The Grateful Dead (Skull 'n Roses)
++++++++++++++ Second (official) double live album, recorded at the Fillmore
East, Winterland and The Manhattan Center and released in the fall of 1971.
Culled from the largest aggregation of music (13 performances, 9 reels of
usable songs, 60 hours' worth) the Dead has ever assembled. Originally called
"SKULL FUCK", but Warners rejected this title. It is generally
named SKULL AND ROSES. Pigpen's only vocal performance is on BIG BOSS MAN,
and THE OTHER ONE is the Dead's ode to the glorious days of the Merry Pranksters
and has a long percussion solo breaking into three-quarter time dissonance
on bass and lead, complete with mike feedback and the sounds of a crowd
getting off on pure rhythm. PLAYING IN THE BAND showcases the group's ability
to go from a polite whisper to a forcefull roar within one song. WHARF RAT
is about a skid row citizen, determined to escape the gutter. Merl Saunders
plays organ on BERTHA, PLAYING and WHARF RAT. GOIN' DOWN THE ROAD, a Woody
Guthrie song of depression era displacement, is alchemised by the DeaD into
a claim for the liberating possibilities of the road. At this time Mickey
Hart had left the band. Jerry Garcia said after its release; "It's
us man, it's the prototype Grateful Dead, basic unit. Each one of those
tracks is the total picture... enough of an overview so people can see we
are a regular shoot-em-up saloon band."
nr. 1 Relying heavily on C & W tunes and early R'n'R
standards, the album is a look at another of the band's peak touring periods.
Weir took a greater portion of the vocal responsibilities and the album
managed to capture some pretty quintessential versions.
GOLDMINE, JULY
1987
nr. 2 I wish some of this live double had been done
in the studio-might have saved Bob Weir's faint PLAYING IN THE BAND if not
his ME AND BOBBY McGEE- and the drum-and-guitar interlude isn't going to
inspire anybody to toke up, much less see visions. But even there they gather
some of that old DeaD magic. And it's about time they documented their taste
in covers-I've craved their NOT FADE AWAY for years. original grade:A minus
(rating: B+).
ROBERT CRISTGAU, ROCK ALBUMS OF THE 70'S. 1982
nr.
3 It's a live, two record set that finds the Dead in surprisingly strong
form following the departure of Mickey Hart. It's an uneven affair, with
plenty of peaks and valleys. Side four is uniformly powerful, boasting a
very hot version of NOT FADE AWAY / GOIN' DOWN THE ROAD and the only recorded
version of WHARF RAT. THE OTHER ONE, which takes up an entire set, also
has some fine moments after Kreutzman's overlong drum solo. Most of the
rest of the album is competent but forgettable. Two other stand-outs are
BERTHA and BIG RAILROAD BLUES. * * *
BLAIR JACKSON
nr.
4 The Grateful Dead epitomize hippie rock & roll, and if you are a hippie
yourself, you might want to invert the judgements expressed in these R.S.
Record Guide ratings. * *
DAVE MARSH, R.S. RECORD GUIDE, 1982
NR.
5 Just after Mickey left, the band recorded what was to become their first
gold record. It is at times a dynamically energetic session, one that featured
sharp versions of Grateful Dead standards and introduced a number of new
songs to the repertoire, including especially killer versions of both the
haunting ballad WHARF RAT and the riproaring BERTHA. It's also one of the
few albums the band has admitted to liking.
JAMIE JENSEN
NR.
6 While not of the mysterious brilliance of the groups' former live album,
GRATEFUL DEAD found the band playing tight and strong in New York and San
Francisco. Starting with Jerry Garcia's splendid BERTHA, they shoot through
many a style - country, the usual acid stuff (THE OTHER ONE, 18 minutes
about a bus stop), rock 'n roll (JOHNNY B. GOODE - rather a disaster, actually;
it's a funny thing but accomplished as they are, The DeaD always sound a
trifle phoney when it comes to straight rock 'n roll). It's on originals
like Garcia's haunting, melancholic WHARF RAT and Bob Weir's tricky PLAYING
IN THE BAND that they are on their best and Bill Kreutzmann's bomping drums
are things of joy as ever. But Ron "Pigpen" McKernan died shortly
after this recording and things would never be quite the same again.***
TOM HIBBERT, Q Magazine, July 1993, no. 82
nr. 7 There
are three excellent previously unrecorded group compositions, PLAYING IN
THE BAND, BERTHA and WHARF RAT, the latter being one of the best songs they've
ever written. To my mind the record itself stands as a proof of a significant
step in the band's development in that they reached the point where they
are supremely capable of performing structured and tightly arranged songs
on stage with a consistency and confidence that is nothing less than a revelation.
Listen to WHARF RAT for a good example of what I mean...
ANDY CHILDS,
ZIG ZAG Magazine
