Anytime someone tries to slag off the Dead’s studio albums, my mind immediately goes to this haunting work of art. Rather than trying to replicate their live sound they instead used the studio as a creative tool, and came out with a set that carries all of the vibe of a live performance, filtered through a cloud of baroque whimsy (and a lot of nitrous, so they say), resulting in perhaps the most unique offering in the band’s vast catalogue.
Three versions of this album exist. The first, which never officially came out, was recorded on 8-track and was more of a dry run than anything. Stifled by the limitations of 8-track recording, they moved to a 16-track studio where they re-recorded the album, and used all those extra tracks to insert all sorts of weird, and they came out with a work that stands completely apart from anything else they ever did.
This version is the 1971 remix, which features a more expansive stereo range, with the weird tamped down a bit. While the 1969 mix is the cooler of the two, I kinda prefer this mix. It’s larger than life. It stares you in the face and it consumes you, while the original version hits you from deep within (kinda like the dichotomy between the two mixes of VU’s third album - both are valid, and totally vital, but the “closet mix” is where it’s at).
So much of this material is of its time and place that it’s no surprise that only a few songs from this album really went the distance. “St. Stephen” and “Cosmic Charlie” had a couple of brief revivals later on, and “Dupree’s Diamond Blues” always kinda hung there in the once-a-tour bag, but “China Cat Sunflower” went on to become one of the band’s most-performed songs, never leaving rotation, always exciting and inspired.
This album cost a fortune to make, and pushed the patience of their label to its absolute limit (it was worth it). They made up for it with Live/Dead….
No comments:
Post a Comment