Greatful Dead – ”American Beauty” (1970)

Let's continue the last post's theme with country & western inspired music. At the same time continuing with my process to come out as a country & western lover, a process that isn’t easy. I still haven’t dared to tell my parents.

Greatful Dead was in my world the ultimate dope band - the band used mindbending substances, the audience used mindbending substances, the band's most fanatical fans, the deadheads, seemed to be a psychedelic cult with Jerry Garcia as Messiah. They were the house band for Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters on their LSD events, the acid tests.

The songs I had heard contradicted to some extent this picture. The music seemed to be more of long blues jams, and not the druggy acid rock that I had expected. I must admit that in addition to today's theme and Terrapin Station, I have just heard a few songs here and there by the band, so my picture is far from complete. But it seems like other bands did more uninhibited musical experiments.

My first album I bought with GD was Terrapin Station, which I like very much. The second was American Beauty, almost a classic when it comes to GD. On American Beauty GD gives us music with a lot of country & western influences. Garcia plays some groovy pedal steel guitar and on the song Candyman, solid dope country, we get to hear a really nice solo on that instrument. I didn’t know that steel guitar could sound so druggy and dreamy.

 

Country & western hasn’t been a favourite genre of mine, with some rare exceptions. To some extent I am willing to let American Beauty become a part of this group of exceptions. It should be clarified that this is not a pure country & western album, it’s a mix of rock, folk, country and probably some other genres. Country & western, however, is the most obvious influence. There are lots of vocal harmonies and acoustic elements, and some songs are no doubt pure country & western.

One of the album’s best tracks is the opening song Box Of Rain. It's a song you want to play again and again. A beautiful and slightly melancholic song the bassist Phil Lesh sings. He asked lyricist Robert Hunter to write a text he could sing to his dying father, which he allegedly did. Another favourite is the mentioned Candyman, where country music becomes dope music, which perhaps is a contradiction. Sugar Magnolia is a fast-paced rock / country song that is one of the most famous GD songs, and one of the most frequently played at concerts.

 

On the B-side is Attics Of My Life where beautiful vocal harmonies dominate and creates almost a hymn. It’s different from the other songs with its acapella arrangement. The closing song Truckin is a classic GD song that became a huge hit. It has since the album was released been the 8th most played song in concerts (520 times) and the song many associate with GD. Personally, I don’t like it at all, a boogie song I think CCR or some such band could have done. I don’t understand why it has become such a big song.

 

The text on the cover is an ambigram, which means that the text also can be read when you rotate it, or change perspective (such as the background becomes the foreground). With the same content, or a new one. Here American Beauty can also be read as American Reality. And reportedly one can turn the cover upside down and hold it up against a mirror, and then read Devil's Kingdom in the mirror. I can’t deny that this sounds a bit like a tale, much like all the backwards messages that supposedly appear on numerous albums. But who knows? I haven't tried.

 

In summary, an OK album, with its highs and lows. Some songs are a bit too much country & western for me, but with its highlights in the form of eg Box Of Rain and Candyman, I think it has its place in the collection. I'm a bit fascinated by GD exploring country & western. I've always imagined country & western and LSD-inspired hippie music as opposites, but apparently a band can without any major problems move between these extremes. Also bands like The Byrds made ​​excursions into the country & western world, so perhaps it is as some people say - it's not a line but a circle. At the extremes you meet. The hippie takes the hillbilly’s hands and unite in harmony.

 

Tracklist

Side A

1. Box Of Rain 5:18
2. Friend Of The  Devil 3:24
3. Sugar Magnolia 3:19
4. Operator 2:25
5. Candyman 6:14

Side B

1. Ripple 4:09
2. Brokedown Palace 4:09
3. Till The Morning Comes 3:08
4. Attics Of My Life 5:12
5. Truckin 5:03