The Grateful Dead - The Grateful Dead (1967)

Some might say I shouldn't waste my time reviewing the Grateful Dead's studio albums, but I really think I need to appreciate these and understand the base of what they were trying to do, and the musical evolution of the band as a whole, before I can fully appreciate the live albums. After all, even though the Dead were playing stuff from various eras and genres in their live shows throughout their whole career, I still think their studio albums need to be taken as a kind of statement of "this was where we were as a band." So yes, I am going to review all of their studio albums and comment on them, but eventually I'll highlight a couple of my favorite live shows too.

The Grateful Dead's studio debut is honestly a great little 60s psychedelic rock album and it's a quick listen; it's over before you know it actually. Probably reminds me most of Jefferson Airplane if we're talking bands from the era. Especially on Cold Rain and Snow and Creampuff War, the intensity with which they sing and play is awesome and makes me want to go find live shows where they really stretched those two songs out.

The Grateful Dead was such an interesting band musically. You can tell these guys wanted to be experts and masters of the craft, and they weren't afraid to play with all kinds of genres and styles. They're one of those bands you really want to study even if you're not the biggest fan, and that's actually what I hope to do over the next year.

Good Mornin' Little School Girl is a straight up vomit-inducing song and I always skip it so I can't really talk about the music. I don't care if it's a cover; they chose to cover it and record it for their first LP and that's pretty awful. Definitely leaves a mark on their legacy for me and makes me wonder about all of them. It's worth mentioning here that everyone from that era ran around with 12-15 year old girls and such. Don't misunderstand me; I'm not trying to excuse anything. I want to put a mark on all their legacies. And no I don't care that it was just the times. The way we improve things in the present day is by pointing out how those who came before us fucked up. I get tired of people reminding me that "it was the times."

Now that that is out of the way, I can conclude by saying that if you've always heard about the Dead but were never really a fan, and you want to give them a try, this is a great starting point, and you can look at it as the starting point for the band too.

Highlights: Beat It On Down The Line, Cream Puff War, Morning Dew

For Fans Of: Pretty much anything