CD REVIEW: The Best of the Grateful Dead by The Grateful Dead

EVERYONE has heard of the Grateful Dead. They are held in reverence by people who might remember the Sixties vaguely. The band is cited as an influence on many who followed. But I had not heard a single piece of music by them until getting the opportunity

I’m not sure what I was expecting. Something wild and manic, perhaps, drug-crazed and avowedly anti-Establishment? But to be perfectly honest my impression after the first listen was of a bunch of laid-back, poppy, flowery powery meandering ditties which brought to mind American soft rock offerings which sell by the bucketload but are, well, quite dull.

That was the first impression anyway. I did suspect there was more to The Grateful Dead than meets the eye (or ear) when references to cocaine started permeating out of my car stereo so I decided to give this double album a second try. The songs were catchy enough which was what perhaps caught me by surprise.

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There are 32 tracks on this collection which spans the band’s career from 1967’s The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)  right through to 1989’s Standing On The Moon and what surprised me was how little the band moved from its basic free-wheeling, rather Sixties sound over all that time.

There are some more funky pieces in here, some that get a tad rockier, but the songs don’t really wander far from the Dead footpath from start to finish. The musicianship is sound enough and the songs are well written but why the band is seen as so radical is beyond me.

To a fan this compilation – which runs at over three hours – will be a must as it chronicles the band’s entire career and might contain bits and pieces that have not been heard for a while, such as the single version of Dark Star which lasts two-and-a-half minutes as opposed to the live version which often went on for half an hour.

There is an information booklet which is interesting in itself and offers a glimpse into musical times past, with nice piccies.

But, to me, The Grateful Dead remain as much of an enigma at the end as they did at the start. Maybe I was born just a bit too late to appreciate them, which is my failing not theirs.

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