American Beauty (via Discogs)

When Rolling Stone declared that Workingman’s Dead was the album of 1970, I have to assume that they went to press before they’d heard American Beauty. Richard Williams in Melody Maker (below) couldn’t believe they’d managed to outshine Workingman’s Dead and called American Beauty disarming and beautiful.

Like the earlier album, it’s one I can’t be objective about, indeed my 50th Anniversary copy of the album arrived this morning–a remaster of the album with a complete show from February 1971.

Over on Twitter, Andy Long, who has also been doing a 50-year-old albums project, wrote this morning:

I’m not a massive DeadHead but of the few albums of theirs that I actually own this is my favourite.

And that is something I see a lot about both this and Workingman’s Dead. On the surface, at least, the Dead’s reputation as high-maintenance psychonauts seems to slough away like a discarded snakeskin for these albums.

Melody Maker

American Beauty certainly gives the impression of picking up where Workingman’s Dead finishes, although I think it is closer to what we would these days call Americana than its predecessor. It also contains (and here comes the ‘i’ word) some of their most iconic songs: Sugar Magnolia, Box of Rain, Brokedown Palace, Friend of the Devil, Truckin’, and Ripple. Ripple is probably my favourite of their songs.

Truckin’, of course, gave the band their perennial tag line: what a long strange trip it’s been.

Deadheads will pick out that the opener has Phil Lesh singing lead (the song is contemporaneous with visiting his dying father) and playing acoustic guitar–both rarities, then note that, uniquely, the first four tracks on side one each has a different lead singer: Lesh, Garcia, Weir and Pigpen.

Andy also noted the tasty musicianship from a band that is deceptively tight whilst managing to sound very relaxed. And that’s spot on. For all their reputation in the studio, the band worked very hard on every aspect of this album. And it shows.

I said above that the band’s reputation as psychonauts seems to slough away, and I say that because the album taps into their musical origins, Jerry Garcia’s early love of folk and bluegrass and Bob Weir’s early exposure to country music. Garcia, Weir and Pigpen were once Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions. This music was always in them, it just took a while to get out. And Hunter’s lyrics gently allude to a west-coast spirituality, often with startling beauty.

A wonderful album.

I listened on the 50th anniversary edition of the CD which has just been released (and is an excellent remaster). That edition, complete with the February 1971 concert, is now on Spotify. It’s also available, in its original version, on YouTube.