After the massive success of 1987’s In The Dark, the band capitalized on their wave…by taking the opposite approach, from all sides, on what turned out to be their final LP. The result is an album that I happen to hold very dear, but one that often appears on worst-album-ever lists.
For starters, rather than record the album as a band, as they did before, they chose to completely track every instrument separately, from the ground up, with each player reacting on their own, to whatever was already on tape. More like architecture than a jam. This is a very interesting approach for a band like the Dead, and a most democratic one, but it also can lead to sterility, and Built To Last is definitely guilty of that (it was 1989, after all). That said, it gives this album a distinct mood and, while mine is not a popular opinion, I really love this album.
When this came out, I was still the most casual of listeners, usually drawn in by interesting packaging more than anything else. I came across an edition of Built To Last called “Dead In A Deck” that came in a box that looked like a giant deck of cards, and it actually came with a deck of GD playing cards (wish I still had ‘em). I thought the album was okay…I bought this on the same day that Presto by Rush came out and that’s the album that got the most play…but I dug this one.
In retrospect, this is a far weirder album than it’s known for being. There is some really dark music here, from Phil’s spooky bass on Brent Mydland’s greatest-ever song (“Just A Little Light”) or Weir’s edgy “Victim Or The Crime” (one of his most underrated) and his mildly bombastic rocker, “Picasso Moon” (this song totally rocks but wtf is this one about).
But then Garcia offers up “Foolish Heart”, one of his poppiest songs ever (yet also one that turned into a badass live tune), and gets super pensive on the beautiful title track, as well as the melancholy “Standing On The Moon”. Through most of this album, Jerry’s guitar tone takes on this distant, robotic timbre that he was messing around with at the time, and that has a lot to do with the mood of this album. Some people don’t like it but I do. It’s some pretty spooky shit. Also, his playing is totally on point throughout, with some of his best solos on a studio album.
Mydland offers up three songs (four on the CD and tape), his most prolific moment in the band. Aside from the phenomenal “Just A Little Light”, we have “Blow Away”, which may tread a bit close to Richard Marx territory but is actually an incredible song that was a fantastic live tune. Jerry’s solo at the end of this is one of his best to grace a studio album.
Closing out the program is the lullaby-esque “I Will Take You Home” which was not really a good song….until Brent died, at which point this song became a gut-wrencher. Listen to this song while looking at the photo of Brent playing onstage with his daughter looking up adoringly (from Without A Net) and even though you know this song sucks you will bawl your eyes out.
Not on the vinyl, but on all other formats (and the b-side of the “Foolish Heart” single) is a fourth Brent song, “We Can Run”. A pretty cheesy lyric from Barlow but a nice, environmentally conscious sentiment, and pretty decent music to boot. Sadly, this would be Brent’s final offering, as he died the following year.
In fact, this would be the entire band’s last studio offering. Despite entering the mid-‘90s with a double album’s worth of new material, they just never could get it together to finish anything in the studio before Garcia died. Too bad. They had some great songs (and a few not-so-great ones too). Jerry’s offerings, in particular, were spectacular. We’ll get to that soon.
Of course, the Grateful Dead is not a band whose career is measured by albums, so it doesn’t really matter that this was their last album, only that there weren’t any more.
It’s been fun revisiting all of these albums, many of which were finally just now being acquired on vinyl (including this one - the songs are in a completely different order and it kinda freaked me out). I look forward to spinning more live sets but I will revisit these often.
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