's Death Don't Have no Mercy.  Of course, there's a 23:18 version of Dark Star and a soulful And We Bid You Goodnight.  There's no misses on this album, even the 8 minutes of Feedback has to be appreciated for how daring and unconventional it is.

I once had the vinyl of this album and it was really artistically done -  a great collector's album for those who have it.

Live/Dead Album Rating on a Scale of 1-10: 10.0

Disclaimer: This is part of my review of every Grateful Dead song from A-Z. 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).

Death Don't Have no Mercy - Grateful Dead Song Review

Death Don't Have no Mercy is a great slow bluesy grind that the Dead played early in their career (from 1966 through 1970) and also revived in 1989.

Death Don't Have no Mercy was written by Reverend Gary Davis and Jerry Garcia sings the whole song on Live/Dead. I can only assume that he did so on all the old versions of the song.  The 1989 version of the tune has Jerry singing the first verse, then Bob, then Brent, and then Jerry.

This song is really dark, and could be boring.  But the performances I've heard are really ominous and the Dead "pull it off" by keeping the song interesting with this dark energy.

An Unbelievable Guitar Performance

The version that is on the So Many Roads Box Set features some really unbelievable soloing by Garcia. Garcia's lyrical guitar style is typically associated with clean jazzy leads (or at least that's what I feel best represents his talent).  I do not really associate Garcia with "shredding the blues" - which is what many guitarists build their entire career on.

However, this performance features Garcia "shredding the blues" and it is just an unbelievable lead.  It is really flawless and almost hard to believe it is a "one-take" live performance.  I could almost point to this guitar performance as a sort of pinnacle of Garcia's later years.  Also, bonus points for him pulling it off at Shoreline (commonly referred to as "Snoreline"), where Garcia (and the band) often seemed a little too relaxed to pull off career defining musical moments.

Here is the link where you can hear 9-29-89 Shoreline on archive.org.

Death Don't Have no Mercy Song Rating on a Scale of 1-10: 8.3

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 (and be sure to read my blog manifesto to understand a little more about where I'm coming from).

Dark Star - Grateful Dead Song Review

Dark Star.
What can you say about Dark Star? It is almost larger than life.

As you can see I took a 3 year hiatus from the blog to think about this post.  Not really, but it's good to be back (had some technical/google/login type issues).

Dark Star is perfect - a simple motif that represented a vehicle for free form exploration.  The lyrics are simple and utterly psychedelic. "Glass hand dissolving to ice petal flowers revolving." Perfect.

Throughout the band's entire career this song was anticipated and probably even more so toward the end of the  band's tenure in the 90's. I never got to see this song in concert, but there's a few versions that I have close to my heart that I will briefly discuss:

Dark Star from Live/Dead Album (in 1967)
This to me is "the original." It's just fantastic.  The band really does a nice job locking into patterns with each other and evolving gradually and collectively  - with Jerry's twangy guitar leading the way.

There's also a "2:45 "Single Version" on the Live/Dead reissue that is really cool, with a jumpy beat, a nice shaker, and a tamboura in the background.

Dark Star from Sunshine Daydream Movie (Veneta Oregon Concert in 1972)

In this performance the Dead appears to be able to play this song completely unconsciously, thus allowing them to really let themselves go and (apparently) trip out on the performance.  Jerry looks to be "far, far away" in this performance.

I highly recommend you check this movie out, there's some great footage (and especially audio) of the extended Grateful Dead Family putting on a concert.   Part of the Dark Star has been posted to youtube. It claims to be "1 of  4 parts" but I can't find the other 3 and it's not a satisfying way to enjoy the footage anyway (on youtube's flash player). The DVD is out there -  if you can possibly get your hands on it, I recommend doing so.

Dark Star from "Warlock's" Shows in Hampton Virginia (October 9th, 1989)

Must see video on Youtube is here.  The band announced these shows and sold tickets as "The Warlocks" or "Formerly the Warlocks" or something like that.  Can you imagine being there for that run? Wow, here are some notes from the youtube uploader:

In addition to the spectacular renditions of each song, it was also the 1st Dark Star since Berkley 1984, the 2nd Death Don't Have No Mercy since 1972, the 1st Attics of My Life since 10-28-1972 and the 1st time Dark Star and Death Don't were played in the same show since 11-2-69 ...

That video gives me chills, and I return to it often.

Dark Star from First Set at Shoreline (August 16th, 1991)
I am a veteran of several Shoreline shows (not this one though) and you may know that I am biased towards late Dead.  So I am fascinated that on a summer day in 1991 during a pretty routine 1st set Jerry played Dark Star between Desolation Row and Promised Land. WHAT? I love trying to imagine having been there for that. I bet it was still daylight even. It's a "short" version and none too expansive, but still very novel. The last time they played Dark Star in the first set was 20 years prior (in 1971).

This show has a ridiculous 2nd set opening medley - check it out if you can.

Dark Star from Dick's Picks Volume 27 (December 16th, 1992)


This is my favorite Dark Star.  I know I know.... most Deadheads would laugh at this 5 minute "half a Dark Star" and hey, "how can you pick a favorite anyway," right?  Still, I just love hearing the hint and the tease and then the crowd's reaction the instant Jerry plays the notes.   Also, it's at Oakland Coliseum where I have some powerful memories.  They don't even play the opening "theme" (which always seemed to get butchered in later years anyway).  It's a "second half" of the Dark Star that presumably "started" on some previous night.

I've heard other versions where the crowd's reaction is unbelievably loud (like on audience recordings) but that was many years ago when I had a tape collection. I love hearing the crowd react when they recognize what song the Dead are going to play.

For serious musicians: take a look at this "Master Class" piano exploration of Dark Star. This video is over an hour and a half and I admit I haven't even made it into this video further than a few minutes. Still, there's gotta be some amazing insight in there about how the Grateful Dead approached Dark Star.

Dark Star Song Rating on a Scale of 1-10: 10.0

Disclaimer: This is part of my review of every Grateful Dead song from A-Z. 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).