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Jerry Garcia - Garcia Audio CD

A fair review of the Jerry Garcia "Garcia" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Jerry Garcia reviews here, or go back to the Jerry Garcia tabs.

Jerry Garcia Band: Jerry Garcia
Title: Garcia
Rating:
Release Date: 1995-10-10
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Deal 2: Bird Song 3: Sugaree 4: Loser 5: Late for Supper 6: Spidergawd 7: Eep Hour 8: To Lay Me Down 9: Odd Little Place 10: Wheel

Garcia
It is not one of his more well known cd's but it well worth the buy. For All of you Garcia fans, this is a great cd.


A Timeless Timecapsule
Yep, this is a document of musical grace and . . gasp I'm about to use the big "G" . . . genius. It's got the definitive "Sugaree. " Period. Contrary to several reviews written here, Jerry didn't play *all* the instruments. Musical contributors included Larry Carlton, Robert Hunter and Amos Garrett on guitars, Michael Omartian on keys, plus Maria Muldaur and Clydie King on vocals. For drummers, Billy Kreutzmann's perfoamce is like a master class in musical percussion. Perhaps it is his best recorded performance. But it's Jerry's album through and through. Plus, it was released nearly at the same time as Bob Weir's "Ace" and Mickey Hart's "Rolling Thunder" solo albums, which were released in '72 as well. Listen to all contemporaneous Dead/Solo releases and you'll hear the musical development of this band of merry pranksters in action. I've heard the Dead needed to drop about five records to fulfill its WB contract : Garcia, Ace and 3-disc Europe 72 equals five. And in '73 you get Wake Of The Flood. Hmmm. Makes sense. Look for a recent Rhino re-issue with 8 alternate tracks of previously unreleased material. .


Garcia's own American Beauty
Side 1 has 4 perfect songs with laid back melodies and lyrics, driven by Crazy Horse style rythyms. This album is the kind of music he could/should have been making all along.
Side 2 has a short psychedelic intro to an absolutely soaring set of music.


Still In Print
com. Contrary to Amazon's inaccurate posted information, this album is still in print and can be found at the Grateful Dead store at gdstore.


An album like no other
Jerry's musical ideas on this album are inspired, to put it VERY mildly. I have been listening to this album since it was released in '72 and I have decided recently that this album is one of the very best albums ever made, all genres included. His juxtaposition of eeriness with warmth is amazing. Many listeners don't care for the scary stuff and it makes me nervous to listen to it too, but the full effect of "the Wheel" (about as close to a perfect song as I've ever heard) is lost without it. There is no filler on this album. It's all there by design. A lot of people don't care for or even listen to song lyrics, preferring to judge a song by its music alone, but for me understanding where the lyrics are coming from brings a whole new level of understanding and emotion to the tune. If you ever hear a song whose lyrics you are not too familiar with but you wonder why did the musicians choose to use that particular hook or play a certain way, try to understand the lyrics (often not an easy thing to do). It is because I only recently realized that "Bird Song" was written about Janis Joplin not long after she died that I would now rank it against ANY song (with the possible exception of "Like a Rolling Stone") on an at least equal basis. Before I used to like the song a lot but now when I hear the line "Sleep in the stars, don't you cry, dry your eyes on the wind" I have a hard time keeping MY eyes dry. One can only imagine how Hunter was feeling when he wrote this. And, of course Jerry came up with that BEAUTIFUL hook to go with it. The reason I call "The Wheel" damn near perfect (and not "Bird Song") is because the lyrics as well as the music are damn near perfect in the sense that it's such a simple, beautiful message that a child could understand yet stated so succintly and eloquently. The man wastes very few words! His poker playing imagery ("Deal" and "Loser") is marvelous and different from what I'm used to hearing (non-Dead music, I mean) as well. Hunter and Garcia wrote some truly incredible songs together and this album has without question some of their very best.


You can see a complete list of all Jerry Garcia discography, or go back to the Jerry Garcia tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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