Sono stanco e con il bisogno di assecondare il mio desiderio di pura e semplice buona musica. Musica che sia semplice, rilassante, musicale e che mi faccia passare del tempo in totale distacco, che entri dentro di me ed una volta dentro riesca in qualche modo a smuovere quello che incontra e così facendo mi dia sensazioni positive, belle. Ok, ci provo. Recensire o meglio parlare di un disco che ha sulle spalle ben 35 anni, non è per niente facile. Tutto è già stato detto e scritto su i Dead e su questo album, ciò non mi nega comunque la possibilità di riproporre e di eventualmente far conoscere questa perla chiamata "American Beauty".
Per via della poca familiarità con gli strumenti elettrici e soprattutto per la scarsa conoscenza dell'ambiente "recording studio" i primi tre albums dei Dead non ebbero un enorme successo. Successo o meglio conferma che arrivò con la pubblicazione del leggendario "Live/Dead" con il quale i nostri diedero una indiscutibile prova del loro talento di musicisti e di jam-band adatta e perfetta alle dimensioni di un set Live. Il 1970 fù un anno estremamente fortunato (anche se funesto) per la band di Jerry Garcia. Quell'anno vide l'uscita del terzo album studio "Workingman's Dead" in marzo, ed in novembre dello stesso anno questo "American Beauty". Acclamato da molti come l'episodio in assoluto più riuscito della Dead discografia in ambito studio, "American Beauty" si caratterizza per il netto abbandono del suono esclusivamente elettrico a favore di un suono principalmente acustico e solo in parte elettrico.
Qui Garcia & Co. scavano a fondo nella tradizione più pura del Folk/Bluegrass americano e incidono un disco che si eleva a capolavoro proprio per la loro estrema bravura nel suonare come jam-band. Il folk/Bluegrass era l'amore di Jerry Garcia, abilissimo suonatore di banjo nei Warlocks, una sorta di costola primordiale dei Grateful Dead. Avendo "imparato" (anche se per il loro Background nessuno aveva bisogno di imparare) a dialogare, parlare con gli strumenti dando vita ad emozionantissime ed indiavolate jam elettriche con "AB" dimostrarono quanto siano stati egualmente eccellenti in una dimensione puramente acustica. Troviamo qui delle vere e proprie perle, che poi diventeranno dei classici del repertorio Live. Come non citare la emozionantissima "Box of Rain" scritta dal bassista Phil Lesh e dedicata dal paroliere dei Dead, Robert Hunter, al padre di quest'ultimo malato di cancro. "Friend of the Devil" è una bellissima ballata folk-rock con un ritmo assolutamente pregevole ed accattivante, "Sugar Magnolia" strizza l'occhio al blues, la seguente "Operator" è la canzone che io vorrei come colonna sonora per un ipotetico viaggio sulla mitica Route 66.
Indiscussi maestri della psichedelia i Dead, anche nella loro produzione acustica, ci deliziano con un pezzo come "Candyman" che allarga la percezione spazio-temporale e dà quel senso di pace, tranquillità e viaggio che fà si che i miei neuroni decidano di andare a zonzo per un pò. Discorso pressochè uguale per la splendida "Ripple" arricchita da un grande lavoro di Banjo come accompagnamento. È inutile andare avanti nella descrizione delle canzoni che sono tutte vere e proprie gemme nate in un contesto, di assoluta armonia e pace che ha sempre per tutti gli anni seguenti caratterizzato i Grateful Dead, regalando loro la stima e l'amore incontrastato di migliaia di DeadHeads che hanno visto ed in alcuni casi toccato con mano la straordinaria personalità di questa band che negli anni (40 per la precisione) ha realizzato il sogno di far divertire la gente, farla ballare, farla emozionare toccando bene o male tutti i punti del globo. I Dead hanno impersonato per 40 lunghi anni lo spirito più puro della Hippie Generation presentandosi come una grande famiglia con migliaia di figli e predicando il verbo del rock lisergico e psichedelico. Questo è uno dei tanti testamenti musicali che ci hanno lasciato ma che rimane attuale ed immensamente bello e elegantemente acustico. Da avere!
Elenco tracce testi e video
02 Friend of the Devil (03:25)
I lit out from Reno, I was trailed by twenty hounds
Didn't get to sleep last night 'till the morning came around.
Set out runnin' but I take my time
A friend of the devil is a friend of mine
If I get home before daylight, I just might get some sleep tonight.
Ran into the devil, babe, he loaned me twenty bills
I spent the night in Utah in a cave up in the hills.
Set out runnin' but I take my time, a friend of the devil is a friend of mine,
If I get home before daylight, I just might get some sleep tonight.
I ran down to the levee but the devil caught me there
He took my twenty dollar bill and vanished in the air.
Set out runnin' but I take my time
A friend of the devil is a friend of mine
If I get home before daylight, I just might get some sleep tonight.
Got two reasons why I cry away each lonely night,
The first one's named Sweet Anne Marie, and she's my hearts delight.
The second one is prison, babe, the sheriff's on my trail,
And if he catches up with me, I'll spend my life in jail.
Got a wife in Chino, babe, and one in Cherokee
The first one says she's got my child, but it don't look like me.
Set out runnin' but I take my time,
A friend of the devil is a friend of mine,
If I get home before daylight, I just might get some sleep tonight.
03 Sugar Magnolia (03:19)
Sugar Magnolia blossom's blooming
Head's all empty and I don't care
Saw my baby down by the river
Knew she'd have to come up soon for air
Sweet blossom come on under the willow
We can have high times if you'll abide
We can discover the wonders of nature
Rolling in the rushes down by the riverside
She's got everything delightful
She's got everything I need
Takes the wheel when I'm seeing double
Pays my ticket when I speed
She come skimming through rays of violet
She can wade in a drop of dew
She don't come and I don't follow
Waits backstage while I sing to you
She can dance a Cajun rhythm
Jump like a Willys in four wheel drive
She's a summer love in the spring, fall and winter
She can make happy any man alive
Sugar magnolia
Ringin' that blue bell
Caught up in sunlight
Come on out singing
I'll walk you in the sunshine
Come on honey, come along with me
She's got everything delightful
She's got everything I need
A breeze in the pines in the summer night moonlight
Crazy in the sunlight yes indeed
Sometimes when the cuckoo's crying
When the moon is halfway down
Sometimes when the night is dying
I take me out and I wander round
I wander round
Sunshine daydream
Walkin through the tall trees
Going where the wind goes
Blooming like a red rose
Breathing more freely
Light out singing
I'll walk you in the morning sunshine
Sunshine daydream
Walk you in the sunshine
04 Operator (02:26)
Operator can you help me, help me if you please
Give me the right area code and the number, that I need
My rider left upon a midnight flyer singin like a summer breeze
I think shes somewhere down south,
Down about baton rouge
But I just cant remember no number, a number I can use
Directory don't have it, central done forgot it
Got to find a number to use
Tryin to check out a number, tryin to run down a line
Operator said that's privelaged information
And it ain't no business of mine
Its flooding down in Texas, the polls are out in Utah
Got to find a private line
She could be hangin round a steel mill working in a house of blue lights
Riding a getaway bus outta oakland, talkin to the night
I don't know where shes goin, I don't care where shes been
Long as shes been doin it right
05 Candyman (06:14)
Come all you pretty women with your hair hanging down
Open up your windows cause the Candyman's in town
Come on boys and gamble, roll those laughing bones
Seven come eleven boys, I'll take your money home
Look out look out the Candyman, here he come a nd he's gone again
Pretty lady ain't got no friend till the Candyman comes round again
I come in from Memphis where I learned to talk the jive
When I get back to Memphis, be one less man alive
Good mornin Mr. Benson, I see you're doin well
If I had me a shotgun I'd blow you straight to Hell
Look out look out the Candyman, here he come and he's gone again
Pretty lady ain't got no friend till the Candyman comes round again
Ooooh ooooooh
Ooooh uhhh uhh
Come on boys and wager if you have got the mind
If you've got a dollar boys then lay it on the line
Hand me my old guitar pass the whiskey round
Wont you to tell everybody you meet that the Candyman's in town
Look out look out the Candyman, here he come a nd he's gone again
Pretty lady ain't got no friend till the Candyman comes round again
06 Ripple (04:10)
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.
Ripple in still water,
When there is no pebble tossed,
Nor wind to blow.
Reach out your hand if your cup be empty
If your cup is full may it be again
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 in still water,
When there is no pebble toseed,
Nor wind to blow.
You who choose to lead must follow,
But 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.
La da da da La da da da da
La da da La da La da da da
La da da da La da da da da
La da da da La da da da da
07 Brokedown Palace (04:09)
Fare you well my honey
Fare you well my only true one
All the birds that were singing
Have flown except you alone
Goin to leave this Broke-down Palace
On my hands and my knees I will roll roll roll
Make myself a bed by the waterside
In my time - in my time - I will roll roll roll
In a bed, in a bed
by the waterside I will lay my head
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
to rock my soul
River gonna take me
Sing me sweet and sleepy
Sing me sweet and sleepy
all the way back home
It's a far gone lullaby
sung many years ago
Mama, Mama, many worlds I've come
since I first left home
Goin home, goin home
by the waterside I will rest my bones
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
to rock my soul
Goin to plant a weeping willow
On the banks green edge it will grow grow grow
Sing a lullaby beside the water
Lovers come and go - the river roll roll roll
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
to rock my soul
09 Attics of My Life (05:13)
In the attics of my life
Full of cloudy dreams unreal
Full of tastes no tongue can know
And lights no eye can see
When there was no ear to hear
You sang to me
I have spent my life
Seeking all that's still unsung
Bent my ear to hear the tune
And closed my eyes to see
When there were no strings to play
You played to me
In the book of love's own dream
Where all the print is blood
Where all the pages are my days
And all my lights grow old
When I had no wings to fly
You flew to me
You
flew
to me
In the secret space of dreams
Where I dreaming lay amazed
When the secrets all are told
And the petals all unfold
When there was no dream of mine
You dreamed of me
10 Truckin' (05:03)
Truckin' got my chips cashed in. Keep truckin', like the do-dah man
Together, more or less in line, just keep truckin' on.
Arrows of neon and flashing marquees out on Main Street.
Chicago, New York, Detroit and it's all on the same street.
Your typical city involved in a typical daydream
Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings.
Dallas, got a soft machine; Houston, too close to New Orleans;
New York's got the ways and means; but just won't let you be, oh no.
Most of the cast that you meet on the streets speak of true love,
Most of the time they're sittin' and cryin' at home.
One of these days they know they better get goin'
Out of the door and down on the streets all alone.
Truckin', like the do-dah man. Once told me "You've got to play your hand"
Sometimes your cards ain't worth a dime, if you don't lay'em down,
Sometimes the light's all shinin' on me;
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me What a long, strange trip it's been.
What in the world ever became of sweet Jane?
She lost her sparkle, you know she isn't the same
Livin' on reds, vitamin C, and cocaine,
All a friend can say is "Ain't it a shame?"
Truckin', up to Buffalo. Been thinkin', you got to mellow slow
Takes time, you pick a place to go, and just keep truckin' on.
Sittin' and starin' out of the hotel window.
Got a tip they're gonna kick the door in again
I'd like to get some sleep before I travel,
But if you got a warrant, I guess you're gonna come in.
Busted, down on Bourbon Street, Set up, like a bowlin' pin.
Knocked down, it get's to wearin' thin. They just won't let you be, oh no.
You're sick of hangin' around and you'd like to travel;
Get tired of travelin' and you want to settle down.
I guess they can't revoke your soul for tryin',
Get out of the door and light out and look all around.
Sometimes the light's all shinin' on me;
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me What a long, strange trip it's been.
Truckin', I'm a goin' home. Whoa whoa baby, back where I belong,
Back home, sit down and patch my bones, and get back truckin' on.
Hey now get back truckin' home.
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