Grateful Dead's "American Beauty"

This week I’ll be taking on The Grateful Dead’s “American Beauty” album. I’m not too sure what I’m in for because I haven’t listened to them before, and what little I do know of them is only that they were huge druggies and they were from San Francisco. After further research I learned that the band formed in 1965 as the Warlocks but later changed their name. The band ranked 57^th on the Rolling Stone’s list of Greatest Artists of All Time. Like with many artists today, their fans have nicknames like “Barbies” for Nicki Monaj, and “Directioners” for OneDirection, and “Brats” for Cher Lloyd, The Grateful Dead followers were called “Deadheads.” The members Jerry Garcia (guitar, vocals), Bob Weir (guitar, vocals), Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (keyboards, harmonica, vocals), Phil Lesh (bass, vocals), and Bill Kreutzmann (drums). McKernan died in ’73 and the band kept at it. The album “American Beauty” was released November 1970 and was Rolling Stone’s 258^th album of the Greatest Albums of All Time.

The first song that played on the wonderful Spotify was “Box of Rain”, and I like the flow of the music. It reminds me of something my dad would have played on the cassette tape when I was little. It really doesn’t seem like a “druggy” song. The song kind of reminds me of a Matchbox 20 song “3 am”.

The second song, “Friend Of TheDevil” isn’t bad. “A friend of the devil is a friend of mine” shows that he is a rebel and likes to have fun because “if he gets home before day light, he just might get some sleep tonight”.

“Ripple” has a relaxing rhythm, but the lyrics are kind of sad. They say, “If you fall, you fall alone. But if you stand who’s to lead you.”

“Sugar Magnolia” could be talking about drugs, or possibly about a girl. “She’s delightful, she’s everything I need.” I really like how well their voices harmonize, somewhat reminds me of The Who, but The Grateful Dead definitely sounds “American”.

Track four is called “Operator.” I was not very interested as this song played. It was only the lead singer singing, unlike in the previous song where they was much harmonizing.

“Candyman”, is talking about a drug dealer coming around. Some of the lyrics are, “I ain’t got no friends till the candy man comes around again.” The song is slower and seems trippy with the guitar solo on the Wawa machine.

During “Brokendown Palace”, I got distracted… The song is very drowsy sounding. After listening to it a second time, distracted again… The song is about him leaving home.

When “Till the Morning Comes” came on I immediately enjoyed the music flow. They beat was up and the band was harmonizing. “Tell you what I’ll do, I’ll watch out for you. You’re my woman now, make yourself easy.”

In “Attics of My Life”, I like the lyrics and again, the harmonies, but I don’t like the slow pace of the song. The melody does pick up a slight bit, but not too much. “When there was no dream of mine. You dream of me.”

"Truckin’” is the lost song on the Spotify list for this album. The song is a bit more upbeat than some of the previous songs. The way the words are sung, it reminds me of something like how the Beach Boys would sing.

Over all I liked the album. It reminds me of when I was little and would drive around with my dad and listen to all of his "old" music. I enjoy many genres of music and this is one of them.