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I’m sometimes accused of hating the Grateful Dead<\/strong>. That’s an unfair accusation, though I understand why people level it toward me. I am fond of pointing out that a 1989 Dead concert ranks among my most unpleasant concert experiences ever, and my general disdain for noodlesome jam bands (and their insufferable concert-going fans) is no secret. But as I’ve pointed out in my mild self-defense on more than a few occasions, I own quite a few<\/em> Grateful Dead albums. I actually like their studio stuff a lot, and have gone so far as to track down all three of Jerry Garcia<\/strong>‘s 70s era solo records (one of which is absolutely fantastic) on vinyl, plus some Bob Weir<\/strong> solo stuff as well.<\/p>\n When it comes to live releases, we’re dealing with an area in which Deadheads insist the group is at its best. Though I really like Europe ’72<\/em> (the original 3LP, not<\/em> the gazillion-CD version released recently) and the mostly-acoustic For the Faithful<\/em>, in general I avoid live Dead. They’re just too lethargic (lysergic?) onstage for me. Earlier in 2011 the group issued a 1988 set<\/a> that had its moments (when you go on that long, you’re bound to hit a few good spots, sort of like Bob Newhart<\/strong>‘s idea of a million monkeys with a million typewriters). From my point of view, the 80s weren’t good to the Dead (nor, with a few exceptions, vice versa).<\/p>\n But as mentioned, I like Europe ’72<\/em>. So I was intrigued when I received a review copy of the ominously named Dicks’ Picks #35<\/em> (really? Thirty-five<\/em>?). I was encouraged to learn that the four(!) discs chronicled shows from August 1971. That was a time when the Dead could (and did) really cook onstage. Reduced briefly to a five-piece lineup featuring only Bill Kreutzmann<\/strong> on drums, the group tended more toward straight-ahead arrangements. A look at the track list shows a set mercifully free of things called \u201cSpace\u201d or \u201cDrums.\u201d And only one<\/em> is titled \u201cJam.\u201d In fact, across five hours of music, only four songs (out of 45) break the ten-minute mark. (Admittedly, one of those four is an endurance-challenging 25-minute \u201cTurn On Your Lovelight,\u201d but, well, okay.) So in general, Dick’s Picks #35<\/em> is quite listenable for the non-hardcore audient.<\/p>\n The four discs cover an August ’71 date in San Diego and a Chicago show from a couple weeks later, plus part of a Hollywood set from the same month. As always, the Dead can be counted on to serve up an eclectic assortment of songs. On these dates we find them turning in standards and C&W chestnuts (Marty Robbins<\/strong>‘ \u201cEl Paso\u201d and Merle Haggard<\/strong>‘s \u201cMama Tried\u201d) as well as covering the work of some of their esteemed contemporaries (Kris Kristofferson<\/strong>‘s \u201cMe and Bobby McGee\u201d).<\/p>\n As a Rolling Stone<\/em> reviewer famously wrote, the Dead remain one of the worst-ever interpreters of Chuck Berry<\/strong>: here they insist on slaughtering \u201cJohnny B. Goode.\u201d (To be fair, their version of \u201cPromised Land\u201d isn’t bad. But not-bad isn’t quite…good.) They also inflict Buddy Holly<\/strong>‘s \u201cNot Fade Away\u201d on a nonetheless appreciative crowd. And two plodding versions \u2013 one at each show \u2013 of Jimmy Reed<\/strong>‘s \u201cBig Boss Man\u201d suggest that the Dead could have had a future as a boring blues bar band. And speaking of bar bands, fans of overrated 1990s rock acts take note: if you wonder where the Black Crowes<\/strong> came up with their arrangement of Otis Redding<\/strong><\/a>‘s \u201cHard to Handle,\u201d please find your answer on Disc 1 of this set.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m sometimes accused of hating the Grateful Dead. That’s an unfair accusation, though I understand why people level it toward me. I am fond of pointing out that a 1989 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,65],"tags":[940],"class_list":["post-665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reissue","category-review","tag-grateful-dead","cat-64-id","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31601,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions\/31601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}