Bob Dylan & The Grateful Dead: Dylan And The Dead (Live) - 1987

"If these were the stadium tour's best performances, pity anyone who actually sat through one of these concerts with a clear head" - Steve Appleford - amazon.com

Now, here is how the well-trodden narrative goes - "this is the worst Dylan album ever....the worst live album ever...the worst Grateful Dead album ever...." and so on - see the quote above. For years now it had been roundly slagged off as dreadful. I have (until recently) no knowledge of The Grateful Dead at all, like Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, their music has never appealed to me (or I thought it didn't), so I cannot speak with any authority with regard to their music. However, I have all the Dylan live albums and, personally, I always find this a good listen - so send me for therapy.

Firstly, the sound quality is excellent and, for me, The Grateful Dead provide an excellent backing, with impressive piano and guitar work throughout the album's seven tracks. Dylan's performance is, admittedly, shall we say "loose" at times, but it always has been. There is not a Dylan live performance that doesn't have the listener raising an eyebrow at some point as Bob reinvents one song after another or at times, sounds as if he can't be bothered. That is just an eternal frustration that goes hand in hand with being a Bob Dylan fan. It is just the way it is.

Anyway, I don't mind the deliveries on here at all. The epic narrative Joey is done well, pretty straight to the original, and is a surprising inclusion. Queen Jane Approximately is slowed-down in appealing fashion for its first-ever live performance and I Want You is done is the slow style first attempted, ironically, by Bruce Springsteen in 1975. The two tracks from Slow Train Coming are enhanced by some fine guitar, as you would expect from the originals. All Along The Watchtower  and Knockin' On Heaven's Door are also given fetching, melodic makeovers.

Look, I like the album and, blasphemous as it no doubt will sound to many, I much prefer it to Hard Rain, for example.

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