Search - Grateful Dead :: American Beauty

Mark K. (bigtime85) from DALLAS, TX
Reviewed on 6/14/2012...

Rating is not for actual music...it is a classic...but rather for the SACD misrepresentation of this disc as remastered. I ordered two of these as I thought they were remastered version listed here as 1990 disc. I have posted one of these directly back on line and yes, indeed, it shows as remastered version...if you order from me, I will explain that this is NOT a remastered disc...I suppose I will have to buy from AMAZON???

2 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

William W. (wdavidw) from TYLER, TX
Reviewed on 9/27/2010...

One of the classic Dead albums, which showed a country, folkie side to the band. Rather than jamming or going into psychedelic excursions, it was more focused on song writing.

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

No album has had a bigger effect on my soul than this one.

O. Albretsen | 02/06/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When I was a kid, my mom used to drag me with her to Grateful Dead concerts. Seeing as how I didn't smoke pot yet, I was too young to appreciate the absolute magic that I was getting the honor to see. Now that I'm almost 30 years old, I went back and listened to a couple of the older Dead studio albums, Workingman's Dead and this one American Beauty. I simply couldn't stop listening to them once I started. I'm talking as soon as I woke in the morning, one of these albums would go on, and after that, they'd be trading places in the CD player the rest of the day. No albums has ever blown my mind to the extent that this one did. The songs are simply all masterpieces and performed better than any of the other Dead's studio work. I can't recommend this album enough to anyone. One of the greatest musical masterpieces ever made."

The Masterpiece

Chris Luallen | Nashville, Tennessee | 05/02/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

""American Beauty" finds the band at the height of their creative powers, writing songs that ended up being among their greatest. Here, as on "Working Man's Dead", Garcia and company delve into the folksy side of their musical heritage to deliver cuts beyond anything they would be able achieve in the studio either before or after.



Garcia was heavily involved in the production and used extra musicians, such as David Nelson and John Dawson of New Riders Of The Purple Sage, to great effect. A particularly beloved example of this is David Grisman's mandolin playing on "Ripple". Jerry also adds some pedal steel on "Candyman" and "Sugar Magnolia", while Howards Wales plays the piano on "Brokedown Palace".



Spurred on by co-producer Steve Barncard's love of acoustic music, this record has more beautiful melodies than any other album I can think of. It also contains my all time favorite song, "Box Of Rain", with the lyric "Such a long, long time to be gone, And a short time to be there", that perhaps best catches what the Grateful Dead experience was all about. Certainly the band was better known for it's live performances than it's studio material. But this is one Dead record that will no doubt stand the test of time and be considered among the finest releases in rock music history.



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