Jerry Garcia

I don't know thefirst, although i'm intereste in.
Could you tell us more about?

And do you know the Garcia pieces on Zabraskie point B.O?
("Love scenes")

Just my opionion, but Jerry plays every instrument,
less the drums and is more interesting than
American Beauty or Workingmans Dead, to me!

Those are the goodies Anthem of the Sun!
BUT

This album contains several classics of
underground radio ("The Wheel," "Sugaree," "Deal")
but I wonder how many people have ever heard the
whole thing? It belongs right next to the Grateful
Dead's turn to folk/blues on "Workingman's Dead"
and "American Beauty," as well as "Europe '72,"
which contains several great Garcia/Hunter songs
from the same period never recorded in the studio
(much to Robert Hunter's regret). In addition to the 3
mentioned already, "Garcia" contains "Bird Song,"
"Loser," and "To Lay Me Down," 6 of the best songs
Garcia and Hunter ever wrote! But the album is more
than just a collection of great songs, the whole is
greater than the sum of the parts. After the first side's
conventional bluesy songs (with the exception of
"Bird Song," which is haunting and bittersweet), the
second side gets DEEP. "Late for Supper" is the
ominous opening of some sort of bad trip.
"Spidergawd" features the recorded voices of
newscasters talking about real-life apocalyptic
events related to the potential for nuclear war... "EEP
Hour" is a strange and beautiful instrumental
number, which leads into the sad and nearly
terminal "To Lay Me Down," a memory of lost love. I
believe this song offers as clear a glimpse into
Garcia's troubled soul as any he ever recorded,
though the feelings are universal. Finally, "An Odd
Little Place" represents a turnabout, back toward the
light. And then, with a bang, comes "The Wheel,"
redemption through grace! (The lyric reads "Big
wheel turn by the grace of God," which of course is
from Isaiah.) The song is powerful and euphoric
enough on its own, but only by listening to it at the
end of this album do you realize its full implication.
1972 was the last year of the 1960s. Garcia and the
Dead, of course kept on truckin' for many years, but
they could not totally defy the shift in the times. This
album is one of the last transmissions from that
utopian moment, the counterculture dream, filled
with the recognition that it was passing...cut and
paste



Edited by DallasBryan

Are you Experienced?

Sean Trane wrote: Not familiar with his solo projects. Can it be better than Terrapin'Station?  Because that was one hell of an album. Very proggish, too!

Yes, I do have Terrapin Station and I think his double album I mentioned above is far superior; First because it was such an emotive live act, secondly there is some improvisation showing Garcia's skills as a guitarist and thirdly, as good as the songs are on 'Station, the songs on Garcia Band are even better...especally the second disc...four stars no problem!

...It's like Jefferson airplane and the follower bands Hot tuna and Jefferson starship which were both bad and had nothing to do with the airplane.