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Grateful Dead - Live / Dead Audio CD

A fair review of the Grateful Dead "Live / Dead" 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 Grateful Dead reviews here, or go back to the Grateful Dead tabs.

Grateful Dead Band: Grateful Dead
Title: Live / Dead
Rating:
Release Date: 2003-02-25
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Dark Star 2: St. Stephen 3: The Eleven 4: Turn On Your Love Light 5: Death Don't Have No Mercy 6: Feedback 7: And We Bid You Goodnight 8: Bonus Track 1 9: Bonus Track 2

Rhino edition 2003: Warning: This is a remix
This is a "dry" remix that somebody thought would approximate concert sound. I wish someone had told me, so I'm telling you. It does not sound like the original release. Instruments appear at higher or lower levels, in different positions. Also: the CD is mastered too loudly, so this "improved" version includes distortion. Caveat emptor.


Essential Dead?: An Explanation
For example, American Beauty could not be compared to Live/Dead because even though the same band (for the most part) is playing on the album, they are playing in a different style. The Grateful Dead have played many genres and to say that an album is 'Essential Dead' is naiive. If you are someone who enjoys listening to the Dead that plays psychedelic-rock jams, this album is for you. If you are a fan of the 'folk-rock Dead', then you should listen to American Beauty, Workingman's Dead, Europe '72, or Dick's Picks Vol. 8.

This album was surprisingly good in the beginning. The reason it was a surprise was because I didn't know what I was getting into. I had heard bits of Dark Star before, but I was used to the Dead that played on Europe '72 and American Beauty. So doubtingly I put the CD into my player and Dark Star began. . . I had never heard anything like it. It opened up my eyes to a different side of the Grateful Dead. Then came the seamless transition to St. Stephen, it had a rock feel to it yet was the perfect song to follow Dark Star. After St. Stephen, another jam came on called The Eleven. This jam was faster and displayed some great guitar playing from Jerry. Finally, Turn On Your Love Light came on which was another surprise: a blues-rock Pigpen song.

-The Album went down from there-

Death Don't Have No Mercy - A Disappointment even though it is better than the next two
Feedback - Unlistenable (It really is over seven minutes of feedback)
And We Bid You Goodnight - Really only thirty-five seconds of a harmonized song that is not worth paying for

Even though Live/Dead does have its flaws (three of them), I recommend it because the first four songs are memorable glances at a different side of the Dead. Essential Dead? No. Simply a look at the Jam Band aspects of The Grateful Dead.


Excellent live album
A great album and arguably the band at it's peak. My first exposure to the Dead back in 1971. .


The first official Dead live album, and still awesome...
It has seven classic Dead songs. This was the Dead's first official live release, and it's still one of their best live albums ever. It starts with arguably the definitive Dead song, Dark Star. The version here runs 23 1/2 minutes, and it's absolutely stunning. The Dead were recorded on a great night, and they really are focused on this jam, but still loose enough to be brilliant. My favorite track is Pigpen's blues rave-up Turn on Your Love Light. It shows that the Dead could rock like hell when they wanted to. It wasn't all space jamming. The slow blues track Death Don't Have No Mercy is beautiful, with a great vocal by Jerry. The song Feedback is exactly what it says, Feedback. It's a mere 9 minutes long, but it's still really awesome feedback, a precursor to the later "drums/space" stuff that the Dead did almost every show. The final track is a simple, sweet a capella number, . . . And We Bid You Goodnight. While some Dead shows/live albums were/are truly wretched, when they were on, there was no one like them. This album, along with Without a Net, One from the Vault, and Reckoning, are my favorite live Dead albums.

.


That 'Lovelight' Never Goes Out!


I just never get tired of hearing that "long medley," as I call it, which culminates in the fantastic "Turn On Your Lovelight. The first four songs, which run into each other and last about 50 minutes, are some of the best sounds out the Grateful Dead I've ever heard - for 40 years. " That "song" begins slowly with "Dark Star," and then begins to gather momentum with "St. Stephen," keeps growing strong with "The Eleven" and then finishes with my favorite Dead effort of all time. It's just great stuff that never gets old.

The rest of the CD isn't much. The reviewer that comments that this CD has some of the best and worst of this famous rock group isn't far from the truth.

The good news is that the "best" lasts a long time and, thus, makes this CD well worth the purchase.


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

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