grateful dead Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

Jerry Garcia “Garcia”

sfilzen — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 17:41:22 +0000

Jerry Garcia “Garcia” 1972. Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia’s first solo album, some record store or distributer put a hype sticker over the not-at-all offensive breast. I spent a full day in Madison this past weekend; my time at the university there in the late 80’s/early 90’s was heavily soundtracked by the Dead so today I’m taking an aural trip to those hazy college days. While Garcia sings and plays all the instruments – except drums played by the Dead’s Bill Kreutzmann – the LP is full of classic tracks that the full Grateful Dead band would go on to perform in their non-stop touring for the subsequent 20+ years including the single “Sugaree” which went to #94 on the US charts in April 1972; it was Garcia’s only chart single. He also released “The Wheel” as a single but I’m not sure that charted – it’s a really catchy folk/country track. Other Dead show classics include the Americana styled opener “Deal” (one of my old-time faves) and “Loser.” The country twinged lament “To Lay Me Down” shows off both Garcia’s steel guitar and piano talents; I think this one was played somewhat frequently on the road as well. Other tracks have a trippier, psychedelic bent to them like “Bird Song” which was a tribute to the recently-ish deceased Janis Joplin (and was another Dead show staple) and the cosmic freakout weird “Late for Supper,” “Spidergawd” and “Eep Hour” (like during “Space/Drums” I would be taking a bathroom break if they were played at a concert).

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Grateful Dead “Grateful Dead” (aka Skull and Roses)

sfilzen — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 19:40:59 +0000

Grateful Dead “Grateful Dead” (aka Skull and Roses) 1971/2021 50th anniversary limited edition yellow vinyl. Today is my birthday so I’m spinning the Dead’s quintessential live album from my birth year. I’m also the only person in our household who likes the Dead and I get to listen to whatever I want to today. Grateful Dead (which the band wanted to title Skull Fuck but that was outright rejected by Warner Bros. for obvious reasons) was the band’s best selling record, charting at #25 in the US. The tracks are live performances from April 1971 at New York’s Fillmore East and Hammerstein Ballrooms plus one song, “Johnny B. Goode,” recorded live at San Fransisco’s Winterland Ballroom. I know all of these songs backwards and forwards, having spent my late teens and early 20’s as a Dead Head-lite – I only went to about 6 or 7 shows between ’89 (at Alpine Valley) and ’92 and only traveled as far as Hamilton, Ontario to see them. That said, a few of the songs on Grateful Dead are some of my absolute favorites: “Bertha,” “Mama Tried” (originally by Merle Haggard) and “Playing in the Band” from the 1st of the 4 sides are all Dead classics. Side 2’s “The Other One” at almost 20 minutes in length is another classic but I’ll admit to spacing out/taking a bathroom break during it, just like I would during their concerts (or during “Drums/Space” – same deal). I don’t mind the noodling but it just goes on…so long. Anyway Side 3 gets back to the fun stuff, especially the aforementioned “Johnny B. Goode.” Their rendition of “Me & Bobby McGee” is ok but I did grow up on Janis Joplin’s version in heavy rotation so that will always be my preferred version. Side 4 is fantastic: the mellow-psych meandering of “Wharf Rat” is an awesome trip and the iconic cover of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” which has always been on of my top Dead picks, with the excellent dual Bo Diddley drums undercurrent with Jerry’s guitar lightly soaring overhead that morphs into the record’s final cut, “Goin’ Down the Road Feeling Bad.”

Here’s the Dead playing “Not Fade Away” at Alpine Valley in ’89:

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Grateful Dead “Terrapin Station”

sfilzen — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 17:52:41 +0000

Grateful Dead “Terrapin Station” released 45 years ago today, July 27th, 1977. It was their ninth studio LP and hit # 28 on the US album charts. Terrapin Station is an uneven record, mostly due to its production, which the band pretty much hated: it was the disco era so there were a lot of flourishes added post-recording like orchestral strings, horns and choir overdubs. Drummer Bill Kreutzmann says of the title track: “The recorded version of “Terrapin Station” is probably my least favorite version because of that. It sounds really grandiose, like somebody’s ego is playing those strings.” Despite that, I really love a lot of the record; it brings me back to the late 80’s/early 90’s when I went through my Deadhead phase and went to several shows between ’89 and ’92. I found the setlists for the concerts I attended and confirmed that they played a couple of my top Terrapin tracks during a couple of them*: “Samson and Delilah” at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario in March of ’90; “Terrapin Station” at both the World Music Theater in Tinley Park, IL in June ’90 (Brent Mydland’s last ever show before he died) and at Soldier Field in June ’91. I could have sworn I saw a concert where they played “Estimated Prophet” (I always loved when they did “Estimated-Shakedown“), same with “Passenger” but I guess I just listened to a lot of bootleg tapes that had those jams. The not good: their cover of “Dancin’ in the Streets” is too wa-wa disco and “Sunrise,” written and sung by Donna Godchaux, is really awful.

Another likely reason for the unevenness of the record is the tension between the band and the producer during the recording process. Their new record label (Arista) really wanted a commercial album (not something the Dead have ever been particularly good at) so they brought in Keith Olsen who had success working with Fleetwood Mac. From Wiki: “Olsen had a method for reining in the Dead: ‘During the cutting of the basic tracks it was pretty hard to get every member of the band in the studio at the same time … so [Steve] Parish went out to the hardware store and got these giant nails and a great big hammer and as soon as everybody was in, he hammered the door shut from the inside … we didn’t have drifters from the other studios coming in to listen. We didn’t have people leaving to go screw around elsewhere. We started getting work done.'” “Bill Kreutzmann said ‘He’d [Olsen] have us play the same thing over and over again, and we’re not really the type of band that can put up with that. Our very identity is based on the opposite principle.'”

*I also was at Alpine Valley on July 18th, 1989 and Soldier Field in ’92.

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The Grateful Dead “American Beauty”

sfilzen — Sun, 01 Nov 2020 19:33:45 +0000

The Grateful Dead “American Beauty” released 50 years ago today, November 1st, 1970. Classic Americana psychedelic folk-rock, American Beauty was the Dead’s 5th studio record. Their studio work is generally considered sub-par as compared to their live performances but American Beauty is one of their better releases; it hit #30 on the US charts. Some really excellent tracks and favorites including “Friend of the Devil,” “Sugar Magnolia,” “Till the Morning Comes,” “Truckin” and one of my all-time faves “Ripple.” The Dead released “Truckin” as a single the same day as American Beauty’s release; it hit #64 in the US (their best-performing single until ‘87′s “Touch of Grey” hit #9) and was one of their most-performed songs in concert. Also notable is “Operator” which was written and sung by Pigpen (Ron McKernan), his only singing and songwriting Dead track on any of their albums (honestly, though, it’s not one of favorites).

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Grateful Dead “History of the Grateful Dead Vol. 1 (Bear’s Choice)”

sfilzen — Fri, 14 Jul 2017 00:27:31 +0000

Grateful Dead “History of the Grateful Dead Vol. 1 (Bear’s Choice)” released on this date, July 13th, 1975. This album is from my parents’ collection – my dad drove down here today, so now it’s part of ours (and only one member of the Vault is happy about it) (that would be me, I went through a Dead phase during late high school and college and, to Joe’s chagrin, I still have a shoebox full of bootleg Dead show cassettes tucked away in my closet). Many of the tracks on the LP remind me of childhood when my folks and their friends would hang out, play guitar and sing blues and folk songs, including “Dark Hollow” (originally by Bill Browning) and “Wake Up Little Susie” (Everly Brothers), a song I still really love. Traditional blues also receive a heavy nod from the Dead with “Katie Mae” (Lightnin’ Hopkins) and “Smokestack Lightning” (Howlin’ Wolf). I
listened to Bears Choice a lot when living at my parents’ and, listening to it again now almost 30 years later, I understand its appeal to the folky folks: over half of the album is the Dead revisiting their roots as a jug band during performances from the Fillmore East in 1970. “The original album was recorded and produced by Owsley “Bear” Stanley, the Dead’s then-soundman, who chose his favorite tracks. He compiled it as a tribute of sorts to Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, the band’s original keyboard player and blues aficionado, who died during the production of the release. As such, it features three songs on which Pigpen sings lead….he went out on the stage and sat down in a chair… it was the only time he ever did it. He sat down and played the bottleneck guitar.” Bears Choice is also notable for its artwork: designed by Bob Thomas, the dancing bears (technically they are marching) made their first appearance on the back cover of the LP.

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