All Time Top 1100 Albums (Aerosmith - Big Ones) P265

FogBlueInSanFran said:
Just FYI — as stated, I am no Dead fan, but for those of you “expecting” something, this record does a poor job of reflecting the “sound” of the GD. Try American Beauty (1970) instead.

There are some very strange tunes on this record. As my wife said, “You don’t listen to their records, you listen to their songs.” The GD are far and away pop music’s ultimate mix-tape/live bootleg band.

And definitely “prog” is not them. They’re hippies.
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Workingmen's Dead is their best studio album in my opinion but they were quintessentially a live band. The Cornell University or the 1972 Live in Europe albums are incredible.

Edit: just seen @BLUEisville post above, which mentions the Cornell set. Dick's Picks 15 is my favourite but another interesting live album of theirs is Reckoning, which is very much in the Country genre, is also brilliant, if somewhat untypical.

1972/73 and 1977 were their best periods.
 
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Again I have to concur with Fog , Prog Rock how can this be even be suggested its Prog despite the change in engineering and production after a short hiatus by their lofty standards of touring and hippy sounds for the whole of their career up to this point.

Not up to their earlier standards IMO but a good listen to in the car and just when you want some me time and are chilling out.

While I prefer how Little Feat delivered their elements of rock , blues and jazz fusion over the same period albeit its not a just comparison given TGD's excellent catalogue in the 60's and early 70's ( Anthem of the Sun my stand out , can't get enough of That's it for the Other One and Born Cross-Eyed ) I give this a 5/10 because for some reason still foreign to me despite my passion for the Bay music scene and the counter culture I was never a dead head from afar.

In some respects and I don't mean this in a condescending fashion their legion of followers compromised the music particularly after their hiatus similar to Three Dog Night , LA through and through however and not quite the same as the more eclectic bands from San Fran that IMO always drew from a wider base.

The Deadheads demanded more but the time to deliver again for me was over by then.
 
One thing I didn't mention is that my Terrapin... cd is an expanded version, although no points were awarded for that, but it is instructive in that one added track is a live version of "Dancin' in the Streets". The first few minutes are similar to the studio version but shorn of all the embellishments like horns; it also has a 13 minute coda of the band delivering noodling solos in the way that the Dead do. It might be no more appealing to people but it is far more representative.

Nothing though beats Van Halen's cover of "Dancin'...".
 
OB1 said:
One thing I didn't mention is that my Terrapin... cd is an expanded version, although no points were awarded for that, but it is instructive in that one added track is a live version of "Dancin' in the Streets". The first few minutes are similar to the studio version but shorn of all the embellishments like horns; it also has a 13 minute coda of the band delivering noodling solos in the way that the Dead do. It might be no more appealing to people but it is far more representative.

Nothing though beats Van Halen's cover of "Dancin'...".
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Van Halen is underrated as a cover band IMO. Did their own turn on all they touched. I love their version of “You’re No Good”. Damn, I wrote this and then went right to Van Halen II. Man, early days these guys were so good. DLR is such a kick and Eddie is just absolutely molten.
 
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It seems a shame the band are represented by what is by the general consensus an album that is far from being their best work. That said though presumably it has garnered enough critical respect to make the top 1000 list so can’t be all bad.

My brother used to have a couple of Grateful Dead albums and I remember thinking them so so. I also remember Live Dead being much more engaging. And I vaguely remember buying Blues for Allah, the album before this one, from Yanks back in the day, probably in an attempt to impress my brother.

I didn’t find much to like about Terrapin Station. The cover version of Dancing in the Street just had me wondering why. It just sounds like an iffy covers band at a wedding. Some of the rest of the album reminds me of the Jazz club on the Fast Show, noodles of nothingness really.

It’s not entirely terrible, some segments were actually OK but not enough to have me listening again. I’m playing Live Dead while writing this and enjoying the vibe. As for Terrapin Station, it’s a 4 out of 10 for me
 
The Grateful Dead are a band I'd heard a lot about, but I don't really remember hearing too many of their songs. Given I'm a huge fan of 60s/70s "classic rock", I did find this a bit odd so I was looking forward to hearing this and finding an absolute piece of gold. That said, everyone always says that TGD are a live band - you need to see them live to "get them".

Overall, I was disappointed with this album. I just didn't do anything, go anywhere or try to make me feel anything. I liked the production, but I honestly think that's the best thing about the album. Sure, all the musicians are decent but GREAT albums do more than that. They do something to you - make you happy, sad, think, angry, dance, reflect etc. What does this do? I know I was in a tiny minority of ones who liked Pantera, but give me Vulgar Display Of Power over this any day! :)

This really is my first introduction to TGD and to be honest I don't think I'd be too bothered about going to listen to anything else they've done. I was kind of expecting something "acidic" and maybe something as challenging as Zappa - who I like. I kind of expected an album to push the boundaries, but I was surprised that this sounded like a very poor-mans CSNY! I listened to about 8 songs on Spotify and didn't find anything that changed my view. I can't imagine wanting to listen to them live for hours if I'm honest, unless I was absolutely blasted.

Maybe I've been a bit hard on them as I was expecting so much more. There's a very good reason why I've not bothered with them before - and won't do again.

4/10
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
Van Halen is underrated as a cover band IMO. Did their own turn on all they touched. I love their version of “You’re No Good”. Damn, I wrote this and then went right to Van Halen II. Man, early days these guys were so good. DLR is such a kick and Eddie is just absolutely molten.
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They were a superb covers band.

The VH of "VH I" to "1984" is a wonderful thing. For me, the only thing that matches it is peak Zeppelin. I may have mentioned this before but best gig I ever saw wa VH at Madison Sq Garden in 1981.
 
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