From Amazon.com
A Must For Even the Casual Fan
Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: If you want a place to start your Grateful Dead collection, look no further. For the casual fan, this, American Beauty and Workingman's Dead will probably be all you ever need by this band. If, however, you develop a love and devotion for The Dead as I have, this will only be the tip of the iceberg. This album contains not only the signature songs of The Dead, like He's Gone, Jack Straw, and Brown Eyed Women, but also definitive and flawless performances of all of them. Check out the incredible versions of China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider, Sugar Magnolia, and Morning Dew as some proof of this. The album is not, however strictly "live", like Live/Dead, rather, many vocals and some instruments were overdubbed in the studio, as well as being subject to mixing edits. This is the case, however, with many of rock's great live recordings, and is not of determent to this quintessential album. It is a must for any collection; one listen and you'll be hooked!
This remastered version is actually a step backwards in sound quality!
Album Rating: (2 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: What a big dissapointment this Rhino remaster was! As soon as I played it I noticed that it sounded worst than my original copy of the Warner Bors. CD release.
This remaster is about 5-6 dbs louder than the original release but it is compressed, muffled and clipped. There is a lot less clarity and separation between the voices and instruments (the drums are a mess). It seems the engineers jut compressed the hell out of the original master tape. I did an AB comparasion with my two players (one of them a HDCD machine) and the results were not what I expected.
This applies to the original Europe 72 material. The extra tracks are better, but apart from an excellent "Looks Like Rain", it is all Pigpen howling, and that is my least favorite GD music.
I bought the "Live Dead" remaster at the same time and it has the same problem.
Stick with your Warner versions if you still have them!
Country Cheese
Album Rating: (2 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: Before we get into this too far, I have to say: I knew all about the Grateful Dead from friends but I had never bought an LP (or ripped a bootleg) so from say - 1972 - to today (2009) I had none of their stuff. I was more into the Allman Brothers and the Doobie Brothers (pre and post Michael McDonald that is). That was where my head was at. SO - I finally got my first GD album - Europe 72,just a couple of weeks ago, on a recommendation - and to me, it is just this side of mediocre. What is the big deal? They sound like any number of C&W bands that roll into my town for the annual C&W Festival. I'm serious, this album is boring. It is the kind of stuff that we used to play in our sheds to warm up. Maybe Europe in 1972 wan't ready for the GD, but for me it is a snoozeathon. Sorry, but it bites the big one.
Classic live album
Album Rating: (4 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: I've been a fan of the Dead for some time, but had only a few albums by them: all studio, none live. I'd heard that this was thier best live effort, and while I have little basis for comparison, I can understand the sentiment. It is a marvelous live album, up there with James Brown at the Apollo, BB King at the Regal, and other now-classic live performances. The dual CD package includes some great bonus tracks, with a wonderful cover of 'Good Love', which is as good as the original cuts to make the album.
Changed my life
Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: This album literally changed my life. I was about sixteen, I think. A friend of mine got me good and high for the first time in my life, then sat me down in a chair, put the headphones on, and left, coming back about half an hour later. By then, I truly believe that my brain chemistry had been permanently altered.
I had no idea music could sound like this. I had never heard ideas spilling out of someone like they came out of Garcia's guitar. Just endlessly inventive, on and on. I also love this album because, compared with some later ones, it's pretty spare. They're not afraid to be quiet. Not a bad moment in this, and an awful lot of transcendent ones.
If you listen to "Jack Straw" you can almost see the two men walking together in Texas, the heat, the tension, the potential for violence that's finally realized, and the realization that the only thing to do is go on.
It's beautiful, and perfectly realized.
Purchases
1 Cumberland Blues
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