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Customer Reviews:- Beauty Is A Real Gem
What makes this masterpiece speak for itself is the main ingredient none other than the tight harmonies flowing throughout this entire recording,infested with strong lyrics,a prime example,Attics Of My Life,flowing like a fine wine remenisant of the classic Beatles,Sun king,and classic is as classic does in Jerry Garcia's signature tune,Ripple,and other notable tunes such as,Sugar Magnolia,and Operator,the instrumentation is subdued on this album leaving the vocals standing out painting a visual in the listeners mind. This Grateful Dead remastered classic is essential,containing sixteen tracks,ten of the original 1970 album,the last six are live versions of,Truckin,Friend Of The Devil,Til The Morning Comes,also including a single version of Truckin'. An American beauty. ...more info - Classic Studio Dead
This is their best studio album. What more can I say? Brokedown Palace may be the most beautiful rock song of all time. A must....more info - studio sound shines
I've had this recording for 20 years or so, long before I listened to any recordings of Dead shows, & just put it on this morning after burning out halfway through Dick's Picks vol. 7. It's a gem. Contrary to those who say you need to listen to the Dead live first, I think this album has a tighter, richer, more instrumentally polished feel than a lot of their live stuff. Reckoning (another gem, acoustic sets) comes close. There's also something to knowing the studio versions so you can hear how much the songs change live (compare Sugar Magnolia here to the Feb 24, 1971 version for example). Garcia's voice is crisp and clear here, without the fatigue that comes through in a lot of live recordings. How many other items get practically unanimous 5 star ratings?...more info - great sound, got it from a great vendor
I searched around for awhile to find this, and finally did on here through rockaway records. well worth the research, the sound is phenomenal! i'm usually a bit leery of going through secondary vendors on amazon.com, but rockaway records could not have been better. the post office took awhile getting my package here (christmas time), but rockaway records were very responsive to the issue and even offered to send another copy if the post office flailed! customer service you do not see very often anymore. HIGHLY recommend these guys!...more info - An arrangement of some of the Dead's best songs.
There is no doubt that these songs are among the best in American musical history. If you have never heard the Dead before or want to try to get into them, this might be a good place to start.
But you can't review Dead albums the way you review other bands. 4 stars, because these are good but not the best performances of these songs.
Other bands release their "material" in "albums". Other bands have their songs all written out. The Dead do not just have "songs". They have versions upon versions and arrangments upon arrangements of all their songs...so that their individual songs are more like a framework for the band to build up into a unique artwork at every concert.
If you like the tunes on this CD, I recommend you next get the live album "Reckoning". [...]. There is a whole universe of excellent music out there, once you get into the Grateful Dead....more info - always wonderful
I'm now 21, and this has been my favorite album since I was 13. Definitly something worth having....more info - 1970's Deadly one-two punch!
So what if the Grateful Dead (or the entire decade of the 70's for that matter) never got better than this. American Beauty along with Workingman's Dead are astonishing works of sonic bliss. And to think they were both released in the same year, 1970. To listen in 2004 is to marvel; this album will cure your ills without any side-effects (except for chronic smiling)....more info - Era Defining and Nearly Perfect
If I were to discuss a list of albums that qualify as `life-altering', I'd have to say that few albums meet the grade as well as American Beauty. Not only does it represent the best studio effort of the Grateful Dead, it also represents the apotheosis of the hippie era, offering resolution in the face of disintegration and a path toward new possibilities. If the world had been paying close enough attention and heeded the message presented here, it might have become a better place for all of us. As history would have it, American Beauty is simply a masterwork, as complex and wondrous as the rose for which it is named, combining optimism and realistic expectation in a manner that embraces the complexity of life and translates it into a musical means of expression. So much of what I've just said sounds like a slew of words, but I really do believe that this album has had that profound of an effect on its generation.
It should be noted that before this album was released, the Grateful Dead had amassed one true work of art (their previous studio album, Workingman's Dead), and it was all too easy to assume that it might have been a fluke of nature, a one-off that would never be equaled or surpassed. American Beauty rises to the challenge, and then raises the stakes. Workingman's Dead almost exclusively featured the songwriting of Jerry Garcia and lyricist Robert Hunter; American Beauty showcases the entire band, proving that Phil Lesh, Bob Weir and even Pigpen had developed the ability to write beyond expectations, and that they functioned together, as a team. It also offered diversity, sounding contemporary or old-fashioned, urban or rural, energetic or spent, optimistic or resigned, all in service to the song.
Much of the gorgeous aural atmosphere of this record can be attributed to the pedal steel guitar of Jerry Garcia. Rarely has this instrument sounded as rich and full of emotional expression as it does here. Garcia's solo on "Candyman" is nothing less than wondrous, enough to freeze any non-believer in his tracks and draw him in. Equally magnificent is the imagery presented in the Phil Lesh/Robert Hunter-penned "Box of Rain," which attempts to summarize the meaning of life by placing it in context of the time spent on this water-filled planet (Lesh's father had recently passed away), singing "It's just a box of rain, I don't know who put it there. Such a long, long time to be gone and a short time to be there." Add in the optimistic imagery of "Sugar Magnolia," and the unflinching backward glance at hippie-dom offered on "Truckin'" (a much more profound, relevant and sober observation than it is credited to be), and you have one remarkably insightful piece of art, one that simultaneously summarizes its past while bravely forging forward. Few artists have ever attempted to say as much, and fewer still have been even remotely successful. If ever anybody questions the relevancy of the Grateful Dead, in their own time or in the present, justification can be found almost anywhere on this album - provided, of course, that you are willing to listen to what you hear. A+ Tom Ryan...more info - The Best Greatful Dead Studio Album!
This is by far the best studio album The Greatful Dead ever recorded. Workingman was good but this is just that much better. Jerry Garcia's amazing guitar playing comes through full blast here on this classic album. The lyrics are the best they had been up untill this point.The album starts off with the bands all time best song 'Box Of Rain' its a slower ballad with some beautiful lyrics. The album also closes with The Greatful Dead's second best song 'Truckin' this song is The Deads most rock and roll song, and it has Jerry Garcia's greatest guitar solo of all time! Other classics include 'Friend Of The Devil' 'Sugar Magnolia' 'Ripple' and the awsome 'Ripple' The band was never tighter then on this album. Like I said you cant get better then American Beauty for The Greatful Dead, Working Man's Dead is good but this is bettter. Dont be fooled by the people who tell you that the live albums are better, beacuse they can get boring some of the songs are like 45 minutes long on Europe '72. If you want a good live album stick with Live Dead, its their only decent live album.Col...more info - American Classic
The Grateful Dead were a band in transition at the beginning of the 1970's. The San Francisco dream was pretty much dead and over with. The Summer of Love had spun into Altamont. The bikers the Dead had fashioned themselves after had turned a Stones concert into the close of an era. When the Dead released Workingman's Dead, it was a tighter album compositional than the earlier albums, and showed the band's (particularly Jerry Garcia) love for roots and bluegress. Gone were the psychedelic jams, in were discipline and a subdued recognitiion of how much was different. "Workingman's Dead" was a great album by a band that struggled to translate their ideas to tape.
But the follow-up, released the same year, was a masterstroke. Opening with Phil Lesh (and longtime Dead-writer Robert Hunter's) composition "Box of Rain" and closing with a statement of purpose "Truckin'," this was the Grateful Dead saying goodbye to California and hello to American Roots music. Augmenting the band with members of The New Riders of the Purple Sage, "American Beauty" features nary a Garcia guitar lead, but plenty of his Pedal Steel. It also contains two more Dead classics, Gracia's philosophical "Ripple" and Bob Weir's "Sugar Magnolia."
It's not just for those classic songs that "American Beauty: became a classic, but for the fact that The Dead were folding all sorts of styles into the mix. There's gospel, harmonies they'd picked up from their friends Crosby, Stills & Nash, David Grisman's mandolins, and the immortal line "What a long strange trip it's been." It helped to make the album a mixed metaphor: the trip was far from over, yet the path from 1967's Grateful Dead to now was indeed wide ranging. If one looks closely at the etched glass of the cover art, you can read it both as "American Beauty" or "American Reality." The Dead had arrived at a crossroads, and as Garcia sang on "Ripple":
"If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine
And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung,
Would you hear my voice come through the music,
Would you hold it near as it were your own?"
The band made it plain on "Workingman's Dead" and "American Beauty." They'd left the 60's behind, even if the spirit would stay with them in a beautiful reality. The music would never be as spaced as side long blues-workouts of Chuck Berry, but from this moment on, they were masters of their own reality....more info - For me, this album was an experience.
Im sure you all know how when a piece of music really impresses itself on you, it can become engrained in your mind with permanent associations and becomes in your own mind the soundtrack to your life. To try to describe how I feel about the Grateful Dead, let me just tell you a story about what I associate with this album. Me and my best friend signed up to do community service with a relief program similar to the peace corps in Ghana, West Africa. We were to stay in a small village called Amissakrom Akroful that you wont find on a map, and live in homestays with the locals while doing work projects within the community. My friend managed the task of taking his guitar across the ocean with him. When I think of the Grateful Dead, I think of kicking back on a bench outside a small hovel in West Africa after a long days work under the hot equatorial sun, lazily watching the sun set over the jungle landscape. I would just sit there while eating a coconut and feeding the scraps to the goats, and I would listen to my best friend playing tunes from American Beauty. I cant imagine a scene sweeter, and this album was a part of it. Perfect....more info - Best Album Ever from an American Band
I'm not a Dead-head and I've never seen a Dead concert - Okay I saw Bob Weir once - but I consider this to be the best album ever made by an American Band, and one of the top ten albums of all time. In 1970 the Dead stopped experimenting and started recording real songs, with great lyrics, catchy melodies and harmonies, and even hooks, by Gosh! Workingman's Dead was the prototype, but they struck the vein later in the year with American Beauty. All 10 songs work well. Even the harmonizing is breathtaking, meaning that Jerry Garcia's tendency to wander around the key doesn't mess up matters too much. But what raises this album above many of its influences (the Band, the Byrds, Dylan, CSN) is its striving for spiritual union in the midst of a mundane, drug- and war-ravaged society. So it makes perfect sense to me that one of the most sublimely mystical songs, "Attics of My Life," is placed right before one of the great earthy rockers of the era, "Truckin'". They flow right together, as do all the songs on the album, and the glue that holds them together is the tight playing and singing....more info - This is very good, for an album atleast
I agree 100% with the other comments that said that the Grateful Dead are best when heard live--it's their specialty, it's what they are known for. But I strongly disagree with the comment that "Truckin'" is one of their "best songs". Truckin' is their best-known song, their cliche hit, but by no means their best song overall. Nonethelesss, if you want to get into the music and message of the Dead, you have to get this album. I'm a person that needs a studio recording to help me get to know songs and lyrics, and this album (if you're like me) will help you out tremendously. While it does include "Truckin'" and "Sugar Magnolia", Don't overlook the rest of this CD. Specifically, give "Box of Rain" a try. That's my personal favorite and I think its probably the best song I have ever heard. "Box" never gets old--Robert Hunter did an excellent job writing it, and Phil Lesh did an great job with the music. The lyrics can be understood by anyone and still be open to your own interpretation. Another good song on this CD is "Brokedown Palace". It really is an unbelievable song, and there are some excellent live versions of it if you find strong shows. I think the music from this CD is classic--and, if you enjoy the Dead's sound you'll find that this is probably one of the best albums of all time, according to the depth and familiarity of the music on it. I think that anybody can make a connection with atleast one song on American Beauty--either through its lyrics, music, or through both....more info - Excellent album
This was the first Dead cd I bought and I loved it right away. Classics like Truckin, Candyman, and the great overlooked song, Operator, and the live songs are awesome to listen to. Any fan of classic rock should own this....more info - "Let there be songs...to fill the air!"
"It's the same story the crow told me it's the only one he knows..." Yes, we have heard the story. You know...how the Grateful Dead were great in concert, but for reasons unknown, were never able to "catch lightning in a bottle", when it came time to going into the studio to produce an album. Well folks, that's a myth that's disproven with this remastered, re-release (w/ bonus tracks) of the Dead's 1970 classic, "American Beauty". This is a band, who never cared to be pigeonholed in one musical catagory or genre. As the 1960's ended the record industry pretty much had the them pegged as an experimental psychedelic band, who couldn't make much of a dent in the charts.But just when you zig the G.D. would zag and do the unexpected. They refined and simplified both their song writing craft and their vocal performances, creating a beautiful collection of rock, country, folk & blues songs, that were new and modern, but at the same time felt like they wouldn't be out of place being played a half century earlier.The album starts on a high note of perfection with "Box of Rain", bassist, Phil Lesh's ode to his dying father. This is a tuneful, powerful song, which is just an outpouring of emotion.The album's high quality of song writing and performances continues all the way to the last note of the last song, the band's autobiographical rocker, "Truckin". Other highlights include tunes such as "Friend of the Devil", the lively country rocker, "Sugar Magnolia" and the zen like sing-along, "Ripple". But to be truthful, there isn't a clunker in the bunch.The songs seem to easily work together creating an almost historical/emotional portrait of the American spirit and psyche. Many of these songs would become standards in the band's concert repertoire, going through substantial changes over the next twenty-five years. But there is just something 'perfect' about their original incarnations captured here. I wouldn't change a note! This classic has now been re-released with the sound remastered. Any sonic mud has been removed and you can now hear each guitar, mandolin and vocal with the utmost clarity (I'm in stereo geek heaven!) The live bonus tracks are great, but not essential, though I did really enjoy the unlisted "Grateful Duck/Nixon" radio ad track, which perfectly captures the spirit of the band and the early 1970's era. This album is as close to perfection as the Grateful Dead were ever able to achieve in a studio setting. Yes,"lightning was captured in the bottle". It's a true classic, that belongs in any serious rock n' roll fan's CD collection!...more info - The classic Dead studio album
This is truly a beautiful album--it's certainly in my Top 5. Basically what you have to know about "American Beauty" is that if you've been hearing about the Grateful Dead your entire life but haven't gotten around to checking them out, this is where to start. The majority of Deadheads would agree that they were never better in the studio than documented here. It contains several of the best (and most well-known) songs in their entire catalogue, including "Sugar Magnolia," "Friend of the Devil," "Truckin'," and the cream of the crop: the absolutely gorgeous "Ripple" (with mandolin by David Grisman). Furthermore, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan was still alive, who was an important figure in the band's blues roots.
I think the 1969 live album, "Live/Dead" is just as musically accomplished as "American Beauty." However, many new listeners may find it much less accessible and won't be able to immediately digest a 23-minute version of "Dark Star." These are streamlined songs, most of them lasting about 4 minutes. Again--if you're curious about the Grateful Dead, I assure you this is by far the best place to start. And I assure you that you'll find it to be an amazing and beautiful contribution to music. ...more info - AmericanBeauty my review
American Beauty is great, the harmonies, music, lyrics and feel make this one of the best of its time Attics of my life is beautiful, the guitar on the live version of Truckin is powerful live guitar. Till the morning comes is catchy. ...more info - In a class of its own
This is the album that transformed me from a typical confused teenager of the 70s into a typical confused deadhead. Back then, we used to engage in seemingly endless debates about weighty topics, including "What is the best album (we called them albums back then) of all time?" Many said Sgt Peppers, some said "Dark Side of the Moon." Me, I beleived then, as I do now, that American Beauty is was the best album of its era.
Since those hazy days, I have come to appreciate this album for its inherent uniqueness. It is a beautiful melding of folk, bluegrass and rock. The band was at a turning point: the mind bending days of the 60s had ended, and at least two of the members, Jerry and Phil are coping with the death (or impending death) of loved ones. This album speaks of a yearning to return to something simpler and more basic. It succeeds on every level.
If you are wondering what the Dead thing is all about, and whether the band is as good as the hype, this is one of about a half dozen albums that should be on your must buy list.
...more info - Simply Put....
This is my favorite album of all time. I can listen to it no matter my mood, time of day, day of the week, year etc. It sounds just as great today as it did the day it was released. I have owned it in every format: 8 track, cassette, vinyl, CD, and now MP3. And I will buy it again in whatever the next technology may be. ...more info - Great sound for a studio album....
For a studio release this was great.... Having only seen the Dead in the post Brent days, I can only image the energy in the pig-pen, Wavy Gravy, Good Rev. days.......
If you've never listened to the dead...... what are you waiting for? It's not a social stigma to like good music........more info - Beauty of the American
This album is usually referred to be Grateful Dead's most successful studio masterpiece. The band's music is country-rock and folk-rock oriented. The opener 'Box Of Rain' has meaningful lyrics [look out of any window.any morning,any evening, any day. maybe the sun is shining, birds are winging.no rain is falling from a heavy sky] . It is about love and life. Most popular verse is [inch your way through dead dreams to another land] . 'Friend Of The Devil' , coming second, has humorous lyrics [Got a wife in Chino babe, and one in Cherokee. First one says she got my child, but it don't look like me]. 'Sugar Magnolia' is about a girl [Sweet blossom] who is empty in the head [Head's all empty and i don't care]. 'Operator' is a medium-paced one. Whereas 'Candyman', 'Ripple', 'Brokedown Palace', 'Attics Of My Life' are for the most time slowly progress. 'Till The Morning Comes', and 'Trucking' well come following the first three songs in pace. It is in 'Truckin' that "What a long,strange trip it's been" is pronounced. I enjoy most listening to the first three that is: 'Box Of Rain', 'Friend Of The Devil' and 'Sugar Magnolia'. ...more info - Surround Mix Sounds Fantastic
This classic album is reborn in surround. Instrument separation and sound quality is top notch. Not to be missed....more info - One of the Grateful Dead's best studio albums
This is a good introduction for newer fans who might find it difficult at first getting used to their more "spaced out" cds. All the songs are warm and easily accessible. This and Workingman's Dead also seem to appeal to non-Dead Head types. What a collection of songs - Box Of Rain, Truckin', Ripple, ect. A very warm disc all the way around....more info - Best Dead
If you want a great collection of Grateful Dead music, this is the cd for you....more info - <<<>>>
THE HONORED, THE VENERABLE, THE HARMONIOUS & ALMOST HOLY WITH HIGH ENERGY ... THE KING KANDY OF CANDYLAND: AMERICAN REALITY (I mean BEAUTY)!! No really - these songs are so sweet, Cosmic Charlie has probably lost most of his mental teeth by now, lingering too long in the lollipop woods, trapped by the urge to endlessly sample all of the shimmering, tasteful beauty. WAS REALITY EVER SO EASY TO ESCAPE TO?FROM??
"I bent an ear to LISTEN, and I closed my eyes to SEE"; Like many, this was basically the first DEAD album that I really got into (back when I was about 12 in the mid-70's - I was a little young to have absorbed the great early period through Live Dead then, even though I had heard some of it around my house). In fact, the Jolly-jammer (orange sunshine gummy drops) Sugar Magnolia was one of the first songs I ever learned (or tried to) when I started plunking around on the guitar in 7th grade. AB is literally one of the main soundtracks to my life.
This album, therefore, means so much to me after all of these years, that I should probably be BURIED WITH IT in case there IS a (Tibetan or whatever) Journey of the Dead when passing (it will at least make a good offering, OR BUY, to bribe my way to the other side, better than a lousy coin on your eye). Then LET IT BE POSTED: "A Box of Rain will ease the pain, and LOVE will see you through ... believe it if you need it, or leave it if you dare. (Box of Rain, by Lesh - a quirky, but great song, one of my all-time favorites)! As a further show of good faith that this bargain is a good one, I would offer the boatmaster to have a taste of the uplifting & delightful RIPPLE peanut brittle (by Garcia/Hunter):
"If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine, And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung, Would you hear my voice come through the music, Would you hold it near, as it were your own".
"It's a hand me down, the thoughts are broken, perhaps they're better left unsung. I don't know - don't really care ... Let there be songs to fill the air (R-I-P-P-L-E THROUGH STILL WATER, WHEN THERE IS NO PEBBLE TOSSED, NOR WIND TO BLOW" ... beautiful mandolin lollidrop-in from David Grisman - too bad he didn't drop by more often during Dead sessions) ...
"Let it be known there is a fountain, that was not made by the hands of men. There is a road, no simple highway, between the dawn and the dark of night. And if you go, no one may follow, That path is for your steps alone ... (RIPPLE refrain again ... I may not have every word exactly right)
"... If you fall, you fall alone. If you should stand, then who's to guide you? If I knew the way, I would take you home." (Ripple, many a Deadheads' favorite I would guess, really mellow - this touching song alone should give a pass across the Rainbow Trail).
All of these songs are huge classics and wonderful (even Operator grows on you, I never skip a song here), I'll spare you my endless gushy thoughts on them or you'll think I'm related to Gramma Nutt! Well, I am actually (HI MOM). SO: "ROLL THOSE LAUGHIN' BONES, 'cause seven come eleven boys, I'll take your money home ... If you've got a dollar, LAY IT ON THE LINE! ... Hand me my old guitar, pass the whiskey 'round, and tell everybody you meet that the CANDYMAN'S IN TOWN... " (Candyman, another masterpiece by Garcia/Hunter).
PLUMPY'S PICK for a full FIVE towering candy canes ... and with the second dvd audio disk, all the better! ENJOY REGULARLY (while playing Candyland with your kids maybe ... By the way, why do kids ALWAYS WIN at that damn game? I'm awfully traumatized that my luck has dried up).
Oh, and WHEN IS THAT GARCIA $5 COIN GOING TO BE RELEASED FROM THE U.S. MINT (bearded bust with right hand on flip-side, guitar pick borders, fretted edges ... AMERICAN BEAUTY inscription, with those cool reversible letters of course)??? You could then put those on the eyes of the DEAD for passage to the next world, a favored currency there. Get yourself out of the Molasses Swamp of trendy music today ... the Candy Castle awaits those who pass this reality test - and as always in the land of The Dead, YOU WIN AGAIN!
"It's just a box of rain ... such a long, LONG time to be gone and a short time to be there" - FARE YOU WELL JERRY! SEE YA AROUND. LOVE FROM US ALL!
...more info - One great studio CD from a legendary band
I was NEVER a fan of the Dead until the past few years, as I have gotten into more mellow music and jam bands, and began to rediscover the past music that I either ignored or didn't get a chance to appreciate. And I am not one to flock to a band that EVERYONE says is GREAT, like the dead...so here I am praising this great CD, as that is just what it is. You do not have to be a 'dead head' to appreciate the brilliant songwriting and mellow swing this CD puts you in!!!The GD are really known for their miles of jams on live CD's, but if you don't want that *right now*, pop this gem in for some great dead music. If you want the endless jamming, well we all know that there are other GD choices there... Any way you look at it, I consider American Beauty one of the best albums (CDS) ever made! For those that doubted that these potheads could ever put together a focused CD of great music without turning a 4 minute song into a 40 minute one, look no further - these guys are legendary, and this CD is the ultimate proof....more info - less than 5 stars?
I wonder sometimes what motivates people to say what they do and why. This CD is a desert island disc, or , if you only had 10 cd's to own, or, if you wanted to pick out music that was the most significant and important in rock n roll history, this is one of them. And this is not coming from a "Deadhead". This album is a gem. Not one bad tune. It re-defined the role of American themes and genres in a contemporary setting. It is a record almost perfect : we should all be so lucky if someone down the line could produce something equally as significant....more info - Why Must People Attack this Album?
The point of these reviews is not to attack the artists (or the lifestyles of their fans), but to try to describe and/or objectively critique the music. Yes, people are allowed their opinions, but an album such as American Beauty clearly is a classic folk-rock album, and to try to label it as a one-star piece of music just ain't right. That being said, this album is one half of the pair with "Workingman's Dead" that appeared in 1970. The Dead had already established themselves as a psychedelic bluesy jam-rock band, and had a loyal following. However, they had not created much in the way of well-crafted songwriting until these two albums were recorded. Basically, they fused together blues, country, boogie-woogie, traditional roots, and folk into a unique sound. While Workingmans Dead may have more blues influence, this album leans a bit more towards folk and country. Many of the songs are slow and introspective. Please don't be scared away by reviewers who have some strange axe to grind -- trust the rest of us, and the fact that established music guides all rate this as a true classic....more info - American Beauty- "True to it's name"
What can I say about this album? In my opinion it's one of the best Dead albums ever made. I know that's up for debate, because they made so many albums, but this one seems to have such a cohesivness and rock solid feel to it, it's hard to think otherwise.
I've been a dead head for a long time, at least since the very early stuff they did. For starters, I've never seen another band that in my opinion is as versital as The Grateful Dead. Start with their first album. They just seemed to be kicking to get out of the stall. Then get into Anthum of the Sun and Aoxomoxoa. Now, down the road here we get back to their roots and have an album called American Beauty, and boy what a beauty it is. What a colection of songs, finely crafted and very cohesive together. Still, they have the variety and style of the one and only, Grateful Dead. How could you not like a song like Sugar Magnolia, or the bluegrass oriented Friend of the Devil. It's almost too much fun for one album. Then you get soulful with songs like Box of Rain and Ripple. In the words of good old American slang: "It just don't get no better than this". These guys can play their ass off on songs like Dark Star and Turn on your love light, then turn around and do something like Box of Rain or Ripple. What a nice transition. To me this just shows the incredible versitility of the band called "The Grateful Dead" Long live The Grateful Dead. They'll stretch you're musical horizons....more info - One of the Best Albums of All Time!
No matter if you are a fan of the Grateful Dead or jambands at all, if you like folk-rock, 70's rock or just music in general, buy this album! American Beauty truly captures what is beautiful about America. Containing a wide array of wonderful songs such as "Friend of the Devil," "Box of Rain" and "Ripple," the album reveals country,folk and psychedelic rock at its best!...more info
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