I had to search for a long time before I finally found this album in one of Montreal's stores for used vinyl. Some wear and tear, but the asked price was still relatively high, and no bargaining could be done. Early releases of Grateful Dead albums seem to be attractive. This was the band's sixth studio album, ninth including live albums, and the first one they released on their own label. Since the last studio album American Beauty, released three years earlier, the keyboardist / vocalist / harmonica player Ron "Pigpen" McKernan had died as a result of his alcohol use. Keith Godchaux was now the keyboardist (he had already been the band's keyboardist a few years, while Pigpen played the bongos, harmonica and sang). It gave the music a clearer direction towards jazz rather than blues, as when Pigpen was still in the band.
All Grateful Dead connoisseurs claim that it was the concerts that were magic, and that the studio albums never reached these heights. I would have liked to see Grateful Dead live, but now I haven't, so I haven't much to compare with. What I've heard many talk about are the concerts' magic, long jam sessions, something that is difficult to recreate in the studio. Personally, I think long blues jams can get a little boring and unfocused, so maybe just as well I never saw them. I really like many of their studio albums. Especially Wake of the Flood.
The two opening songs, Mississppi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo and Let Me Sing Your Blues Away, are not something I fall for. I hear nothing unique about them, any band could have done those. But then the wind turns, and that it does significantly. In my world, Row Jimmy is amongst the finest Grateful Dead ever created. A beautiful, quiet and melancholy song, with a text you don' t understand anything of. On Youtube I've seen live versions of the song that are even better, especially Garcia's two guitar solo parts he plays differently in different time periods. Just this song makes the LP worth buying. Many regards the following Stella Blue as one of the band's finest songs, and it's beautiful, even if it gets in the shadow of Row Jimmy.
Side B is groovy right through. Here Comes Sunshine slides towards the psychedelic genre in the chorus, while Eyes of the World is more up tempo, danceable and energetic. The epic closer, Weather Report Suite, is the only one Garcia / Hunter didn't write, instead Weir is the creator. A really good song that apparently evolved to an even more epic tune in later concerts. It is divided into three suites. The band had played almost all the songs in concerts for about six months before the recording started. In other words, they've had time to develop and test them in different versions.
I still have a deep-rooted image of the Grateful Dead as an über psychedelic band. None of the (studio) albums I have offer this kind of music, though. My albums range from the 60s to the 80s, and it's a lot of blues, country & western, prog, rock 'n' roll, and not so much psychedelia. Either my mental image is completely wrong, or it originates from the eminent book Electric Cool Aid Acid Test, which describes their concerts at the Mery Pranksters LSD events, or it's a side of the band that were more present during concerts. In any case, Wake of the Flood is a really good album, which I think many can like. Not psychedelia, more laid back rock, jazz, blues and maybe some soul.
Tracklist
Side A
1. Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo 5:45
2. Let Me Sing Your Blues Away 3:17
3. Row Jimmy 7:14
4. Stella Blue 6:26
Side B
1. Here Comes Sunshine 4:40
2, Eyes of the World 5:19
3. Weather Report Suite 12:53
No comments:
Post a Comment