Live/Dead
+++++++ This double live set was released around new year '69/70, showcasing
their various talents and drawing on the tremendous rapport the band had
established with the Californian audiences by their free open-air performances.
It summed up all the DeaD had achieved during the 60's and preceeded a sharp
change to approach in the recording of studio albums. DARK STAR is the DeaD
at the height of their improvisational powers and this track in particular
put the DeaD firmly on the map. Its title spawned a magazine, a film and
at least one attempt to contact UFO's... THE ELEVEN, named by Phil Lesh
for it's unusual 11/4 time signature and inspired by Mickey Hart who studied
at an indian music school in Marin, is an psychedelic "blitzkrieg".
LOVELIGHT is Pigpen at his best and was the DeaD's showstopper in their
concerts. DEATH DON'T HAVE NO MERCY was an old Reverend Gary Davis blues
tune and WE BID YOU GOODNIGHT was their closing song of concerts in the
late sixties. After this album Constanten left the group.The sleeve design
is a simply play on the punning title of the record set, a luxuriantly tressed
young woman arising from the coffin holding a loft an orb and sceptre, together
symbols of victory over death. When reading the "DEAD" letters
on the back cover upside down, they show "ACID". Inside Jerry
grins in front of a Dead End sign.
nr. 1 An unmitigated triumph. One continuous expanse of
music, totally integrated, as the group execute masterful rhythm changes
with disdainful ease. No patchy, aimless passages while the core of their
sound, Garcia's highly personalized lead and Lesh's fluid melodic bass lines,
is gripping through out.
ROCK PRIMER, JOHN COLLIS, PENGUIN UK
nr.
2 The DeaD at it's improvisational peak. Despite the eventual deification
of the acid-drenched Garcia favourites, LOVELIGHT was the in-concert no-holds-barred
showstopper.
GOLDMINE, JULY 1987
nr. 3 It isn't much
less interminable than any other DeaD concert piece, but it has a freshness
that feints toward vitality. ***
R.S. REC. GUIDE
nr.
4 The DeaD epitomised acid madness, something hard to contain or fake in
the studio, but live...
THE PERFECT COLLECTION, TOM HIBBERT, PROTEUS
'82
nr. 5 If you'de like to visit a place where rock
is likely to be in about 5 years, you might think of giving LIVE/DEAD a
listen or two.
ROLLING STONE
nr. 6 My favourite album.
It presents the DeaD at their absolute peak in the late sixties, in total
command of their ability to switch rhythms and change times. Side one's
21-minute version of DARK STAR remains their finest voyage into outer space,
ST STEPHEN and THE ELEVEN make side two a bubbling, non-stop rockin' delight,
and side three's workout on LOVELIGHT is Pigpen's best recorded performance.
Side four is a little dark, but DEATH DON'T HAVE NO MERCY is atmospheric
blues playing at its finest. * * * * *
BLAIR JACKSON, THE MUSIC NEVER
STOPPED, PLEXUS UK 1983
nr. 7 LIVE/DEAD proved that whatever
complexities the band got up in the studio, they were still able to crank
it up and kick ass on stage. The songs on the album, recorded in the Fillmore
West in February 1969, are presented on disc as they were in concert, without
overdubs and almost un- edited. DARK STAR is twenty minutes of the DeaD
at their improvisational best and LOVELIGHT is the irresistible R'n'B classic
crowd pleaser of the late 60's Grateful Dead shows.
JAMIE JENSEN, BUILT
TO LAST, FANTAIL '90
nr. 8 An all-time classic. As time
goes on, this music proves it can stand the test of time. Unfortunately
one of the first albums i've bought, it's still the best in my collection.
All the albums I did get after LIVE/DEAD were less, even though The Allman
Brothers with LIVE AT FILLMORE EAST came nearby. One can hear through the
music that these people understand each other, are prepared to take risks,
and really can make music with heart and guts. A free copy of this album
should be handed out to every person who wants to learn to play bass guitar
ERIK SCHOTHANS
nr. 9 The set is over one and a quarter
hours, starting with the monumental DARK STAR - a sprawling instrumental
based around a few lines of sci-fi fantasy with a theme supposedly originated
by the black jazz composer John Coltrane, but more than but transferred
to the guitar by Garcia himself. ST. STEPHEN and THE ELEVEN are two straight
(for the DeaD) rocking numbers which features exemplary rhythmic bass from
Phil Lesh and through which the band's enthousiasm is clear and infectious.
Pigpen replaces Tom Constanten on organ for a song called (fittingly) DEATH
DON'T HAVE NO MERCY. The album closes with a curious soundwash of feedback,
which eventually degenerates into the sound of assorted cattle being herded
along - or it seems - finally returning to some sort of normality for a
close harmony finale called AND WE BID YOU GOODNIGHT.
IAN FREER, FIRST
HEARING, no. 8
nr. 10 A rock lp of subtlety, power and
sheer beauty. Everything is so superbly integrated and smooth that it's
downright annoying when side one ends, the momentum of the music is broken,
and you have to get up and turn the record over. Side three is Pigpen's
Tour De Force...15+ minutes of gutsy, soulful vocals and the climax of 55
minutes of truly amazing rock music. The last side is generally considered
to be an anti climax in comparison, and although it is by no means as exciting
or engaging as the other tracks it deserves a hearing. I won't say anymore
about the record except to quote from Lenny Kaye who wrote: "Live/Dead
explains why the Dead are one of the best performing bands in America, why
their music touches on ground that most other groups don't even know exists...
if you'd like to visit a place where rock is likely to be in about 5 years,
you might think of giving Live/Dead a listen or two".
ANDY CHILDS,
Zig Zag, Sept. 1973
nr. 11 This quintessential album
still epitomizes the band at its best. The seven-song set leads off with
a 23-minute version of DARK STAR, a jazzy midtempo epic that continually
knots up and then unravels like a musical quest for answers that never come.
The band's signature song for a quarter century, this loping tune is a continual
source of inspiration for the band. By the end of the album, you've heard
nearly all the Dead's musical styles, beginning with rock and jazz and finishing
up with nearly nine minutes of manipulated electric feedback -pure sound
as music- and an a cappella song. There's nothing on this album that could
crack a radio format then or now; conversely, there's nothing dated about
this music. Two decades later, it still sounds fresh.
MALCOLM JONES,
NEWSWEEK, aug. 21, 1995
nr. 12... Disc time: 73:05 Performance: 9 Sound: 9
A re-release on CD of the classic early live Grateful Dead album. This is
yet another case where a double album was short enough to put on one CD;
and here we have another instance, like *Eat a Peach*, where an original
live performance was initially cut into pieces to fit on sequential sides
of vinyl; now the piece is restored to its original whole (thanks to the
wonderful technological design smarts of CDs being "one-sided"
*and* having plenty of room for longer sections of music). However, this
CD bypasses *Eat a Peach* on the "Whoa!" Meter in that in this
case the first *three* sides of the original version of *Live/Dead* were
actually three different sections of *one* section of music, and on the
CD they have all been spliced back together without *any* noticeable gap.
The album opens with the classic "Dark Star," It runs over 20
minutes--but that's only the beginning of the medley. After a few measures
of feedback, the band goes into "St. Stephen," another Dead classic.
This segues directly into "The Eleven"--in fact, it is absolutely
impossible to pinpoint the exact moment of transition between these two
pieces--which is, of course, a jam in the time signature of 11/4; and "The
Eleven" segues directly into "Turn On Your Love Light." We're
talking almost an hour of solid music here, and it sounds a helluva lot
better on a CD than it did on the 120-minute cassette version I painstakingly
put together many years ago (with audible blips between the sides).
After the end of this incredible medley, there are actually three more
songs: the somewhat disturbing "Death Don't Have No Mercy" (has
any other voice ever sung so compellingly about death? . . .); a nearly
ten-minute piece entitled "Feedback" which is *just that* (hey,
can *you* sit through this and *listen* to it without getting up for a cup
of coffee?); and the finale, a beautiful a cappella lullaby entitled "We
Bid You Goodnight" which is only about a minute long, a perfect closing.
All in all, this is an outstanding compendium of early Dead live work
for a number of reasons. First and foremost because it captures the very
early, drug-oriented sound of the band. *Live/Dead* is certainly *the* artifact
of their "psychedelic phase," so to speak (and the music in places
is as spacey as the music of other San Francisco bands of that time period
like Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service, following the
tradition of what "acid rock" was *really* meant to be: music
to listen to while on acid). Also, "Dark Star" and "St. Stephen"
were hallmarks of early Dead shows, and the versions on *Live/Dead* are
pretty much the definitive recorded versions, although many others exist
on bootlegs (these two songs were largely based on improvisation and thus
were radically different every time they were played). The beauty of this
CD release is that an extraordinary amount of attention and care went into
the CD mastering, and the transfer is one of the best I've ever heard (particularly
because this is such an old recording). The bass, in particular (played
by Phil Lesh), has more presence and tone than Steely Dan albums recorded
ten years later. And Garcia's early guitar tone (achieved by wiring a number
of Fender Twin Reverb amplifiers together to create a sort of wall-of-sound
effect, but with *Fender* amps instead of Marshalls--the net result being
more like a *corncob of sound*, as husky and American as any good country
lead player comes) is quite well-represented here.
(Taken from the net, writer's name unknown)