Search - Grateful Dead :: Wake of the Flood

Impossible to write the review that this album deserves

J.H. "Jon" | Seattle, WA United States | 05/01/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If I had enough time, and was a halfway decent writer, I'd sit down and write the review that this album deserves. It would be about five pages long, and it would precisely describe the wonderful, amazing moods and melodies of Wake of the Flood. Where to begin? To summarize the whole of the album: nature-revering, land, water, all growing things loving, unpretentious, feeling good like you just did a good deed, were nice to someone, feeling like maybe the mad world has some good points to it after all, feeling like you could almost sort of dance even though you hate dancing, but instead, you just sort of nod your head lazily, in affirmation of the good grooves, the vibrating strings, the folky singing, as long as you can listen to music like this, you'll be able to get through the day, or a few more hours at least, like lying back on the ideal, the bare earth, or the grass, not much to do in the world but observe it from your vantage, marvel at a few marvelous things, leaves rustling, a bug maneuvering the forest of grass, you feeling like being in love with someone, desiring, yearning, and that's just one song, Eyes of the World, each other song an ideal world sensed, probed, translated into rhythm and melody, next thing you know you're almost bebopping doing a little halfstep toodleoo, gliding down towards the Rio Grande, sun at your back smiling of course, gently upon you, easing you along -- quite hot did I mention? til you meet the surface, and then, cool water of the river round your body, and there's Jerry, with some crazy-legged mariachi guys walking on the banks, and a guy with a ten gallon hat -- is that Bob? --they don't see you, they're just playing some tune, some sort of thing to scare the blues away, only thing is, you don't have any -- why, blues wouldn't come within a hundred miles of this tune, you return to your swimming, dive under, break through the surface again, rays greet you greedily, you climb out, dry yourself off by basking in the sun awhile, like an iguana, like, if you're young, you're a little older and wiser and calmer, or if you're older, now you're a little younger, more naieve, less disenchanted, you eventually stroll into town, go to the tavern, where your friends are, naturally, at this hour even, no doubt playing a game of pool, or maybe just sitting around a table, good tunes coming from the jukebox -- geez, normally they don't have music like this at jukeboxes, sort of sad, sort of hopeful, sort of Stella Blue, sort of Row Jimmy Row -- you say your bit, laugh, regain your strength, and head back out into nature, it's all a little greener now, sky a bit bluer, trees vibrant, full of life and vitality, flowers nodding at you, when the acoustic guitar starts, you pause, startled, and then enrapt, the song begins, moves, flows around you, back on the river, slow currents, you drift, you comprehend the seasons, summer to autumn, autumn to winter, and then...spring, the song cuts loose, thunderclouds burst and batter the ground with big raindrops the size of plums, the earth drinks it up, thank you sister, says the earth, no problem brother, says the sky, then plow breaking earth, spring festivals, you the fool, wandering through the buoyant and gay spectacle, and then Weather Report Suite ends, and dooowwwwwnnnn you go, back to earth, back to dullness and drearitude...it's not fair, why can't every album be like this you bemoan?"

THE GREATEST CD THE DEAD EVER MADE- BAR NONE!!!

J.H. "Jon" | 09/09/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This whirlwind of wonderfully cheery tunes always cheers me up when I'm down. Starting with the wonderfully cheery Mississippi Halfstep Uptown Todeloo, the album moves on to Let Me Sing Your Blues Away, a masterpeice that really does. Then, as Jerry himself says when singin' Row Jimmy, it's "not too fast and not too slow," altough admitidly if the preceding Stella Blue was any slower it would be going backwards. Here Comes Sunsine, though, is a nice, steady song followed by the untopable masterpeice Eyes Of the World and the wonderfully witty and powerful Weather Report Suite. All in all, a wonderfull album."