166. The Grateful Dead - Live/Dead (1969)




















Track Listing

1. Dark Star
2. Saint Stephen
3. Eleven
4. Turn On Your Love Light
5. Death Don't Have No Mercy
6. Feedback
7. And We Bid You Goodnight

Review

There are some things in common between this album and Chigaco's Chicago Transit Authority. And those things are the fact that when you first listen to it you think... what a bunch of wankers. Yes, they can play, but why must they? Then you hear a 7 minute long Feedback track, much like Free Form Guitar by Chicago with a lot more talent and you start to understand the differences.

This is a very self-indulging album, but it has some quality to it, and after 5 or 6 listen throughs you actually start not minding it much. It's not one of the best psychadelic albums, but it is also not one of the worse, it must be the one with the longest tracks however.

The album consists of 7 tracks which last as long as the 30 in the White Album. This is a bunch of hippies tripping out and just playing, and this can be great at the best of times or just bad in other times. Due to the lenght of the tracks this can actually happen in the same track, they all have their good and bad moments.

If you are into jam bands, like Phish and other such wankathons check it out. If not, stay well away. You can stream it from Napster or buy it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Dark Star
2. Turn On Your Love Light
3. St. Stephen
4. The Eleven

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

Dark Star, part one and two:





How boring was that? And a fucking 80's version? Awful.

From Wikipedia:

Unlike in later years, in early 1969 the contents of the Dead's set lists varied little. They improvised the medley of "Dark Star"/"St. Stephen"/"The Eleven" several times a week, which enabled them to explore widely within the songs' simple frameworks. The album was a financial success for the band in the eyes of their label, Warner Bros. Constanten had commented that "[Warner Bros.] had pointed out that they had sunk $100,000-plus into Aoxomoxoa ... so someone had the idea that if we sent them a double live album, three discs for the price of one wouldn't be such a bad deal."