tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post4668423058259504972..comments2024-03-26T23:10:34.814-07:00Comments on Grateful Dead Sources: 1971: More Live Album Reviews Light Into Asheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-84677168842165044852019-09-19T20:51:23.371-07:002019-09-19T20:51:23.371-07:00I added a couple more reviews at the end, from Pas...I added a couple more reviews at the end, from Pasadena and Chicago, both praising the album.<br /><br />The Pasadena reviewer could represent the totally mainstream viewpoint, the listener who knows little about the Dead and doesn't care for their old stuff (he dismisses Live Dead, if he'd even heard it, saying "nothing has worked"), but is happy to find an "aura of relaxation and good times" on this album, as well as "an irresistible urge to dance." <br />"You'll not find a better Dead album anywhere," he claims. Garcia's "impeccable guitar lines" get special praise: his "stature grows with every recording he makes." <br /><br />The Chicago reviewer, on the other hand, knew all the Dead's albums, had seen them live at least a couple times, and had written a rave review of Live Dead (the "Dead's finest hour"). Unusually for a critic so familiar with the Dead, he finds the new live album "almost as good." He even praises the lengthy Other One (though "parts are a little tedious"), while saying some of the cover songs "could have been dispensed with." He likes the Dead's new "mellow country-folk tinged" songs more than their old "noisy blues-rock" material, and calls the album "relaxing, satisfying and fun." <br />He'd seen the Dead at the Syndrome a year earlier, but if he wrote a review for the Sun-Times, I don't have it.<br /><br />Both reviewers also have positive words for the "nice jams" and "easeful listening" of Hooteroll. I haven't sought out Hooteroll reviews, since Garcia's side-trips are somewhat outside the scope of this blog.Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-77442865688614262682019-08-28T17:15:48.074-07:002019-08-28T17:15:48.074-07:00The Griffin reviewer here was one of the few who l...The Griffin reviewer here was one of the few who liked the Other One, saying it "surpasses the original." (Others complained that it was "too long," "aimless, formless," "they can't do the old stuff anymore," and missed Hart & Constanten's presence.) <br />Garcia himself told Rolling Stone that it was "some of the best playing that we've ever done." <br /><br />But one reason for the album's success (aside from the heavy promotion and live broadcasts) was that it mostly kept away from the long jams. Many listeners just couldn't be lured into the Dead's style of improvisation! <br />For instance, one Spectrum reviewer of an unrelated album wrote in the 6/23/72 issue: <br />"I get bored a lot more easily than most people...in any given performance, a group has to be doing something...to keep me interested... It's very difficult to get me to listen to a jam over five minutes unless I really think that there's something going down. That's why Grateful Dead live albums bore me and Allman Brother albums keep me listening. There's really quite a difference between the groups, though I don't doubt that many of their fans are the same and look at the groups in the same way." <br /><br />Robert Christgau, a longtime Dead fanatic, gave the album a B+. "The drum-and-guitar interlude isn't going to inspire anybody to toke up, much less see visions. But even there they gather some of that old Dead magic. And it's about time they documented their taste in covers--I've craved their 'Not Fade Away' for years." Ironically, he also wrote, "I wish some of this live double had been done in the studio" to save some of the weaker songs...if he only knew! Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-78223909351926153612019-08-28T02:33:45.824-07:002019-08-28T02:33:45.824-07:00A mixed set of reviews - some complimentary, other...A mixed set of reviews - some complimentary, others damning. While it was rare to find negative Dead reviews in college papers in 1970, when this album was released, for many reviewers delight turned to disappointment and grave doubts about the Dead started to settle in. <br />Though it's not a firm rule, in general those who had loved the Dead the most or the longest were the most bitter about this album. "A new nadir," "a disgrace," "wasted space," "a throwaway," "it stinks!" they cried. So here we start to see some old-time Dead fans jumping off the bus. <br />But meanwhile, mainstream reviewers (and the mass public) who had a more casual Dead acquaintance were quite happy with this album: "a must for Dead lovers;" "if you've never bought a Grateful Dead album before, you couldn't start with a better one than this."<br /><br />Old-timers tended to feel betrayed by the Dead "going commercial" and pursuing "teen appeal," but it turned out that an album of "fifties stuff," "middle of the road sloppy country," "shallow imitations and half-baked homages" was just what the general audience wanted. Many people liked the "light boogie" and "old-time rockin'" and appreciated that "the singing is improved [and] the cuts are much shorter" than the more imposing Live/Dead. <br />Almost everyone found the Other One too long and dull, both the casual fans (like the Tribune reviewer who didn't like side-long jams anywhere), and the Dead freaks who compared this "aimless ersatz cosmic noodling" to the fire, energy, and spontaneity of old. The drum solo was greeted with universal impatience. <br /><br />I sympathize with the enraged Spectrum reviewer! "It's hard to believe that the Dead could sink this low." He says he'd panned the "lamentable" American Beauty when it came out as "the fucking most lame music they've ever played," but I couldn't find that - the Spectrum had run a review under a different name, but saying the record was "absolutely flawless...I love this record." (Maybe he'd changed his mind as well as his name.)<br />The Dead used to be so great, but what happened to them, he wonders - have they given up trying? But he was right that this album "would just zoom up there in a hurry." Success has ruined them, and he angrily dismisses them.<br /><br />The Northwestern reviewer compares the Dead to the Band as "American music," concluding that the Band's much better at it, the Dead are just no good at this broad-based, diverse style (they don't have "the chops," the right background or talent for it). The implication is that the Dead should just stick to their unique brand of fire-breathing psychedelic rock - now they sound anemic, low-energy, watered-down for the masses. Even at their latest Chicago live show, they were "sweet and mellow" but too tame and cautious. <br />He writes as one fan to another - "I love the Dead. And you love the Dead." Like the Spectrum reviewer, he compares the current Dead to the genuine old Dead (in this case, New York '67, "the loudest, rockin'est set in history") and feels that they've gone sloppy and abandoned their strengths and their "singular identity" for a "national following."Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.com