Stunt 2009: Week 1 – Grateful Dead

*This is a companion piece to a similarly-themed article on Karen’s site which, all things being equal, should be published at roughly the same time.*

1. **Dark Star** from Live Dead Some crushingly long prog rock twattery that’s 95% guitar solo. This does absolutely nothing for me at all. I like my guitar solos to be short and modest.

2. **Turn On Your Love Light** from Live Dead – Another long song, but this one’s quite bluesy. Admittedly my foot was tapping for a while, but I got bored after a while. Better than the previous song, but still I don’t fancy listening to it again.

3. **Uncle John’s Band** from Workingman’s Dead – A kind of country song, probably better than most in the genre, but not my kind of thing. Nice vocal harmonies though.

4. **Truckin’** from American Beauty – This is based around a standard blues progression, and reminds me of why I’m not a huge fan of blues – musically speaking, it seems to be a dead-end genre. The lyrics would probably be a big draw if you were a fan of the band, but I’m not.

5. **Ripple** from American Beauty – Quite a pretty song, but I can’t help but be reminded of “I closed my eyes, drew back the curtains…” when I hear the melody. It seems cruel to hold this against them, but I can’t help the way that I feel.

6. **Sugar Magnolia** from American Beauty – I fail to see the point of this song at all. It’s not as bad as the 15 minute guitar soloes, at least, but I’m still left with the feeling that if these 10 songs are supposed to be among the best that the Grateful Dead ever wrote, then they’ve got a lot to answer for. The lyrics have a certain attraction, but they seem poorly structured.

7. **Playing In The Band** from Grateful Dead – The intro of this song is quite promising, but from about 20 seconds on it’s just dull and repetitive with only occasional departures from a D chord. The playlists book suggests that like “Truckin'”, the appeal of this song lies solely in the fact that the lyrics will be meaningful to fans of the Grateful Dead. So why the fuck has it been included in a playlist which is apparently targeted at people who haven’t listened to the band before?

8. **Jack Straw** from Europe 1972 – You may think that I’ve got some kind of negative prejudice against the Grateful Dead which is colouring my reviews. Not so. This song is great. Everything is in place. I like the guitar work and the bassline, the drums aren’t too overwhelming, there are plenty of interesting chords and timings. It reminds me of Cream.

9. **Unbroken Chain** from From The Mars Hotel – This is quite a nice song. It’s got a lot of depth, but there are times when it seems so complex that it loses cohesion, and there’s a really annoying high-pitched descending tone which is clearly intentional, but makes the listening experience into quite an unpleasant one. The guitar solo is too long and wanky with hyperactive drums underneath it.

10. **Touch Of Grey** from In The Dark – This is a fairly good song, but it’s a bit of an MOR air-punching stadium-rocking anthem. Not as unpleasant to listen to as some of the other songs in this list, but I still doubt that I will listen to it again voluntarily.

So, in conclusion: a big fat “not for me, thanks”.

The next week’s playlist

Random number: 315
Only one playlist on this page – The Replacements. The book says:

> Loudier, catchier and drunker than most, the ‘Mats were in some ways the most popular band that never was – always on the verge of a breakthrough or falling apart.