Reviews (page 6 of 7)
Grateful Dead ratings will unfortunately always suffer from the fact that it was the band my family played *nonstop* when I was a kid. They're too ingratiated with memories of long boring family road trips for me to listen objectively. With that being said, it was a pleasant-sounding album, and in the moments when I forgot who I was listening to, it was fun.
this is an album that's a jam session, from start to finish. it's super emblematic of the grateful dead and their music style. they were just a bunch of guys playing music and experimenting with sounds. their live shows were clearly them having a good time! that's exactly what music should be. that being said, i don't know if i needed a joint to enjoy this, but i was extremely bored.
I found the album name to be clever, and I really dug the album art for some reason. But that's about where my "love" ended. This album is basically just one giant psychedelic jam session. But I'm using the word "jam" here liberally, as nothing about this is a jam so much as it is just some guys dicking around on their instruments. It is just kind of a drawl that goes on and on, a lot of which is nearly incoherent. What they're playing just isn't even good or interesting, and if you're going to "jam", that's kind of a requirement in my opinion. Also, the fact that this live album isn't all one "cut" and basically just handpicks songs from various live shows kind of detracts from its legitimacy as a live album. Just overall not an impressive album, or an impressive representation of a band that has been deemed legendary (like it or not).
Имат къде къде по-яки песни....
Couldn't really get into this
Did not dig this. Spotify describes them as the "archetypal jam band" and it feels like it. Like sitting in on someone else's workshop session. There are good bits but not worth the time in my opinion. Maybe they have some more focused songs on other albums and maybe this creates a great vibe live but not for me in this form. Standout Track (..?): The Eleven
Put the Dead in the company of TSwift and Zach Bryan - perfectly good music often ruined by the outcry of their hive mind fan base. I would get my kicks telling a Deadhead to get a job, hippie! As for the music, Jerry is great at guitar but the whole noodling around for 23 min thing gets so old so fast
i tried. but i have never really understand the appeal of the dead.
Can't really imagine spending my life following this around on tour those people have stronger wills than me
Elements where you start thinking it's not bad and then it derails again. Not for us.
I "kind" of get it. There were times when I was digging the flow and vibe of what they were putting out so I could see how people could possibly love this stuff but there were other times when I could totally understand why some people think the Grateful Dead suck. This might be one of those albums that grow on you with repeated listens but I'm not interested in sticking with this long enough to see if it happens.
The first fifteen minutes is them tuning up. It's important in the context of the pantheon of music but I think there was a reason everyone was tripping balls at their concerts.
Nope
How many Grateful Dead does it take to turn on the light bulb? I don't know, but do I know it takes them 15 minutes. 💡💡
Lots of noodling
They need a producer to rein in their excesses.
I wish i liked them. But i don't. It's like background jazz.
I know it's a jam album, but I don't get this jam. A bit too noisy and disorganized.
Jos tämä tosiaan on improvisaatiota, saa siitä pelkiltään yhden tähden, koska kovin hyvinhän tämä pysyy kasassa! Kivoja melodioita joten kivahan ne on kuulla uudestaan ja uudestaan ja tauon jälkeen uudestaan. Eli kääntöpuoli: sairaan pitkä ja ei meinaa lähtee kuin ajoittain
Haluanko OIKEASTI oikeasti osallistua mihinkään näistä orgioista uudelleen? Tällä hetkellä luulen, että en. Tai toivon.
what
Of all the dumb live albums on this list, this is probably the worst. Even if I were a Grateful Dead fan I'm not sure why I'd rather listen to this than one of the countless other bootlegs out there.
If I were to sue the Grateful Dead, or their estate, for the 75 minutes I lost listening to this self-indulgent, pointless drivel, what do you think my chances of winning would be? Seriously though, I just don't get the appeal of the Dead. I've always been a classic rock/blues/psychedelia kind of guy, but the Dead never resonated with me. 2 stars.
I’ve enjoyed a couple of Grateful Dead’s live albums before but this one is not good. The first couple of tracks seem really aimless, there are a couple of better ones towards the middle, but then the 7 minute track of just feedback towards the end was the final straw
Isn't the whole thing about the Dead is that you have to SEE them perform live? In person? On acid? So my inclination is to brand this as a memento for anyone who went to a Dead show. I saw the Dead in the Gimme Shelter movie, where they peaced out after being informed that the Hell's Angels were picking fights with members of Jefferson Airplane. That's as close as I ever came to seeing them live. This album suggests I didn't miss much. But I enjoyed Gimme Shelter from the comfort of my living room. Got to see The Flying Burrito Brothers with future Eagle Bernie Leadon, Grace Slick in all her Jefferson Airplane glory, and a German Shepherd get up on Stage with The Stones. The Dead blew it. They could have influenced the Hell's Angels. Apparently they were friendly with them. Shame on Garcia and company for sticking Mick Jagger with the tab.
Very jam heavy. Not much substance, either. It was still good background noise, but it didn’t make for a good listening experience.
Not really my style
I wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't hate it, but again, it didn't 'grab' me at any stage. In fact, I remember thinking "this first track goes on a bit" and then when I checked we had actually reached track 4! I guess that is the best analysis I can provide my experience - it was all a bit monotonous.
Niet iets waarvan ik spijt heb er niet live bij te zijn geweest
Ehhh it's ok, but doesn't do much for me.
not my type of music, but good late 60's album
There was no need to put this album on this list. Almost no reason to make the album in the first place. I’m sure it was a fun concert to be at, but if you asked the attendees if they thought that concert was to go down in history as one of the best of all time, they’d probably say, “Meh. Was alright, but nothing special.” if they were being honest with themselves. It was alright but barely escapes getting a one. 2/5
I FUCKING HATE JAM BANDS
Dorky cacophonous stoned noodling. Fucking hairy hippies.
I felt this was all a bit directionless and rambling.
Likes: less twangy than American Beauty. Dislikes: TOO LONG. 25 min versions of songs?! This is why I never listened to the Grateful Dead. This is and the fact that I never did enough drugs.
Not my thing
Føler ikke jeg behøver lytte til mere end 2 af de 7 numre på det her live album for at beslutte mig for at det ikke er noget for mig. De er et berømt jam band og den første sang varede 23 minutter. Ikke for mig.
Turn on your love light was a bop. other than than really slow album. I just cannot get into the Dead man. I really want to like them too
I want to give this 1 star just for the song feedback. I've never listened to a full Dead album before but it was okay. I was put off by the 20 min intro song, but most of the other songs were just ok.
Felt like an unnecessary show of ability, there was no song that sounded cohesive
Although i’m admirative of psychedelic rock, i’m less of prog rock and that album is closer to prog than psychedelic. I admire the improvisation, the quality of the musicians but is just way too long and sometimes cahotic for me, like 75 minutes with 7 songs is a lot. But i never listen to greatfull dead and this album will kot be my favorite but i might listen to other of their work and i understand why it have gain a lot of acclaims
If I had, in fact, died of boredom while listening, I would've been grateful. I can only assume that's where they get their name.
Not a huge fan and this album did nothing to make or break that opinion.
Al een flink aantal keren geprobeerd into deze band te raken, maar gewoonweg niet te doen, wat een eindeloos gepriegel.
Mjah, iets te jammerig naar mijn smaak
Boooeeehhh get of the stage!
Eine der großen Impro-Bands. Sehr jazzy, bluesy, rockig, progressive; mir aber zu wenig straight, sondern sehr wild und experimentell.
Live / Dead 2 / 5
Talented musicians but truly no reason for a song to be 23 minutes long. Don’t need to say anything about Feedback either, that speaks for itself
Feedback? Really? 4/10
Hmmmm okee vind andere albums leuker deze nummers zijn way too long
I mean... it was fine. Better than silence but not something I'd seek out.
I cannot emphasize enough how baffling it is that this album starts with 23 minutes of the worst jam band noodling I've ever heard in my life (seriously, nobody is paying attention to each other, every instrument is off doing it's own thing the entire time), and ends with 8 minutes of feedback. The four songs in between are actually all right, but I can't in good conscience recommend it, because why would I want to subject anyone to the bookends? It's probably a four star record if you skip tracks 1, 6 and 7, but I'm docking it for having the audacity to waste my time.
Track #1: buckle the fuck up, this song is 23 minutes long and starts with random string plucking that starts to resolve into a pattern of some sort. Here we go. Not for me. Totally fine but no fun to be had for me. Gave that “feedback” track a solid chance but it’s the only track I skipped.
Given how famous this band is for their jam sessions on stage, this really, really sucked. It was bland, boring, and uninspired. Seriously sounds like amateur night. SO DULL.
Too many long songs
très inégale comme album. Il y a peut-etre 1 toune que j'ai vraiment aimé. Je pense qu'il fallait probablement être là poura pprécié à ca juste valeur et être dans le meme trip qu'eux... 2.75
I just don’t really get the hype
Very little to get excited about with this one. Dead Heads will love it, the rest of us don’t get it…. 2/5
I want to understand the Grateful Dead but I just haven’t figured it out yet. I hoped this album would help me but no such luck. The musicianship is hard to argue with but it is impossible for me to figure out why a song like Dark Star really has to be over 20 minutes. It was hard to pick what song to put on the playlist because they are all kind of interchangeable so I just went with the shortest one because o know I’m not going to want to listen to a song that is 15 minutes very often.
It kinda just sounds like an extended bland jamming session, not like something that's thought through or especially interesting.
Not a grateful dead fan. Songs are too long.
I tried. Made it about three songs in and it felt like I had already been listening for an hour. I do, generally, like the sound. So that's something!
This was probably really great if you were on acid and there also
I've given it a lot of thought and honestly after weighing the two options, I'm going to go with dead.
Didn't really keep my attention, seemed to just go on for ages
Is this really the band that people followed around religiously? I suppose I could see how it’d be fun in some of the later tracks (aside from feedback, which was also bad) but the early tracks were half hour long slogs that I found nothing good in at all. It’s not deserving of a 1 star but I still got barely any enjoyment out of this album whatsoever.
Listening to this live Grateful Dead album here in this year of our lord 2023, I'm reminded of the first time someone sat me down and had me listen to a live recording of this band more than 20 years ago, and the words that echoed in my head then as clearly as they do now: "Why in the fuck is this jerk forcing me to listen to this garbage?" It's fine if you like the Grateful Dead, I just don't get it and I'm pretty sure that I never will. I've given it a chance. I've given it 100 chances, it still sounds like a bunch of people with nothing meaningful to say noodling around a guitar for a half hour so that hippies have something to listen to while they do drugs and pretend to be more enlightened than the rest of us. I'm already so sick to death of this, and I just finished the first song. It's 23 minutes long. I thought I'd listened to multiple tracks, but it's hard to tell, since all of their songs sound the same. It's like if you took prog rock, and stripped away everything interesting that they were doing musically and lyrically, leaving a miasma of pointless notes played over and over until the acid finally wears off and you realize that you're in your mid-40s with no vocational skills and a broken-down VW bus full of dirty children with names like Magnolia and Dew Drop and Camshaft 2/5 I will never forgive you for making me listen to this band again. Never.
I'm conflicted; on one hand I find that going to a jam band's concert would drive me nuts because they're doing that... just jamming and as a concert goer, I'd want to see them perform actual songs I recognize vs. mindlessly playing their instruments. But on the other hand, I can see the appeal of watching musicians play. That being said, I'm firmly in the first camp; what a load of nonsense this was. 3/10.
haluan tykätä tästä mutta en pysty. liian tylsää jopa meikäräisen standardeissa. tyhjää kitaranrämpytystä joka jatkuu ja jatkuu eikä vie mihinkään... ilmeisesti huume hörhöilyä (its illegal btw...criminals) ei kuitenkaan ykkösen arvoinen, on hyviä kohtauksia myös. disrespectfullia kakkosta tälle, pitäisi olla paljon parempi mitä on death d0nt have no mercy
I hate live albums
I don't have much to say. I wasn't really intrigued by it.
No wonder some many people got high in 60’s. Soul destroying.
Liian vänkyrää. Ei toimi tällänen räpellys mulle 2/5
Didn't really get into it
Some ok jam rock here, but it definitely dragged on a bit for me. The first track taking up a whole third of the run time was insane, and the track 'Feedback' was unlistenable. 'St Stephen' is my top pick, as it's a bit more lyric-focused.
Not high enough
Tried to clear my cache to not be biased when listening to this but it didn't really work. I find their music to be pretty boring and redundant. They are kind of the reason why I grew up writing music instead of jamming music. When I sit on my couch and watch TV and grab a guitar, this is the music that my hands make. They play the major pentatonic scale up and down the neck in the same comfortable key and without regard for anything besides my fingers moving in familiar patterns until I'm tired of listening to it. That's what I hear when I hear the Grateful Dead. It's so straightforward, comfortable, unprovoked, and just not what I like. The first track takes 12 minutes before you even get to any tension and then it ends with what sounds like a bunch of dudes just playing their instruments in isolation and then the recordings pasted together. I took some sips of the Kool Aid but I still don't like it. I understand the value of this being one of those sorts of sounds that you put the record on and then do something else but even then it still doesn't jive with me. In that scenario, 9 times out of 10 I'd rather listen to either jazz or some other classic rock where I know some of the songs and can pick and choose where my brain can give some focus to.
There are some really good blues riffs and momente shining through every now and then again, but overall they are just so buried under overlong and seemingly aimless meandering. Also "Feedback" must be a cruel joke, akin to Finnigan's Wake. I guess you would have had to be there to appreciate it, otherwise I can't think of a reason why one should waste their precious time on earth with this.
I was surprised by this. I really did not enjoy this, and I was expecting too. A lot of it sounded like they weren't really trying to make music.
Man, that first song had me kind of hopeful that maybe the rest of album would be decent, but nope, not really. Overall, pretty boring album. Glad it's over with. My favourite song was Dark Star.
Live, improviserende, psykedelisk rock, lange numre, en stemning
Coincidentally the podcast 'A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs' released an episode on Dark Star while I was listening to this. The podcast makes the Grateful Dead sound interesting - if fact, seems like dull hippy noodling to me of the worst kind. The podcast says that you can't really appreciate the Grateful Dead unless you hear them live, while you're tripping. But you could say that about any band? Saved from my first '1' rating by the Feedback son.
Yeah, endless nurdly jam band stoner nonsense - struggled to find a song or melody
Enjoyed parts of this, but the long songs did my head in. Wondering if there are more accessible Greatful Deas albums
You know those jokes like "beware people with tattoos; they're proof they can sit still while being stabbed for hours"? This is the musical equivalent of that. I'd be extremely wary of someone who can sit through this whole thing happily, haha. I cannot do these prolonged jam sessions, it’s just not for me. I gave each song a fair play time and then skipped to the next one. All in all, I listened to an hour of this. The only song I didn’t mind was “Turn on Your Love Light” but even it started to wear on me after about 8 minutes.
Every now and then, on a Saturday afternoon, some mates and I get together for a jam. We're all late 30s-mid 50s, so we generally play a few songs from Metallica/Slayer/ACDC/Motley Crue etc, then at some point we get stoned, decide 80s heavy metal is too intense and start jamming on a late 60s Hendrix or Black Sabbath tune. And you get so stuck into it, you don't even realise it's been half an hour and you're on your 3rd solo spot in Hey Joe. Of course it's SUPER fun and we always have a good laugh at the end but I'd never record and play it back, let alone sit around clear-headed on a Monday morning and listen to someone else do it. The one thing that really sticks out about the grateful dead is that they didn't seem to be good musicians. The extended jamming is nothing special and the actual songs are outright bad. Soooo many bum notes and parts where they're searching for the key. I know the bar was lower back then, but it was still the age of Clapton and Hendrix, both doing something similar to a wayyyyy higher standard. This sucks by any measure, really. 2/5.
Un disc del moment. Per disfrutar en ple viatge de drogues psicodèliques a finals dels '60, preferiblement en algun local directe a San Francisco. Tantes décades després, en ple s XXI, sona com una letargia del passat. Jams inacabables, pesades, amb un so ja molt superat
Not only is this boomer rock to the Nth degree being a Grateful Dead Album it has almost completed the triforce of my most hated things in music: live music recordings, and songs longer than 6 minutes. The first fucking track is 23 minutes long! I can tell this wouldn't be bad if it was just a regular recorded album. The one redeeming quality is that you can't hear the crowd in the background of the recording. Sound quality is still shit tho even on my dinky laptop speakers I can tell. This is an immediate 2
For all their fame and influence, I have never listened to a Grateful Dead album. The most impact they’ve had on me is eating Cherry Garcia ice cream. That whole, psychedelic jazz, rock, improvisational, instrumentals, extended solos stuff interspersed with feedback, is not my thing. Although I do appreciate the talent and the seminal works, I can’t say I feel I’ve missed anything. But I have now listened to one of their albums, thanks to this project. I still prefer the ice cream.
Don't be a coconut
ce fut interminable!!!!!!!!!
Had some good moments... The Grateful Dead still haven't clicked for me. Maybe I need to listen to the right performances. As an album, this one is not amazing. Inclusion of Feedback was a bad call.
Just too much meandering. Some cool moments, but not enough to make it worth a second listen.
I'm not sure if Live and Greatest Hits albums should be on this list. And given that this is hella looong and improvised to boot, I wasn't too keen on it. I think that you also have to be a dead-head and fan of this group to appreciate it.
Not really my cuppa tea.
Really wanted to like this after seeing their house in San Francisco. This album was an easy 1/5. Wouldn't listen again, was too long and felt like a jam session with no coherent songs.
That was so tough to get through. 1/5.
Neither good songs nor interesting improvisation, plain awful. Must be one of the most overrated bands and albums of all time.
Imagine putting your life on hold to follow this bunch of crusty fucks around for years listening to this shit night after night.
Went in with an open mind as not familiar with their work. It was a struggle on first listen, after persevering I did get it but can’t see myself going back as found it a bit meat n potatoes 1.5/5
Damn hippies
I've tried to appreciate the Grateful Dead on a few occasions as, on paper at least, they're right up my street, but there's just so much of it and it all kind of sounds the same. This album, and to be honest, I'm no fan of live albums, seems to start with what felt like a 25 minute noodly warm-up which was completely lost on me. They might as well have recorded their bus trip to the venue, it would have been just as interesting. The whole album seems to bend space and time. Each time I checked to see how much was left, there were about three days remaining. I'm worried I may have missed my kids' birthdays. If you're a fan of the Dead, this record probably epitomises everything that's great about them. Maybe I just don't have that gene. Personally, I came away feeling like I'd been lobotomised.
This is the embodiment of prog I guess? If you're a good musician I don't think it means you have to play for 23 minutes to show me. So dull it makes me want to tear my ears off.
For me, unlistenable.
The Grateful Dead feels like a massive prank that the boomers have played on the younger generations. Every time I hear a grateful dead song I think, no way does anyone actually enjoy this music for real... there's just nothing there. No soul, no substance, and the band can't even decide on the same song to play. everyone's noodling around on their instruments and not particularly well. it feels like I’m standing in the middle of a guitar shop while middle schoolers holding their first guitar try to play Smoke on the Water and Iron Man. There are flashes where it clicks, especially between the guitars and rhythm section, but just as often the energy dips and the songs blur together. It is easy to see why fans love it, since it showcases the improvisational side of the band in full force, but for someone coming at it fresh it feels indulgent and inconsistent. Live/Dead has historical importance, but as an album experience it struggles to hold attention all the way through. And while this album is probably a 2. Anything positive I have to say about the album is completely counterbalanced by the fact that these guys made me listen to feedback for 8 minutes straight at the end which equates to roughly 11% of your total listening.
I tried. I couldn't get through it.
The most overrated band in history. Absolute garbage.
I can only assume this excruciating album is on the list because as a live Grateful Dead album it represents the experience of seeing them live which I guess the Grateful Dead live is considered a quintessential experience of 20th century music. Having never seen them live myself I was curious about this album but now having listened I can say I have the opposite of FOMO. GFMO. Grateful for missing out.
I really really wanted to like this but 20 minute meandering songs with no real hook and fairly boring solos were just not for me.
No just no
Just dead
No jam bands please
i prefer silence
just jammin and groovin. holy crap this album is long as heck wow I was going to have this be 2 stars but feedback was so offensive that I turned it off. what the heck.
too experimental
The Grateful Dead must only have one good song and it automatically followed this album up when it was over.
Probably great but I couldn't make myself care so 1 star it must be considering I only lasted 1 song.
Der er måske 2 tracks der halvdelen af tiden er gode bluesrock numre. Resten af albummet udfordrer mig lige lovligt meget. At lave et næsten 8 min. langt nummer der udelukkende er feedback fra en guitar kan vist kun tilskrives 1/3 fascination af et forholdsvist nyt instrument, og 2/3 syretrip.
definitely not my style
Not my style Loved the cover art though
Grateful Dead must be about the most overrated band to have ever existed. This is appallingly bad from start to finish, it's like a band tuning up, and failing to do so, rather than actual music. This is the sort of album I might expect from a kindergarten group of kids who are handed musical instruments and have literally no idea how to play them. It's just utter shite, and it's also over an hour of utter shite, so it gets one star from me.
What absolute nonsense, genuinely annoyed that I wasted over an hour listening to this.
Don’t like them very much due to an interaction they had with my friend’s mom at their hotel back in the day so I don’t listen to them.
Like many in Britain, I have never knowingly heard any Grateful Dead before, despite how significant they obviously are in the US. This fell some way below my expectations. Even the track of feedback was boring
I can appreciate on some level pretty much any kind of music. But despite many attempts at the Dead, I am forced to conclude that people who like this have some sort of defect in the part of their brain that processes music.
Sorry Deadheads, but there is virtually nothing interesting about this slog of an album. It actually baffles me it was recorded at a concert with homosapiens, because it sounds quieter than a studio. Out of curiosity, is the track length difference between the opening, and closing tracks the biggest disparity in album history? Believe it, or not, figuring that out is more interesting than this album. Live, or dead? Unfortunately, neither. If it was dead, at least we would bask in silence. If it was alive, we would actually hear something. It's on life support. Favorite Track: "Turn On Your Love Light".
I won't mince words. This is terrible.
It's just a long jam session and for like 90% of the time you had to be there to enjoy it. Live jams almost never capture the feeling in that moment which makes it feel random and often boring. Feedback was probably cool in the moment but listening back on a album it really is just random noise. It is a surprisingly good quality for a live recording but this was not a good live album.
Almost tolerable.
I legitimately felt annoyed listening to this. There were bits here and there that were okay, but only for a few seconds at a time. The longer it went on, the more annoying it got. I feel like albums like this are really only meant for people who are already fans.
I hate life albums and most of this album is just instrumentals and for God sakes, an 67 minute long album with 7 tracks?!?! And the first one is a whopping 23 minutes long and people think Metallica has long runtimes on songs!
What a pile of self indulgent twaddle. On the plus side it’s quite impressive that they can play so well with their heads so firmly up each other’s arse. Not quite the worst album I’ve ever heard but really not far off
Annoying
Least favorite band of all time?
I didn't like this album. The only reason it's not lower is because it has some decent guitar work and there are some moments where it feels like the get into a decent jam. I'm not a fan of live albums in general, but this one really annoyed me at some points. Between the off-key caterwauling, derivative ad-libs, and a full track of feedback that I'm supposed to sit through like I'm not begging for the whole thing to be over, it was more pain than pleasure to listen to. Yes, I've heard and like Grateful Dead music before this, but this is not the one for me. I hope if I have to listen to another live album from them that it's a little more tolerable, but I don't think I can ever listen to this one again unless it's by accident. 1.5/5
This was boring and sometimes even hurtful to listen to. Too incoherent, too long, too uninteresting. I still listened to this live album till the end. A big NO.
Turgid
This was a struggle….
Make it stop, FFS…Right down there among the bottom of the one stars. Tom.
Painfully long, dreadful music and woeful vocals. The opening track being 23 minutes long felt like a sick joke, but the rest of the album follows suit with the only exception being St Stephen, which at least tries to resemble a song. Overall a pretty awful 1.5/5.
What an awfull day for my hearing
I’m not a Deadhead
Sorry I found this boring. 90% of it was instrumental
Live masturbation
oh man. i can imagine this was probably better live, like actually being there but i did not vibe with this by listening to it whilst listening to it at my desk at work. it just never ends lol. 3/10 - did not have any favorite songs.
Leute, ich bin in der SPD und echt abgehärtet. Aber wie langweilig soll es denn noch werden?
Ungrateful to be alive.
One of those bands that made a giant cultural impact that just leaves me scratching my head. I guess the drugs were the key to all of those people who made Grateful Dead their life.
Jam bands are never going to be my thing, but at least they can showcase ability and skill; it just requires the band being in sync with one another, something no one in the Grateful Dead seems to concern themselves with. Perhaps today wasn't the day to try to find my way into The Grateful Dead, a band animated by excessive, self-satisfied meandering. Despite its origins in counterculture, they're a band that has nothing to say and takes forever to say it, whose obsessive fans give the vibe that the Dead are an end unto themselves. Which, I guess, is what it is, except that nothing about this recording or others I've heard reveals a band worthy of obsession.
This was even worse than I expected. It's like a sound check. I think they forgot to do songs. Admittedly I have a deep bias against jam band-type nonsense but this suuuuuuucked.
What are you doing? Dead is a live band. Recording their concerts like this is dumb.
Noodling wank. Seriously boring slog of an album.
I thought I’d like this, I love psychedelic music, but this was awful, really awful
Frankly, I couldn't tell you what I just listened to. I can't even say I line the band because I tried listening to their other stuff and found it dreadful.
OK Album Generator, you win. I’ve tried really hard to listen all the way through every album you’ve given me. After 540, I’ve failed less than a dozen times. I’ve struggled through more one stars than I care to remember. But with this tribute to stoned and aimless tonal meandering, you finally broke me. I couldn’t even get through the first track. (Though to be fair, in the amount of time I did force myself to listen I could have gotten through three tracks of most albums.)
Wasted my time
I don’t mind long pieces of music but, they have to have some sort of structure and conclusion when the piece is done. The music on this album went nowhere. That feedback track made me cringe. This album sucked.
i knew i wasn't going to like this. it's live. there are 20+ minute tracks by a jam band. it somehow surpassed all my expectations and was even worse than i imagined.
Glædelig jul til mig
it was a lot of 25 min songs and tbh idc that much abt this album so i stopped listening
Tiresome.
Gave up didn't make it through the album. Having 7 songs span 1hr and the first one being 23mins is not fun for me. 1/5
Oh, Grateful Dead. Jam bands in general, really. They just can't get on with it, can they? They just go on and on and on and on. We get it. You play your instruments good. How about writing a memorable song for a change? Not so technically proficient now, are we?
Fuck off
No private session used for Spotify. The Grateful Dead is one of those bands I think I would enjoy more it it wasn't for the cult following...no band can live up to that kind of hype. It's a live album and I don't like jam bands, trying to keep an open mind but the first song is over 23 minutes, so we are not off to a good start. No, its not the hype, I dislike the album sincerely. Jam bands aren't for me..I am begging for this crap to end, which means its a dreaded one star dooming me to spread anger through the cult. To them I give a sincere "put down the pipe, go take a shower and put on some clean clothes."
Boring so Boring! Attended back to back nights by the Dead in ATL 1973 and fell asleep both nights! Still feel the same way about them!
This is the first album on this list that I didn’t finish. I listened to a bit of each track, but then it would become unbearable so I had to stop. My thoughts as I listened to Dark Star: it sounds like a group of amateur musicians who never played in a band got together and one of them said: “ok, when I say go play a solo as long as you can…and…go!” And everyone played whatever they felt like despite being out of tune and not being rhythmically or melodically together. For 23 minutes. It doesn’t get better after that track. The songs also happen to be boring. I gave each track a chance but it’s not for me. Admittedly, I’ve never done drugs (I like being in control of my senses), so I’d imagine this music would sound much better if you were high because you wouldn’t notice how much it sucks.
Another example of, it didn’t matter how good of a mood I was in, or how excited I was for the music, I still think the Grateful Dead are the most overrated band of all time. The vocals are worse than mediocre, there are brief moments where the guitar playing becomes interesting but it’s usually pretty short lived and buried under meandering song structure. The amount of time you have to invest to get to the “good” parts is exhausting and I felt for one of the only times while doing this list that this was time I could never get back. Which only leaves one question, is the Grateful Dead the name of the band or the feeling you get when the music is finally OVER?!
p183. 1969. A late 60s live album of hippy trippy jazz/rock noodling with no track under 6 minutes and including a 23+ minute monstrosity. Fuck no.
Fucking hippies
Imma gonna pass
Aimless
This psychedelic rock album is like watching a campfire almost going dark - loose, glowing, and constantly mutating, pulling you in with its crackles and threatening to leave you cold entirely.
Man, this is a crap listen. And its inclusion here doesn’t even merit a creative answer…it’s just dumb. I’m a fan of the Dead and can get behind albums like Workingman’s Dead, American Beauty, etc but this was a slog. I guess I would’ve enjoyed this if hearing it live for the first time back then under the influence of some serious drugs without a care in the world. But damn, when you’re a “jam” band, it’s probably a good idea to have some moments of linking up with your band mates rather than just randomly noodling in your own musical silo which is what each member seems to be doing.
Fucking hell that was awful. Every single song felt like a slog in its own right, let alone the whole album. There was a bit that I quite liked and I wanted to know what song it was that had just started. I was 7 minutes in to a 12 minute song. 30 seconds later it was back to being crap. Skipped through feedback hoping to find some actual music at some point but no. No music. Awful. Should have given up after track 1.
Almost comically bad. There was one bit where one of them thought he knew quite a good song but couldn't remember it and another bit where one of them was trying to summon up his memories of the Blues Brothers but couldn't play more than one riff on repeat. I though there was supposed to be something almost mystic about the Dead but this just seemed shambolic.
Starts album. Checks timer 2:35 nothing happening. Looks at track duration 23minutes 19, FFS. Just as i was settling in for a very tedious and long instrumental some vocals suddenly appear or at least i think they do, they feel so low down in the mix it’s difficult to be confident that i am not just drifting off to sleep. St Stephen is mercifully shorter but the presence of vocals actually manage to make the listening experience worse and it just feels very dated. The Eleven starts with a good dose of drums. The vocals sound ramshackle and i would believe they were improvised as they struggle to approach anything that could be described as a harmony. Turn on your love light offers a slight improvement, but that is not saying much. Death Dont have no mercy is a durge, but feedback is even worse and does what it says on the tin. And we bid you goodnight is frankly pointless m, but at least it is short
When I saw the opening track was TWENTY THREE MINUTES LONG, I knew there was no way back from the rock bottom score I had a suspicion I’d be giving them before I started listening. I had no idea when the tracks changed. They were all far too long, went literally nowhere, and had nothing to redeem them. Just God awful.
The first track, Dark Star, is 23 minutes long: I entirely see why the Grateful Dead's audience were normally off their tits listening to their gigs as it would presumably be the only way to survive the experience. I didn't hate all of St. Stephen and Turn On Your Love Light but that's my one vaguely positive comment. Frankly, there was no way they were coming back from that first track though, so while I would have considered a 1.5 if half stars were available, it's a: 1/5
Just a horrible sound
What is it with rock bands from the 60s and 70s, and getting up on a stage, jerking off with their instruments for an hour or two, and thinking they just performed a live album worthy concert.
So are you supposed to enjoy it when a live show goes from overly long but not bad jam sessions into an extra long series of random noises that just eventually kind of ends.
Dated irrelevance.
Influential for creating the worst genre of music ever…
If self indulgent masturbatory instrument interaction is your thing, this will be right up your strasse. For the rest of us we are left to contemplate what it would be like to be there, not on drugs, while the band wanks on for 20 minutes.
nae, detta var mest gittarrunk bara
Nothing but a terrible and painful jam session. The only thing that sparked some joy was to hear the Treme theme song. But that's a cover anyway so no extra points given.
So this is why Phish sucks.
Really wanted to like this, but it was like nails on a chalkboard. A 23 minute opening song that takes forever to built then goes nowhere, another track that’s literally just called feedback is a 7 minute slog of guitar feedback. None of the musicians seemed very good or like they were even listening to each other. Painful
Sometimes psychedelic rock means you’d have to be tripping to enjoy this. This album could be the epitome of that. I have wanted to like the Grateful Dead at various points in my life. However that has never occurred while I was listening to them. “Dark Star” is a 23 minutes slog that starts as a song until they change their minds. One of the biggest issues with this record is how the band never allows anything to rise to the surface, or sink to the bottom. Very little in the way of dynamics. “The Eleven” is famous for its 11/8 time signature which is the time signature that you arrive at when everyone solos at once. Easily, the best track in this is “Feedback” which like “The Eleven” is not a title so much as it is a description. The most remarkable thing about this band is how much mileage they got out of being awful.
Awful.
First listen
What was it about the bloody Fillmores that inspired all these bands to record interminable jam sessions? Were they constructed entirely from weed or something? Occasionally an actual song would break out, but that's insufficient compensation for having to sit through 23 minutes of fluff on track 1 (let alone the 8 minutes of guitar feedback). Grateful Dead have had two shots at impressing me now, and they've blown them both. 1.5
About an hour of random guitar riffs and pointless lyrics followed by 7 minutes of the most unbearable screeching you’ll ever hear. Not good.
I actually quite like a lot of Grateful Dead, but this was unbearable to listen to.
So yesterday I had Pink Flag by Wire - a relatively brief album of snappy art-punk songs of about 2m duration. Today I get this noodly album from the Grateful Dead with long jam-style workouts that completely fails to get my attention long enough to pick out what they are noodling on about. Basically this music just sinks into the background. I get that The Grateful Dead are massively important in rock history, but really this album is self-indulgent claptrap - and it seems from the Wikipedia review that it was only really made (and made cheaply) to generate some cash to pay of debts to the record company. I wouldn't be sad if I never hear this again..
Kind of felt like walking into your local historic instrument shop - least they have the excuse of tuning loudly and not knowing what the other musicians are playing!
That's pretty terrible, being a live jam is the only excuse
This is going to be the worst review I ever leave, but I swear to Thor I normally like the Dead. When I was in college, Cracked was a huge thing. One of the authors on Cracked who wrote about music had a massive hate-on for the Dead. I didn't understand why at the time, but this album opened my eyes. The whole thing is long instrumentals followed by the type of muttery vaguely florid nonsense that people lazily making fun of the Dead do. Partway through I realized this could have been released as a parody album unchanged. There is an entire 7 minute track of feedback (titled Feedback, of course) as the second to last song. I'm going to keep enjoying Touch of Grey and Uncle John's Band, Ripple, Box of Rain, etc, but I am NEVER listening to this album again.
Not for me, not into completely freestyle improvisation.
1/2
like many others I figured this was going to be a good time to sit down, dive in and actually listen to the Grateful Dead. I'm pretty sure all I had ever heard was "Touch of Grey" because of the music video. 5 minutes in and I already knew that this absolute assault on my auditory senses could quite possibly be the final push to send me over the edge into a rage I've always known was building up inside of me. If there were any living things near me including a puppy or a baby, they would have been punched directly in the face if it were the only way to stop this music. I love music. I love all types of music. From Norah Jones to Slayer. From Wu-Tang Clan to Paul Simon. I would so much rather listen to my dead grandparents having sex than listen to a single fucking note of this band. I hated every agonizing second of it. I am glad that I went through it though. I know now that my tolerance for bullshit has inched up ever so much. The next time I am ever in a life or death situation I'll know that there is nothing I can survive. Why? Because I have listened to an entire Grateful Dead album and didn't kill myself. Like a soft queef of patchouli right into my ear canal. Fuck this band and their god awful fans.
Zzzzzz 😴😴
Thought doing this project thing would help to clear up some misconceptions that I might have about some bands. This album did not do that. First track is 20 minutes of noodling, doodling guitar playing that goes round in circles, never gets anywhere. It sounds like an improv jam where no one is paying any attention to what anyone else is doing or playing. 2nd track was better but it was also an anomaly, soon reverted to someone masturbating on a fretboard.
yikes
Absolute unlistenable piece of shit. Sounds like ass from top to bottom. Sloppy and unnecessary long (at least, for whom that are sober). Not for nothing the fans of this band are described as a sect. Don't want to listen to this never ever again, even under torture.
Didn't finish. Sounded mostly like they were just noodling. Maybe I just dont get TGD...
Couldn’t finish, no
There are not enough drugs in the known universe to make this enjoyable.
The least I've enjoyed any piece of art ever. Just a group of individual musicians sounding like they are tuning up, completely out of sync with what the rest of the group is doing. Good rule in life is that if drugs are heavily encouraged to enjoy a type of music, that music probably isn't very good.
This is my first Grateful Dead exposure. Not a fan of everyone playing over each other for 20 minutes.
As hard as I try, I just can’t get into the dead
firstly i am a serious live album lover. you see, stop making sense and oasis's knebworth '96 are two of my fav albums of all time. secondly... i just cant stand long instrumental jams! so im probably in hell today. cause the album runs a little bit longer than 75 minutes, and guess what... there's this track that took up the entire side. and its noodling at its purest with almost no redeeming quality. so if the album name is a multiple choice question, i'd rather choose dead over live while listening to this. 1/5
Not really a Dead Head.
Jeez, this is some dire stuff. "Dark Star" is a 23-minute track in which everybody forgets they are supposed to be playing a *song*. On "St. Stephen" the multiple colorless vocalists are no substitute for one good one. On "The Eleven" the everyone-soloing-at-once adds up to absolutely nothing. The band suprisingly manages to put together a coherent riff at the beginning of "Turn On Your Love Light" before it devolves into a mess of cruddy singing and drum improvisation. It's on this song that the Dead commit the biggest sin - they drag out a snappy two-and-a-half minute number into an insufferable 15 minutes. That ain't rock 'n' roll, boys. Let's see, where were we? Oh yeah, side 4. "Death Don't Have No Mercy" and neither do the band as they plod through this track with lots o' go-nowhere noodling and poorly recorded vocals. The penultimate cut on this already self-indulgent set is "Feedback" which is a non-song consisting of (yes, you guessed it) guitar feedback. In the hands of someone like Neil Young or Jimi Hendrix this might have been an exciting idea but here it just flops around like a dying fish.
The Good: We are confronted with a riddle… The Bad: We aren’t given the answer to the riddle… The Ugly: Turns out that it was all a joke… It never dawned on me, but the band-name, is that a reference to “we are all depressed”? We don’t want to live, we’d rather be dead… gratefully? Be it as it may, this album could have been buried with the dead… What a total waste of my time. There’s nothing special about this album, there’s nothing in it that has opened my eyes and converted me in a Dead-Head. Live albums tend to suck, and this one is the suckiest of the all. 1* for being a total piece of crap
Mozart for music lovers with brain deficiencies. Jam band bros would make up my personal version of hell. Rating: 1.3
I hate the grateful dead so much. I can't physically listen to this. If I could give this 0 stars I would.
Overblown. Pretty sloppy guitar work to boot. The Dead are certainly a band worth remembering, but this album does not stand the test of time in my opinion. Maybe this captures their live sound, but based on this recording I'll probably opt to stay home.
ugh. I understand that all musical taste is subjective but this is trash. Great news though, this is a poorly recorded version of trash. Wish I could zero star some of these. One star is REALLY being generous.
Like 4 hours at an all you can eat Chinese buffet, I’m tired of these fucking noodles.
Now I know how Schrodinger's cat felt
Although I can appreciate GD as one of the most influential bands of the 60s and 70s, it’s hard to stand those endless soundloops of a live performance when it’s not live in fact
There are more precious releases of this band. For example „Shakedown Street“,
Was hoping for something more interesting. I can get into a long jam but nothing here grabs my attention. Overlong and hard to finish, will not be back to this.
Blimey, this was tedious. As it's a live album, I'd say maybe you had to be there, but I'm pretty sure that if I had been there, I'd have got bored and left.
could not finish
It's just...so long. I don't understand who is out here listening to this on the regular. Hardly any lyrics, pretty middle of the road instrumentals, and just doesn't really sound like a live album either. Not worth a listen.
Not for me. 1/5
No one will ever convince me that the Dead are a good band. I cannot listen to this aimless wanky hippy shit. 1/5
2/10 If I had a gun put to my head and I was told to name one positive and memorable thing about these tracks. I’d be on my way to the clouds because how am I supposed to get anything out of this record. Sure it sounds okay, but over an hour of unless guitar and drum loops aren’t going to save this bore. It’s unfortunate because I had high hopes after American Beauty, but I can see I was wrong. Favorite Track: St. Stephen
Can't stand 'live' music. Especially old shit like this.
The Dead don't do it for me. I've never liked them. I get they are trying to be the rock answer for experimental jazz, but it's really not engaging. Imagine being at a show and they play Feedback... almost 8 minutes of noise. Horrible.
Guantanamo music.
So tedious
If I had to choose, I'd say definitely 'Dead'. Very basic jam band who clearly took the wrong drugs.
Fuck it. I just managed to dodge Ella Fitzgerald's because I had an epiphany that I'm going to grow a spine and simply refuse to bend over to it's chore of 3.5 hours, I'm not going to lose my spin again for 1 hour 15 mins of the 'best jam rock album of the psychadelic 60s' - and live to boot. I have listened to over 1001 albums, so fuck you. Mission Accomplished. And fuck the Grateful Dead. It's two more albums and it's over and I'm going to have skipped two records.
This is what I would imagine my band would sound like if I started one with no musical skill or ability.
The title is cooler than the album.
Maaan, too much wankery
I've never been a deadhead and now I know why even more than I did before. Dull, meandering purposeless music across this whole album. Not sure if there is an industry award for musical sound editing but this album could really use some heavy editing. I audibly sighed with relief when the album was finished.
I initially felt bad for giving this such a low score, but after much thought I've come to the realisation that this album was horrendous The start wasn't too bad. Wasn't my thing and would have been a solid 2 star. Then it got to Feedback and it was like torture to my ears Any respect I had for this album was gone by then. Too much drugs clouding their brains clearly Stay safe kids, don't do drugs 1 ⭐️
Riktigt tråkigt
I can smell this one from here. Shitty weed mixed with the pungent aroma of a festival outhouse beckons me to a death that I will almost assuredly be grateful for. If for no other reason than the cessation of this album. 73 minutes of beer belly stink rock from the guys who brute forced a fan base based off of uh, nothing? Well that’s where I start this thing. Change my mind. Dark Star - XIRON DARKSTAR. Exumer reference. Forgot about the song until I saw this title. Now that is an electrifying vocal refrain. Had to go listen to that before I started here. That is a looooooong intro for like three whispered lines of dialogue. This is what the roadie plays while you’re waiting for the band to come out. They sound shy. That contact high can be anxiety provoking. Happens to the best of us. BOOOOO is the sound that blares over the aimlessly meandering guitar in the Fillmore West. It’s me via Time Machine trying to stop what is barely happening on stage. If you don’t hear me, the defrabulator malfunctioned on my TM (Time Machine) and I couldn’t make it. It was that or the numbers got all fucked up. The sentiment remains ageless. A hearty “boo” to all involved. I do like the lyrics though. There. End on a positive. Saint Stephen - Is this about the New Brunswick border town? That town is actually more exciting than this. Mostly due to the abject danger of being in that close proximity to the worst nation on earth. The lyrics appeal to me once again, but the music sounds like Lynyrd Skynyrd pretending to be left wing. The singing is lame and lazy as well. I think the first song tired them out. The Eleven - Well this song starts cooler. That’s a relief. I couldn’t handle any more listless guitar work. This has some welcome chaos but it is again, way too long. Turn on Your Love Light - Gross. This is the worst thing so far. Can’t even bring myself to call it a song. This sounds like if Jim Morrison OD’d and came back with permanent brain trauma. Way too happy, way too aimless. Truly terrible. And quiet the people down. We get it. You grew up in a religious household and now you’ve tried weed. Hurry up and cause the housing crisis already. Any decent riff is immediately derailed by a bad improvisation. I get it. Improvising is hard and they sound cohesive. That takes talent. I’m not here for a talent show with screaming fans. This is braindead. He screams to shock the moronic fans awake. I hate this with a burning passion. I don’t have a “love light,” but if I did, it would be smashed amongst the crushed needles and discarded flower headbands following this cursed gathering of society’s most inebriated nerds. Death Don’t Have No Mercy - You got that right. Or wrong? We’re in double negative city here. Death indeed comes when it’s not wanted and waits far too long for those who suffer the most. I won’t wish death on anybody in this unseen music review, but we’re nearing that point. Another TEN minute song. At least they’ve gone quiet. This is a real showcase for the singer. You know the showcase that you’d definitely trade for the other showcase during Price is Right. The organ is interesting and the song isn’t horrific outside of the poorly recorded vocal passages, but too little too late. Feedback - Best thing going by a mile, but they still found a way to be kind of boring. And We Bid You Goodnight - Thank you. This is the best song. Hey. That feedback and the odd church closer was the best thing by far. Sounds like it finally lulled everybody into their eternal rest or at least a light coma. This is not for me or anybody currently in the throes of sobriety. Even with caffeine and anti-depressants on board, I couldn’t get the buzz needed to see any value in this. And yes, it’s passé to talk about drugs for the entirety of a Grateful Dead review, so I will simply critique the long barren stretches that failed to create atmosphere, the miserable revival church track that nearly purged my breakfast on its own and the remarkably unremarkable playing that was again, too long for an album. I am grateful that this experience is over, and? I’m grateful that my glimpses into the world of The Grateful Dead told me all I needed to know before it was unfurled before me today. This is their best? I pity those who have dedicated their lives to this. In or out of the band. Somebody crack a window. This bad boy is RIPE. 0.5-1 HIGHLIGHTS: Apostles fold their hands in petrified reverence beneath the labyrinthine maw. Hovering. One of three sightings. Magnetized room drags pews inverse. Unctuous tears bead from eyes cast to floor. Mixing with the plasma from stigmata wounds now gaping. Stained glass strains under interdimensional demonic whispers. Consecrated blood shall fill baptismal fonts. Seek servitude or suffer decimation. Pray for rapture.
What in the bore me to dead was this.
Rubbish
2/10
All sounds the same. Much better blues elsewhere.
It says something bad about the Grateful Dead that their meandering nothing jams are far more listenable than their song segments. A person can at least imagine being deep into a trip & seeing something in the jams. It says something bad about how I've aged that I'm not as immediately repulsed by the aggressive limpness of this band. music: hated. (⌐■_■)
Here I was thinking that Phish were a shitty interpretation of the Dead. Come to find out they’re both a cruel joke. Ffs don’t open with a quarter-hour “song” that goes nowhere. This is why you don’t try to make are *while* tripping balls.
Pretty awful. A rock version of improvisational jazz where each musician is doing their own thing. But pretty awful.
The grateful dead, yeah I bet they're grateful cos they don't have to listen to this shit.
Your least favorite coworker’s favorite band.
stick to the feedback solos fellas
Just no
Think freeform Jazz....but rock instead. It started off interesting and then the bass player started doing his own thing, so the guitarist started doing his own thing and it just sounded. Like a mess, I made it to the last track and 2 mins into it I noped out.
That was really fucking shit. 1001 albums to make you hate Robert Dimery. You have awful taste in music Robert. Did your dad show you this? Your dad had awful taste too.
Snore.
More live albums. Yay. Never listened to Grateful Dead before. And I wish I could still say the same. The album was boring and didn't really go anywhere. And one entire track was nothing but microphone feedback. Terrible album. Best song: Turn On Your Love Light
I am now anti-drug.
Ugh so boring. Not even good background music
This was really bad.
A few reasons for me to rate this album down: first: it is a live-album :( second: it is a double album :( third: I like neighter the vocals nor the never ending instrumental parts:( 1,5
Blind album, know the artist. Snoozefest amd it dragged on for so long. Why was there a song that was all feedback???
# 408 : oh no! not a live album! I think I'd rather drill holes in my head.
boringggg
I honestly can't think of a less essential album than this. It sucked for every second.
Yeah I'm bailing on this. It has some moments of genius I'm sure, but I'm not patient enough to stick around and find them
sorry. I will die before I listen to this.
This album felt like it would never end. Just The longest live show ever, with nothing really happeening. I suppose that's expected from a jam band. Parts with vocals were okay songs, but even those felt like they went on too long. I think the only way I would recognize grateful dead's (or dead & co's) sound is by how long it went on for. If things were around 7 minutes or less I'd probably give it a two star (which to me means it's not bad, it's listenable, just wasn't right, or n this case great, to me. Nothing I'd choose to listen to again, but not mad if someone else put it on, infrequently. However, the wanting things to desperately be over made me grow to loath the album.
Pre: Never really been a Dead fan save a few songs. Interested to see how this goes. Mid: I'm on the penultimate track, and I can say with honesty that I'm still not a Dead fan. Post: It's over. Thank the lord. 1/5.
pretty mid
What did one Deadhead say to the other Deadhead when he ran out of dope? Man, this music really sucks!
i really want to give the dead a chance and see why everyone likes them but holy shit this album goes nowhere but goes on forever
I like a lot of what the Dead did post-1969. This, however, is complete dogshit.
Oh man, did I not enjoy this album. It took me way too long to get through it, and I was left worse for wear. I don't mind Grateful Dead; I actually quite like them. However, this album has left a very sour taste in my mouth, one which I am desperately trying to get rid of.
Unequivocally awful. Why was this even made? I refuse to believe that anyone would listen to this under their own free will... let alone pay money for the displeasure...
This may be an unpopular opinion, but this band is terrible. I felt like I was going to fall asleep listening to the slow crawl of "jamming" - I'd prefer to jam my finger in a door.
This was a ride and to be honest I'm not sure what to say about the album. Its a mix of a lot of things both from song to song but it also switches within the songs themselves. It was a fun listen but not something I enjoy enough to listen to again I think.
Meh
Oh please no, I've heard hippie music before and I hated it... This was no exception...
I've had enough of these purposeless jamming sessions. You would have to take up smoking week to enjoy this.
Let's just say this is not going in my "Stuff I didn't hate in 1001 albums" playlist.
if i wanted to listen to live drunk tuneless yodeling for an hour and fifteen minutes, i'd just walk down 6th street at 2 AM. this is both offensively long and unbelievably meandering and dull for being "handpicked." if i think too long about how many live albums are in this damn book i get legitimately hot and sweaty with rage. say it with me: LIVE. ALBUMS. ARE. THE. PURVIEW. OF. SUPERFANS. why is a member of the average public having this forced upon them? i can think of no more unwilling audience for a live album than anyone but their fans. especially not this rambling incoherent sensory nightmare that felt like it lasted 45 years.
the grateful dead feels like a massive prank that the boomers have played on the younger generations. every time i hear a grateful dead song i think, no way does anyone actually enjoy this music for real... there's just nothing there. no soul, no substance, and the band can't even decide on the same song to play. everyone's noodling around on their instruments and not particularly well. it feels like i'm standing in the middle of a guitar center while middle schoolers holding their first guitar try to play smoke on the water and iron man. after 400 or so albums, i think this is my first one-star review going to a band or artist who isn't a sexual predator. congrats, grateful dead. you did it. "favorites": st. stephen and the eleven both had sections that were interesting
dull dull dull
I hope I never hear another Dead song in my life. Hate them damn tie dye shirts too. 491 albums in and this ranks as one of the worst. Negative score.
1 New year, same old Grateful Dead BS. The second I saw that this consists of seven songs in 73 minutes, I knew this was going to be grueling. I’ll give it this, compared to American Beauty, this isn’t so much country music for hippies as it is jam rock for hippies which, honestly, is actually much more in line with what I expected from The Grateful Dead - and I mean that in the worst possible way. Like, imagine paying money to go to this show just to watch a dude pluck at a guitar for like 30 minutes straight. I guess that must be why the group is associated with psychedelic drugs because I couldn’t imagine making it through this sober. Fortunately, once you make it through the borderline painful slog that is Dark Star (admittedly easier said than done), the series of songs that follow have a bit more musicality to them, but man, those runtimes don’t get much shorter. There’s just not really a ton interesting going to justify the lengths anywhere here - even if you’re able to derive an enjoyable moment out of any given track, the feeling is long gone by the time those 15 minutes are up. I will say, I did get a bit of a kick out of hearing Turn on Your Love Light, but that was mostly because I’m familiar with the song in the form of The Blues Brothers’ cover from the 2000 film - say what you want about the movie, but its corresponding soundtrack is much better than anything you can find here (shoutout to Will for letting me rip that CD like a decade ago). Besides, anything positive I have to say about the track (or anything else here for that matter) is completely counterbalanced by the fact that these guys made me listen to feedback for 8 minutes straight at the end (which equates to roughly 11% of your total listening if you’re curious). In summary, these guys suck. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again - I’m totally willing to concede that maybe I just need to see the band live and/or be on acid to “get it”, but there’s nothing I’ve heard from the group at this point that makes me feel particularly incentivized to try it out.
This was one of the most painful listens on this list (so far)! not because the music made my ears bleed or the songs were bad, it's just the endless improvisational guitar noodling and unstructured "songs" were boring, repetitious and down-right ridiculous. I should have stopped during the opening track, Dark Star which went on way too long, well over 20 minutes. Time better spent doing laundry, filing my taxes or doing my Christmas shopping. Holy smokes, if I was in the crowd during this song I would have been snoozing or taking the time for a long bathroom break. How much drugs do you have to take to enjoy the Grateful Dead? There is no punchline, just an overdose.
First song 24 mins of no thanks. Acid was wasted on the boomers.
Sure makes me wish I was dead
Too depressed to get into this album
I can't get excited about this. I have tried the Grateful Dead several times throughout my life, and now again as the 921st album on this list as well as the second of the Grateful Dead. But for me, it remains a directionless album with messy music and substandard vocals. I still don't understand how this became such a household name in counter-culture.
Definitely not what I thought Grateful Dead would sound like. Got deja vu that I’ve said that before. Anyway, this wasn’t terrrible for a live album (which I largely avoid) but it was terrible from a general music point of view. God I was bored senseless with this.
I'm not big on jam bands like this.
I have very little patience to witness in the unfolding of time the development of matter that becomes a seed, which seems unstructured outside of its shell, that with rain, sunlight, other nutrients and microscopic miracles grows into a plant that in the beginning is so soft, so noodly, it appears to take an entire season or more to grow strong enough to support the bearing of colorful fruits in myriad sizes that are then allowed to grow ripe and somehow do not seem to get utilized by the fauna of the ecosystem but instead remain a little too long past their prime to ultimately be plucked by a free-spirited patchouli wearing human, carried miles home on the wind to the magic bus only to be made into a jam for others in a merry band. I need more focus and pace in my music. If you've made it this far in my purposefully meandering review, trying to evoke the vibe of the album, then maybe you already have a higher tolerance than I do. But if you've seen hippies dance ecstatic and bare of foot for hours in the rain only to wonder how or if you'd ever be on the inside of that inscrutable experience then you might understand why I can't give this album more than 1 star despite the Dead's legendary status and the fact that there are some shining moments, scattered like seeds, within.
It took me three weeks to get through this album
Bunch of noodling and nonsense