Pro Tools Software – Digital Music Software

American Beauty – The Grateful Dead (2.5 stars)
Original Release: 11/1/1970

Songs:

Box of Rain (3 stars)
Loose playing rolls along like a river after rain in the hills. The lyrics ask what one can do to help another through the illusion of life created by ourselves. The song builds very subtly in the brief bridge in the middle but goes no further. There is almost a nervous energy, but not quite.

Friend of the Devil (3 stars)
Singer sounds like a character from a John Steinbeck or the character “Behind Blue Eyes”; someone always on the run maintaining a sense of self-sympathy. Folksy guitar and instruments just dance out the notes. It is interesting listening to the lyrical protagonist’s issues and his casual acceptance of it all.

Sugar Magnolia (2 stars)
Is this about a woman or a mood-modifying substance? I suppose an artist’s goal is to let the listener decide. Nice imagery and a slight boogie to the rhythm on this song.

Operator (2 stars)
Man desperately trying to drop a line to a woman going her own way; in this day of cellphones and facebook this wouldn’t be such a problem. The song sounds like a traditional country or folk song.

Candy Man (2 stars)
Slowing down the tempo a notch, there is a slight swing to the melody. Gambler passes through town. Men are drawn by lady luck; women are drawn to the traveller. Life is a series of random events for the rambler, occassional urge to violence. The candy is the chance to win just once I suppose or a metaphor for the effects of cocaine. Instrumental section brings a plaintive guitar and a limp into a minor key at places.

Ripple (3 stars)
Interesting song to set against ELP’s Take a Pebble (albums released in close proximity). Here, the individual’s path is his own. The message complements the passive lecture of “Box of Rain”. Water seems to be a metaphor for the pain and suffering that is part of our lives. The song ends with a small crowd singing in the background.

Brokedown Palace (2 stars)
Lyrics speak metaphorically of the body and the river as the means to finally wash that body away. The river sings a heavenly song; the river is home. Loose piano and vocals make the melody twist and turn gently like a river, a mood/mode that is prevalent throughout the album.

Till the Morning Comes (2 stars)
This is a more upbeat song asking a woman to let go of her worrying it seems. The rhythm sports a slight funk.

Attics of My Life (3 stars)
This song is much slower and almost like a chant. At one point the melody skips a beat…was this a purposeful mistake? The lyrics suggest that there is something that one can call upon when one can’t find what is wanted in one’s self. The vocals are hypnotic as is the pace of the song.

Truckin’ (3 stars)
Sounds like a catalog of various experiences, often not pleasant, that the band accumulated from touring around the country. I’m not at all familiar with the band’s history, but I can see from the song that they felt hounded at times. This song features more aggressive guitar playing over a shuffle.

Album:
Although I am a fan of some of the Grateful Dead’s music I am not a fan of this popular album. I do not know what attracts people to this pleasant though “plain” music. There is mystery in the lyrics and interesting chord progressions but they pass like a brief summer breeze. The album consists of loosely played pop country songs with a lightly infectious quality. Overall the album’s tone acts like a mild depressant. The samples will tell it all here, you like the mood or you don’t.

MP3 recommendation:
These are the songs that I preferred.

Better Half (3 stars)
1. Box of Rain (3 stars)
2. Friend of the Devil (3 stars)
3. Ripples (3 stars)
4. Attics of My Life (3 stars)
5. Truckin’ (3 stars)

The second of the Dead’s country rock albums is another masterpiece. While many of the songs are stronger than Workingman’s Dead, personally I find that album as a whole to be a bit more satisfying. But this is still the Dead at their best (most of these songs are what got me into the Dead in the first place), and even more of these went on to be classics, even getting moderate radio play. Not that this is a “sell out” album or anything like that, it’s just a great record with almost universal appeal. The classic line is: “I don’t get the Grateful Dead, but I’ve always loved this album.” Box of Rain, Friend of the Devil, Sugar Magnolia, Ripple, Brokedown Palace, and Truckin’ are some of finest and most genuine tunes they ever recorded. A classic music collection just isn’t complete without it.

When I first heard Lady Antebellum recently, I was deeply surprised how good their music really was with their pop hit Need You Now. But, it is honestly very heavy and hard to try and capture the same pop status they’ve shown to cross over into pop. Their second single from their sophmore album, Need You Now doesn’t seem to shine on that strength as well with American Honey. It feels more like it tries to bring in that crossover feeling acts like Taylor Swift and The Dixie Chicks had shown in making that same way into the mainstream. I really thought it was alright, but not deeply as strong as their title track displayed, which was absolutely more to bridge over. Still, I really hope their next single can be even stronger than this one showed.

Song: C+

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.

American Beauty being Grateful Dead’s 5th studio album and their 1970 album is verily an amazing record with great lyrics to go. Allmusic and Robert Chritgau both gave it high marks (5/5 and A-) and I agree with this assessment. The booklet is unfortunately very sparse and contains no lyrics but one does get a list of what instruments they play on the album. We also get liner notes that talk about history of the Grateful Dead up to that point. 5/5.