The Grateful Dead
American Beauty

THE REVIEW

I am tired and in need of fulfilling my desire for pure and simple good music. Music that is simple, relaxing, musical, and allows me to spend time in total detachment, entering inside me and, once in, somehow stirring up whatever it encounters, giving me positive, beautiful sensations. Okay, I'll give it a try. Reviewing or rather talking about an album that is already 35 years old is not easy at all. Everything has already been said and written about the Dead and this album, but it does not prevent me from sharing and possibly introducing this gem called "American Beauty."

Due to their lack of familiarity with electric instruments and especially their limited knowledge of the "recording studio" environment, the first three Dead albums did not have enormous success. Success or rather confirmation came with the release of the legendary "Live/Dead," with which they undeniably proved their talent as musicians and as a jam band perfectly suited for a Live set. 1970 was an extremely fortunate (though somber) year for Jerry Garcia's band. That year saw the release of the third studio album "Workingman's Dead" in March, and in November of the same year, this "American Beauty." Acclaimed by many as the most successful episode in the Dead discography in terms of studio work, "American Beauty" is characterized by a clear abandonment of the exclusively electric sound in favor of a primarily acoustic and only partly electric sound.

Here Garcia & Co. delve deep into the purest tradition of American Folk/Bluegrass and record an album that stands as a masterpiece precisely because of their extreme skill in playing as a jam band. Folk/Bluegrass was Jerry Garcia's love, a very skilled banjo player in the Warlocks, a sort of primordial offshoot of the Grateful Dead. Having "learned" (though with their background, no one really needed to learn) to dialogue, speak with instruments, giving life to very emotional and wild electric jams, with "AB" they showed just how equally excellent they were in a purely acoustic dimension. Here we find true gems, which later became classics in the Live repertoire. How can one not mention the very moving "Box of Rain" written by bassist Phil Lesh and dedicated by Dead lyricist Robert Hunter to his cancer-stricken father? "Friend of the Devil" is a beautiful folk-rock ballad with an absolutely delightful and captivating rhythm, "Sugar Magnolia" nods to blues, the following "Operator" is the song I would like as a soundtrack for a hypothetical journey on the mythical Route 66.

Undisputed masters of psychedelia the Dead, even in their acoustic production, delight us with a piece like "Candyman" which expands the space-time perception and gives that sense of peace, tranquility, and travel that makes my neurons decide to wander around for a bit. A nearly identical discussion applies to the splendid "Ripple," enriched by great banjo work as accompaniment. There is no use going on in describing the songs, which are all genuine gems born in a context of absolute harmony and peace that has characterized the Grateful Dead throughout the following years, earning them the esteem and unwavering love of thousands of DeadHeads who have seen and in some cases touched firsthand the extraordinary personality of this band that over the years (40 to be exact) realized the dream of entertaining people, making them dance, making them emotional by touching, for better or for worse, all points of the globe. The Dead embodied the purest spirit of the Hippie Generation for 40 long years presenting themselves as a big family with thousands of children and preaching the gospel of psychedelic and lysergic rock. This is one of the many musical testaments they left us with, which remains current and immensely beautiful and elegantly acoustic. A must-have!