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<span style="font-weight: bold;">What A Long Strange Trip It's Been - The Best Of The Grateful Dead (MP3@320Kbps)</span><!--bold--><br />
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<br />
Audio CD (October 25, 1990)<br />
Original Release Date: 1977<br />
Number of Discs: 2<br />
Label: Warner Bros / Wea<br />
ASIN: B000002KH8<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Includes:</span><!--bold--> ID3 Tags & front.jpg<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Track Listings</span><!--bold--><br />
<br />
CD 1<br />
01. New, New Minglewood Blues<br />
02. Cosmic Charlie<br />
03. Truckin'<br />
04. Black Peter<br />
05. Born Crossed-Eyed<br />
06. Ripple<br />
07. Doin' That Rag<br />
08. Dark Star<br />
09. High Time<br />
10. New Speedway Boogie<br />
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CD 2<br />
01. St. Stephen<br />
02. Jack Straw<br />
03. Me & My Uncle<br />
04. Tennessee Jed<br />
05. Cumberland Blues<br />
06. Playing In The Band<br />
07. Brown-Eyed Woman<br />
08. Ramble On Rose<br />
<br />
<br />
[b]By Anthony G Pizza<br />
<br />
The Grateful Dead have not been well served by label compilations. <br />
Their windblown, exhilirating, rootless roots rock hardly contains itself on the band's relatively few studio releases, <br />
let alone stands slicing into radio-friendly pieces. <br />
This is why every Deadhead gathers his personal best-of from hundreds of worldwide concerts trapped on tapes.<br />
<br />
Warner's 1977's "What A Long Strange Trip It's Been" covers the group's 1967-72 period as well as expected being neither <br />
fish nor fowl. The 2 CD set (adding up to just over 86 minutes), compiled with the band and well-remastered by Joe Gastwirt, <br />
balances the disparate studio/live faces of this legendary American phenomenon. <br />
It misses several FM hits ("Skeletons From The Closet" is your first stop other than the original <br />
LPs for "Sugar Magnolia," "Friend Of The Devil," etc., although "Truckin'" repeats here) but balances the Dead's <br />
first five years' studio and live releases.<br />
<br />
What "Strange Trip" does best is refocus attention on the band's first, most creative years: the band, still young; <br />
the studio, still suitable laboratory; the following, still new and gaining for music as for the social experience; <br />
the goal, to grow a body of original work rather than expand on familiar music and memories. <br />
Indeed, only Elvis Presley among American rockers drew so easily from as many influences as the Dead did in the years <br />
covered here.<br />
<br />
The consistently strong Jerry Garcia-Robert Hunter compositions (among them the concert staples "Ripple," "Tennessee Jed," <br />
and a truncated "Dark Star") merge the dusty, dry strength of Jimmy Rodgers, (train imagery shows up throughout <br />
the selections, even without "Casey Jones") Robert Johnson (listen again to the intro of "Cosmic Charlie"), Bill Monroe, <br />
Buddy Holly and the South-Southwest's musical/lyrical imagery. Add Bob Weir's Bakersfield vocals on "Me and Me Uncle" <br />
and "Playing In The Band," the late "Pigpen" McKernan's bluesy voice and keyboard on "Ramble On Rose" <br />
and the early "New, New Minglewood Blues," and Phil Lesh's solid bass throughout (Gastwirt's remastering recasts him as <br />
the star of "Truckin'"). <br />
You get a sound and style not so much created as organically harvested, then psychedelically frosted.<br />
<br />
Whether this set serves as time capsule or accessible musical portal depends on where and how far new fans retrace <br />
their long, strange trip. <br />
The road is easiest back to 1970's beloved "American Beauty" and "Workingman's Dead" (four songs from that LP are <br />
featured here) or on to 1973's elegant "Wake Of The Flood" or "Mars Hotel." <br />
Either way, "What A Long Strange Trip It's Been" provides a meatier, incomplete but still recommended musical supplement <br />
for casual or new fans. <br />
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