![]() In thirty-five minutes, they speed through the album’s nine songs with an anxious energy, resulting in an endearing-but-muddy listen-something Phil Lesh would describe as “sound and fury buried in a cavern.” Maybe it was the nerves of a group of young freaks trying to sell themselves for the first time, or maybe it was the massive amount of Ritalin they were all on, but the Grateful Dead sound more energetic here than they ever would. Signed to Warner Brothers with a “jazz rate” deal-meaning they were paid by song length, not number of tracks-the band conceded to nearly every label expectation, transforming themselves into something like a traditional garage rock band. While the band would never find a definitive answer to that question (although they came a hell of a lot closer on their next self-titled release, a staggering live album from 1971), their debut record found the Dead choosing the path of least resistance. It was a question the band would face multiple times throughout their career and one that was immediately apparent when they recorded their debut album: How do the Grateful Dead present themselves, stripped of the context that defines them? At the time, no one was quite sure what to do with the Grateful Dead. Bob Weir responds dryly, “I see our fame has preceded us.” He’s not entirely kidding. In a spirited but nascent Vancouver show attached to this 50th anniversary reissue, mostly comprised of embryonic attempts at original songs (“Cream Puff War,” “Cardboard Cowboy”) and jumpy renditions of soon-to-be standards (“I Know You Rider,” “New Minglewood Blues”), the audience greets the band with silence. ![]() They were a band inextricably linked to their locale (Haight and Ashbury, San Francisco) and the scene it had hatched (namely Ken Kesey’s Acid Tests, for which the Dead served as the house band). Leading up to the record’s release in 1967, the Grateful Dead had fortified their reputation as an uncontainable force, a live act who had to be seen to be believed. ![]() In 2017 alone, The Dead has charted four of these albums in the Billboard 200’s top 40, following six in 2016.Before they were the Grateful Dead, they were “San Francisco’s Grateful Dead.” At least that’s how they were to be billed on the title of their debut album: a scuzzy, organ-drenched oddity, more representative of the era it came from than the band it introduced. In all, the band has charted 82 titles on the Billboard 200, many via the Dave’s Picks archival series that began with Dave’s Picks Volume 1 in February 2012. After more than 20 years, the Grateful Dead may have ceased recording as a unit, but the music would never stop. When In the Dark came out in 1987, their first studio album in seven years, the Dead had their biggest success: a Top 10 album (No. But as they toured the country followed by their loyal Deadhead supporters, the Dead recorded less frequently. 23) in 1980, which included the funky “Alabama Getaway” (No. 41 on the Billboard 200) in 1979 and Go to Heaven (No. This fruitful period continued with Shakedown Street (No. “The Music Never Stopped” from the latter disc peaked at No. 18), Grateful Dead from the Mars Hotel (No. While significant radio play eluded the band for the next 16 years, their albums routinely cracked the top 20 of the Billboard 200, including Wake of the Flood (No.
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