Grateful Dead - Grateful Dead: Beyond Description (1973-1989)
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Grateful DeadEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2004-10-26
Music Label: Grateful Dead / Wea
Free Music Notes for Grateful Dead: Beyond Description (1973-1989)
Free Music Review: Nice boxset if you don't already own the individual albums
Hit: 5 Stars
NOT QUITE AS GOOD AS THE FIRST BOXSET, THE GOLDEN ROAD.
This boxset consists of the 10 Grateful Dead albums from 1973 to 1989, plus two bonus CD's. Covered are:
Wake of the Flood
Mars Hotel
Blues For Allah
Terrapin Station
Shakedown Street
Reckoning (with bonus CD)
Dead Set (with bonus CD)
Go To Heaven
Built to Last
In The Dark
Interesting to note that Steal Your Face was not include in either of the two Grateful Dead boxsets (this one or Golden Road). Apparently the band did not think much of that album.
Each each album has bonus material added to it, to get the total time as close to 80 minutes as possible. The bonus material is hit and miss. On some albums, it is new and refreshing music. On Dead Set, the bonus CD is better than the original. On other CD's, it is just alternative takes, or live versions of the same songs as the original album.
Each album comes in a very nice cardboard sleeve. However, they don't have the extensive liner notes like the CD's in the Golden Road had. But there are two booklets included, one that talks about each album.
The CD's have been remastered with HDCD. The sound quality is excellent. Some of the original CD's, like Dead Set were poorly done. But others, like Built To Last had great sound from the beginning. To fully enjoy HDCD, you need a player that designed for the enhancements. But, supposedly, HDCD will sound better even on a standard CD player.
Currently, these remastered versions are only available in this boxset. If you want to get one of these albums individually, you would either have to buy the original CD used, or a very expensive Japanese import. In either case, you wouldn't get the bonus material.
The first 3 albums, Wake of The Flood, Mars Hotel and Blues for Allah are fantastic and rate up there with any Grateful Dead studio album. Wake of the Flood is my favorite Dead album, with a breakout performance from Bob Wier.
I have always enjoyed Terrapin Station and Shakedown Street. They may not be classics, but they contain some very good songs. The song Terrapin Station is an oddity for the Dead. It is actually much better and longer on the studio album, then any version they have done in concert.
Reckoning and Dead Set are live albums taken from 1980 shows. Back then, the Dead were doing an acoustic set at their shows. Reckoning is the Dead unplugged. It has some very nice versions of rarely played songs. Although it does drag at times. Dead Set is the electric album. It has some nice tight but energetic performances. But only about half of the songs are anything special. Each of those albums contain a bonus disc, that includes music in the same vain as the original album. In the case of Dead Set, the bonus disc is much better than the original.
The last three discs come after the Grateful Dead became famous for their concert tours. This was the time that Dead became the top grossing live act in the world. Previously, the Deadheads knew who the band was, but now everybody knew. These CD's are hit and miss. They also have some of the worst bonus material in the boxset.
If you already have most of these albums, you might not want to shell out the bucks for this. I don't know if the bonus material and improved sound quality are worth it. If you don't have these albums, and you are any type of Grateful Dead fan, this is a great boxset to get.
Grateful Dead: Beyond Description (1973-1989) Poster
This monumental 12-disc assemblage presents the band's amazing, long strange trip from 1973 to 1989, encompassing the albums released on their own Grateful Dead Records label and later Arista. It's an essential companion piece on Rhino's first 12-CD Dead box, The Golden Road (1965-1973), which spotlighted the entirety of their early Warner Brothers output and concurrent evolution from a scruffy hippie outfit in the Haight to one of the biggest bands on the planet. Including studio masterpieces and live landmarks alike, Beyond Description enhances this repertoire with the sonic brilliance of 2004 mastering technology and a wealth of newly discovered supplemental material. It's an extraordinary portrait of a legendary band.As the Grateful Dead story continues with this 12-disc sequel to the equally outsized The Golden Road (1965-1973), the band leaves the relative comfort of the '60s (hey, it suited them just fine) and heads into a period that will provide them with greater rewards as a performing outfit, and greater challenges as a studio entity. The post-'60s Dead floundered nearly as often as they soared--at times haphazardly trying to play the game as defined by more disciplined bands of the '70s and '80s, at other times succeeding almost in spite of themselves. This was a time when they allied themselves with such unlikely coconspirators as hit-minded mogul Clive Davis (after their own label fell by the way) and Fleetwood Mac producer Keith Olsen. They consciously reached for commercial gold and fell short, then found it on their own terms--by recording the 1987 studio album In the Dark in a vacant auditorium.
As with the first Rhino box, Beyond Description (1973-1989) gets the kind of state-of-the-art remastering one would expect from the sonically ambitious bunch. Again, each disc is fleshed out with smartly selected outtakes, demos, and live recordings. Two thoroughly annotated and strikingly illustrated booklets pull the package together. This is where the long, strange trip leads, and if there were some wrong turns along the way, so be it. That's what happens when you don't follow the map. --Steven Stolder
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