American Beauty (1970) [Grateful Dead]

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It's quite impressive what the Grateful Dead accomplished in 1970: the band released not one, but two classics in the same year! American Beauty is their second release (Workingman's Dead is, of course, the first), and this one will always be my first conscious purchase. I was already somewhat familiar with the Dead through a version of Turn On Your Lovelight with Janis Joplin, and I happened to watch a documentary about Bob Weir (The Other One: The Long, Strange Trip of Bob Weir, highly recommended by the way). A clip from Truckin' came up regularly, and that track alone was the reason I bought American Beauty. I suppose there are worse ways to start, but strangely enough, I'd lost track of this album lately. I know it inside and out, but ask me now about my favorite studio album by the boys (and lady), and I'll say Blues for Allah. It wasn't until I started listening to the Good Old Grateful Deadcast (the first season is about Workingman's Dead and the second season about American Beauty) that I decided to revisit these two albums. That podcast certainly helps me hear extra details I'd previously missed, but it's also just really fun to hear the stories behind the album. Musically, it still stands strong. There are a number of classics the band would play throughout their career, but this is also just a really good blueprint for what the band was capable of. There are no fewer than four singers (Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir handle most of the songs, but there's also room for Phil Lesh on Box of Rain and Pigpen sings Operator), but it all flows together so fantastically. In theory, it's a departure in sound compared to the previous albums, but really, it's just an evolution of their working method, and as we now know: more evolutions were to come. Box of Rain remains a highlight, but that "Mama, mama, many worlds I've come since I first left home" in Brokedown Palace... Damn, that hits hard.

Tracklist:
  1. Box of Rain
  2. Friend of the Devil
  3. Sugar Magnolia
  4. Operator
  5. Candyman
  6. Ripple
  7. Brokedown Palace
  8. Till the Morning Comes
  9. Attics of My Life
  10. Truckin'


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