Right now I prefer American Beauty, and it's "Box of Rain" that tips the scales, because otherwise they're both just full of great songs, but "Box of Rain" is more than just great.
On other Dead material of the time: I've said it before on ILM, but the 8/27/72 show at the Veneta Fairgrounds in Oregon is killer. Firstly, it totally has that arc from folk to space back to folk...and in the comedown from "Dark Star" it segues into a goofy "El Paso", back into "Dark Star", and then into a cathartic "Sing Me Back Home" (which you can here on the So Many Roads box set, but trust me, it's better in context). It's simply incredible.
― Euler, Monday, 7 April 2008 19:50 (sixteen years ago) link
I can't imagine a greatest anything that doesn't have something from AB or WD
It's not suppose to be a greatest hits album; it's basically the track list for the studio album Hunter always wanted the Dead to make after AB.
― QuantumNoise, Monday, 7 April 2008 19:52 (sixteen years ago) link
someone YSI that shit, i don't have time to sift through boots and odds n ends.
― ian, Monday, 7 April 2008 19:53 (sixteen years ago) link
xp - ok, i can read. isn't there supposed to be great stuff on ACE?
― gabbneb, Monday, 7 April 2008 19:55 (sixteen years ago) link
apologies, if you thought i was getting uppity. I wasn't. I was just pointing that out.
― QuantumNoise, Monday, 7 April 2008 20:05 (sixteen years ago) link
i totally want to cover friend of the devil.
-- ian, Monday, April 7, 2008 4:05 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Link
haha i totally have a grateful dead tabs book from 9th grade if you need those chord progressions dude
― bell_labs, Monday, 7 April 2008 20:07 (sixteen years ago) link
xp - no, dude, i was being self-deprecating
― gabbneb, Monday, 7 April 2008 20:10 (sixteen years ago) link
yes lindsay please!!!!! i would love a grateful dead tabs book.
― ian, Monday, 7 April 2008 20:13 (sixteen years ago) link
i have 2. unless my mom has thrown them out by now.
― bell_labs, Monday, 7 April 2008 20:13 (sixteen years ago) link
x-post x-post
gotcha!
― QuantumNoise, Monday, 7 April 2008 20:21 (sixteen years ago) link
What's the relationship between "Ripple" and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat's "Any Dream Will Do"?
― Mordy, Tuesday, 7 April 2009 09:37 (fifteen years ago) link
^Andrew Lloyd Webber was a deadhead?
― davek_00, Tuesday, 7 April 2009 10:42 (fifteen years ago) link
yikes if there's overlap between deadheads & music theatre geeks
― velko, Tuesday, 7 April 2009 11:04 (fifteen years ago) link
American Beauty by a long shot: better songs, better pacing, more diverse instrumentation.
was looking for a Europe '72 thread fwiw
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 18 April 2017 19:41 (seven years ago) link
No way dudeWorkingman's is stranger and less predictable
― calstars, Tuesday, 18 April 2017 21:05 (seven years ago) link
Like the chords of / high time / and the misery of / black Peter /
― calstars, Tuesday, 18 April 2017 21:06 (seven years ago) link
Guess Scott's right, come to think of it; I still haven't heard that many country, folk etc. covers of these songs----but here's a good "Ripple" from Hot Club of Cowtown's singer-fiddle Elana James, on her second solo album---nice steel guitar too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYPlm0iVDMI
― dow, Tuesday, 18 April 2017 21:18 (seven years ago) link
Also performed by my cousin's bros at his memorial; that was good too.
― dow, Tuesday, 18 April 2017 21:21 (seven years ago) link
Some timd ago I was listening to 60s retro radio show on an area college station. They accidentally played two cuts in a row from AB ("Friend of The Devil" and "Sugar Magnolia"), and afterwards the DJ remarked that it was one of the only albums they could think of from a group with multiple singers where each of the first four songs has a different lead (Phil, Jerry, Bob, Pigpen). Found that interesting.
― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 18 April 2017 21:26 (seven years ago) link
Lol flappy's revive pretty much sums up my Dead semi-fandom
― the rockists' red glare (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 18 April 2017 21:39 (seven years ago) link
I need to track down that 'lost' album
― the rockists' red glare (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 18 April 2017 22:30 (seven years ago) link
Both are great, but if I had to pick just one it would be WD, with "Dire Wolf" being by favorite track.
― o. nate, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 00:54 (seven years ago) link
Cumberland Blues is probably my favorite Dead track, and it's on Workingman's Dead. Then again, Ripple is probably my second favorite Dead track...
― human music...I like it! (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 04:35 (seven years ago) link
I like the version of CB on Europe 72 better though
― the rockists' red glare (Drugs A. Money), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 05:34 (seven years ago) link
Who can name all the personages on the WD cover?
― calstars, Saturday, 29 September 2018 05:00 (five years ago) link
err, isn't it just the band + Robert Hunter?
― Paul Ponzi, Saturday, 29 September 2018 06:02 (five years ago) link
Workingman's is stranger and less predictable
this and especially
this
are otm
― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Saturday, 29 September 2018 10:08 (five years ago) link
this is a really arbitrary decision but i'd have to go with workingman's bc of how much i love "dire wolf" and "casey jones"
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Saturday, 29 September 2018 13:26 (five years ago) link
I think my favorite is whichever one is playing RIGHT NOW
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Saturday, 29 September 2018 13:32 (five years ago) link
this is the lamest possible way to get into the grateful dead but i remember i bought american beauty in college just bc of how much i loved the counting crows cover of "friend of the devil." took me a while to adjust tbh
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Saturday, 29 September 2018 13:53 (five years ago) link
there is no bad way
― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Saturday, 29 September 2018 14:48 (five years ago) link
love those seasick chord changes in "high time"
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Saturday, 29 September 2018 14:52 (five years ago) link
Freaks and Geeks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRHZr3VlpgE
(Ends with the two lead female characters setting out for a summer--or a lifetime--as Deadheads.)
― clemenza, Saturday, 29 September 2018 15:15 (five years ago) link
Agreed that I prefer Workingman's Dead, not just because Cumberland Blues is my fav Dead song. Beauty has some transcendent classics sitting beside mediocrities (Ripple is incredible, Candyman not so much), but Workingman's Dead stays at a fairly high level throughout.
― nba jungboy (voodoo chili), Saturday, 29 September 2018 15:30 (five years ago) link
candyman is so good! that pedal steel solo!
― marcos, Saturday, 29 September 2018 15:51 (five years ago) link
i think as much as i associate both albums with each other they have very distinct moods for me, american beauty is kinda this shining shimmering thing and workingman's is pretty ghostly and introverted throughout. at the moment i think i prefer the second mood but i also feel like it could easily switch back in the next 5-10 years
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Saturday, 29 September 2018 15:57 (five years ago) link
Back to the cover, I guess bill is on the stairs, Mickey is talking to pigpen, and hunter’s on the far left. Those were the three I wasn’t sure about
― calstars, Saturday, 29 September 2018 16:40 (five years ago) link
Here is more info about that cover than you ever wanted to know:
http://www.popspotsnyc.com/workingmans_dead/
― Paul Ponzi, Saturday, 29 September 2018 17:58 (five years ago) link