Amazon.co.uk Review
The Grateful Dead produced some of the most extraordinary and innovative music ever to fall under the general heading of "rock". In fact a blend of exploratory jazz, folk, rock & roll and world music all bound together by the purest improvisatory psychedelia, few bands have attempted music of such scope and ambition. The problem was that although they could often produce music of this stature live, their inspiration nearly always crumbled when faced with a studio setting. The exceptions that proves the rule,
American Beauty and
Workingman's Dead, are the band's finest studio excursions. They contain more excellent songs, better performed, than any other two albums of theirs. Featuring a smooth electric/acoustic mix of instrumentation spiced by pedal steel and mandolin,
American Beauty harks back to their folk and jug-band days of the mid-60s. Besides the stunning harmonies--which owe a debt to
David Crosby's coaching--and the band's outstanding songwriting ability, it's Robert Hunter's lyrics which raise this album to classic status. Songs such as "Truckin" (a true story of life on the road with the Dead in early 1970), "Box Of Rain", "Friend of the Devil", "Brokedown Palace", "Attics of My Life" and the magnificent "Ripple" contain some of Hunter's most direct and compelling verses. For those who might want to hear where the Grateful Dead could take songs like these on a good day, however, an attempt should be made to get some of the many live recordings now available.
--James Swift
CD Description
AMERICAN BEAUTY was an instant classic when it was first released November of 1970. It is among the most satisfying andenduring of the Grateful Dead's studio recordings, expanding as it does on the engaging mix of country, blues, and folkmaterials they first coined earlier in the year with WORKINGMAN'S DEAD.
The musical vision of the Dead is more sharply focused on AMERICAN BEAUTY--from the serene reflection and compassion of the opening "Box Of Rain" and the earthy mysticism of "Ripple", to the sensual rock of "Sugar Magnolia" and the anthemic proto-boogie of the closing "Truckin'". Butthen, every tune on AMERICAN BEAUTY has attained a classic resonance, both from decades of steady airplay, and the way the Dead seemed to continually revive these popular standards for their concert repertoire.
Also available with WORKINGMAN'S DEAD on one cassette.