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Classic Album Discussion Thread: The Kinks-Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Pt. 1 (1 Viewer)

The Grateful Dead- American Beauty (1970)

Side One

Box Of Rain

Friend of the Devil 

Sugar Magnolia

Operator

Candy Man

Side Two

Ripple

Brokedown Palace

Till the Morning Comes

Attics of My Life

Truckin’

On the very last episode of the short lived classic TV series Freaks and Geeks, the main character is feeling depressed; she is given this record by a friend and told that it will cheer her up. She goes home, puts it on the turntable, and “Box Of Rain” comes on. She breaks into a smile. That’s the way I’ve felt about this album my entire life. This music relaxes my soul. My favorite song is Friend of the Devil, but again I love the whole thing: Ripple, Box Of Rain, Sugar Magnolia, etc. The long strange trip continues. This is comfort music. 

 
American Beauty is my favorite studio GD album. It is great from start to finish. My favorite song on it is Ripple.

 
I know this is going to sound like heresy to some,but I was never into the dead.  Don't own one album and never went to a single concert.  I think I may have been rebelling against the rebels.

 
rustycolts said:
I know this is going to sound like heresy to some,but I was never into the dead.  Don't own one album and never went to a single concert.  I think I may have been rebelling against the rebels.
Click to expand...
Do you have access to ITunes or Amazon music? Put this album on. I promise it’s a life changing experience. 

 
rustycolts said:
I know this is going to sound like heresy to some,but I was never into the dead.  Don't own one album and never went to a single concert.  I think I may have been rebelling against the rebels.
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I was the same way and then a co-worker gave me a CD of a live Dead album and it blew my mind. 

 
timschochet said:
Do you have access to ITunes or Amazon music? Put this album on. I promise it’s a life changing experience. 
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I do have Amazon music.  I usually just go to youtube though.  I am starting to catch up to this tech stuff now.  I will give it a listen.  I have been introduced to some new music in this thread.  Thanks @Ilov80s

 
timschochet said:
The Grateful Dead- American Beauty (1970)

Side One

Box Of Rain

Friend of the Devil 

Sugar Magnolia

Operator

Candy Man

Side Two

Ripple

Brokedown Palace

Till the Morning Comes

Attics of My Life

Truckin’

On the very last episode of the short lived classic TV series Freaks and Geeks, the main character is feeling depressed; she is given this record by a friend and told that it will cheer her up. She goes home, puts it on the turntable, and “Box Of Rain” comes on. She breaks into a smile. That’s the way I’ve felt about this album my entire life. This music relaxes my soul. My favorite song is Friend of the Devil, but again I love the whole thing: Ripple, Box Of Rain, Sugar Magnolia, etc. The long strange trip continues. This is comfort music. 
Click to expand...
The Dead have always been about their live shows but this record and Working Man’s Dead stack up with any of the classics. Great songwriting and an “Americana” sound.

 
I am liking this album a lot as I listen for the first time. It is touching really. Not sure how classic rock it is, but it's a really nice album. 

 
it's hard for me to choose between Rush and the Dead as the most consistently unpleasant musical force in creation. from their loser pretentions to their overrated instrumentation, both sound & fury signifying nothing.

 
Ilov80s said:
I am liking this album a lot as I listen for the first time. It is touching really. Not sure how classic rock it is, but it's a really nice album. 
Click to expand...
I guess they’re classic rock in the sense that they were contemporaries with those bands, but the Dead are almost their own genre. Country, blues, folk, jazz, psychadelia and pop all rolled into one. 

American Beauty is more Country/Folk/Pop or what would now be called Alt-Country or Americana. Whatever it is it’s good.

 
Dr. Octopus said:
I guess they’re classic rock in the sense that they were contemporaries with those bands, but the Dead are almost their own genre. Country, blues, folk, jazz, psychadelia and pop all rolled into one. 

American Beauty is more Country/Folk/Pop or what would now be called Alt-Country or Americana. Whatever it is it’s good.
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They just didn't get play on the local classic station. 

 
simey said:
American Beauty is my favorite studio GD album. It is great from start to finish. My favorite song on it is Ripple.
Click to expand...
Agree with this!

A little note about Box of Rain... Phil Lesh wanted a song to sing to dying father.  He actually composed the song while driving in the car on one of his trips to see his dad.  He then gave Robert Hunter a tape of the melody and Hunter came up with the lyrics.  Hunter was asked what he meant by Box of Rain here was his reply:

Well, I don't like to do this, since it encourages others to ask about what I had in mind when I wrote a song, and mostly you'd need to have my mind to understand even approximately what I had in it.  By "box of rain", I meant the whole world we live on, but "ball" of rain didn't have the right ring to my ear, so box it became, and I don't know who put it there.
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This was taken from the book The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics book.  Neat book for you Dead fans out there.

 
simey said:
Truckin has been a staple on classic rock stations for a long long time.
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We all have different classic rock stations and I think we have learned that they changed over time and location. The Dead were not a Detroit classic rock staple. I wish they were!

 
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wikkidpissah said:
it's hard for me to choose between Rush and the Dead as the most consistently unpleasant musical force in creation. from their loser pretentions to their overrated instrumentation, both sound & fury signifying nothing.
Click to expand...
Don't forget The Band. You think they suck too.

 
timschochet said:
I’ve heard both Sugar Magnolia and Friend of the Devil. From Workingmans Dead, Uncle John’s Band and Casey Jones. And later on Touch of Grey. 
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Yep, and occasionally Ripple will make an appearance.  But these represent an incredibly small percentage of their body of work.  I suppose this could be said of several bands, but compare to something like the Rolling Stones...   One of the things that makes the Grateful Dead great is there unique blend of genres as Dr. Octopus pointed out upstream.  

 
simey said:
Don't forget The Band. You think they suck too.
Click to expand...
Almost, but that's because i encountered them several times @ Bearsville Studios and every single member acted like a God of Music, which i never saw any of them as close to being. Their music is a little foursquare & dull for my tastes, but not awful

 
wikkidpissah said:
Almost, but that's because i encountered them several times @ Bearsville Studios and every single member acted like a God of Music, which i never saw any of them as close to being. Their music is a little foursquare & dull for my tastes, but not awful
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I have never not any bands so your view is just so foreign to mine.  I have to rate on a different scale. 

 
Ilov80s said:
I have never not any bands so your view is just so foreign to mine.  I have to rate on a different scale. 
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we all do, my friend. taste cant be productively argued nor arbitrated. i am a trifle bewildered how intelligent people can't see the impossible limitations that Rush & the Dead evince with their every note, but it doesn't demand that i think less of them or anything.

 
wikkidpissah said:
we all do, my friend. taste cant be productively argued nor arbitrated. i am a trifle bewildered how intelligent people can't see the impossible limitations that Rush & the Dead evince with their every note, but it doesn't demand that i think less of them or anything.
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We would have a fun night together. 

 
I don't get the Dead.   Their music does nothing for me.   It didn't when I was smoking either.   But, it is not terrible.  Tull is terrible.  

 
American Beauty is exactly what the title signifies. As others have said, the Dead’s studio material by and large doesn’t hold a candle to the live stuff, but they hit it on all cylinders.

Also particularly love Ripple - haunting use during the movie Mask.

And Attics of My Life is very underrated - incredible harmonies.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
wikkidpissah said:
we all do, my friend. taste cant be productively argued nor arbitrated. i am a trifle bewildered how intelligent people can't see the impossible limitations that Rush & the Dead evince with their every note, but it doesn't demand that i think less of them or anything.
Click to expand...
even though those knuckleheads thing less of you

 
timschochet said:
The Grateful Dead- American Beauty (1970)

Side One

Box Of Rain

Friend of the Devil 

Sugar Magnolia

Operator

Candy Man

Side Two

Ripple

Brokedown Palace

Till the Morning Comes

Attics of My Life

Truckin’

On the very last episode of the short lived classic TV series Freaks and Geeks, the main character is feeling depressed; she is given this record by a friend and told that it will cheer her up. She goes home, puts it on the turntable, and “Box Of Rain” comes on. She breaks into a smile. That’s the way I’ve felt about this album my entire life. This music relaxes my soul. My favorite song is Friend of the Devil, but again I love the whole thing: Ripple, Box Of Rain, Sugar Magnolia, etc. The long strange trip continues. This is comfort music. 
Click to expand...
#### YES!

 
It is disappointing that some people don’t appreciate or “get” the greatest American rock and roll band of all time.  If feel sorry for them. 

 
I rarely listen to studio Dead, like maybe once every 7 years, but when I do it’s AB or Terrapin Station.  

 
I took these guys as the 1970 album of the year in the '70s draft, and I'm posting my write-up thusly. 

eta* or not. damn search function. This is one of the finest albums I've ever heard. Box Of Rain, Truckin', etc. Didn't get this album until we grew our own. 

Mushrooms, that is. 

 
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KarmaPolice said:
So, are we doing 5 of these damn albums a day now?
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Seems like it. 1 a day is how I would do it, but it's not my thread.  Not all of us have all day to post on the internet and then when we come to catch up on a good thread, we are like 2-3 albums behind.  Oh well. 

 
I tried the album a couple years ago when a co-worker who was really into them told me to give it a listen.  Too much on the twangy-folk end of the spectrum for me.  I don't remember enjoying a single song.  

 
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