In Praise Of... The Grateful Dead "Anthem Of The Sun"

pretty much otm. (note "a lot" ain't "all.") the original mix is definitely the shit.

(PBS was showing "The Grateful Dead Movie" during their fundraiser a couple nights ago, though, and there were a few parts of that I quite enjoyed.)

Anthem is my Dead pick too, especially the remastered one with the alternate takes of "Alligator" and "Caution". But even that LP isn't terribly mindblowing, considering it's supposedly their most psychedelic. It's kinda weird to learn that their catalogue is pretty sedate, considering they're supposedly the grandfathers of psychedelia. Many contemporaries of theirs were far weirder. (Not a putdown, just an observation.)

Anyway, to what Myonga said ... if 'catalog' = studio releases, then I can understand. The live performances from that period were pretty consistently wild, at least in a late-60s context. Even past the R&B numbers like Lovelight, the would still find spaces in their shows to get a little weird (Other Ones, feedback jams, etc.). And once they learned what to do with Playing in the Band, there are some seriously wild Playings (the Dicks Picks from Boston '73 is a perfect example). etc. etc., but yeah, a band like Phish seemed to get a little more wilder (probably b/c they tend to keep a tighter groove and build together; w/ GD, you hear a little something more amorphous).

-- Daniel Peterson (dcpeterso...), June 8th, 2005 10:55 AM.

i caught that awhile back on PBS and not knowing what it was, just assumed it was the Winterland thing. in any case, it was pretty fun to watch. there was one scene of this hot hot hot scantily clad hippy girl dancing in front of a security guard with a shit-eating grin on his face.

Understood about the 'psychedelic'. I think our understanding might be colored a bit by the fact that we have 30 years of studio advances at work. I'm sure when Anthem came out, it sounded a bit strange.

God I forgot how much I love GD ... time to go over to OiNK and start snatching up Dick's Picks (including the Volume 12 set that I scratched up).

http://www.purplemoon.com/card/bob-seva.jpg

Almost seems to complete a trilogy with two other albums I have in heavy rotation right now -- Miles Davis's "On the Corner" and Can's "Ege Bamyasi"

T/S: Mickey Hart vs. Tony Willams wouldn't be much of a thread (or substitute Jack DeJohnnette depending on when)

bill k. was always my favorite GD drummer - thought his style mixed perfectly w/ their style in the early 70s. There isn't anything ostensibly wrong w/ Micky Hart, but man, he's one cheesy d00d.

There's no better album for a rainy day than this IMO

Ugh, the Lesh 1971 mix is pretty bad, glad I never heard that version first.