• Voto:
Questo che andrò a recensire, gente, non è certo un album tra i più conosciuti del gruppo, nè tantomeno è da annoverare tra le ''pietre miliari'' della musica rock: è semplicemente il primo album dei Grateful Dead, uno dei più influenti gruppi musicali del rock psichedelico.
L'album, in termine di vendite, fu un fiasco completo, una vera e propria delusione commerciale; riuscì a vendere ancor meno copie del famigerato ''banana album'', dei Velvet Underground, ma a differenza di quest'ultimo non è mai stato rivalutato col passare degli anni, ed è finito nel dimenticatoio. La formazione, nell'anno di uscita del disco (1967), vedeva riuniti: Jerry Garcia alla voce e alla chitarra solista, Bob ''Weir'' Hall alla chitarra ritmica, Phil Lesh al basso, Bill Kreutzmann alla batteria e Ron McKernan alle tastiere e all'armonica. Già da questo primo lavoro dei cinque ragazzi di San Francisco, trapela quell'eclettismo che renderà famoso il gruppo negli anni a venire, che mescola al già citato rock psichedelico sonorità folk, blues e jazz.
Forse il motivo del fallimento commerciale è da attribuirsi alla poca originalità della proposta, probabilmente troppo anonimo in mezzo alla miriade di album usciti in quel periodo. Essi sono infatti stati ignorati (nel periodo di questo primo album), da altri debut-album ben più considerati, si veda ad esempio il primo album dei ''Doors'', uscito nello stesso anno, o ''Surrealistic Pillow'' dei già celebri Jefferson Airplane. Non originali anche perchè tranne due canzoni che portano la firma del gruppo, le altre sono tutte cover di celebri pezzi blues e Rock'n'Roll. Il disco si apre con un allegra ''Golden Road (to unlimited devotion)'', dal testo mistico, come spesso si usava tra i gruppi acid-rock. E' seguita dalla rock'n'rolleggiante ''Beat It Down The line'', dove fa da padrona la chitarra solista di Garcia, accompagnata degnamente dalle ritmiche di Hall e ricamata lisergicamente dall'organo elettrico di McKernan. La terza traccia, ''Good Morning Little Schoolgirl'', vale da sola gran parte del disco: benchè non sia originale, è a mio parere la miglior cover in assoluto di questo pezzo blues, di gran lunga superiore alla versione degli Yardbirds.
Carine ''Cold Rain and Snow'' e ''Sitting on the top of the world'': ritmi beat e spensierati che formano due canzoncine ''easy listening'', seguite a loro volta da una ''Cram Puff War'' che ne segue gli schemi. Il discorso cambia decisamente per la traccia numero sette, ovvero ''Morning Dew'', che abbandona le sonorità beat e facili all'ascolto per trasportarci in una rilassante atmosfera psichedelica, molto gradevole e molto contempaltiva. Il disco si chiude con la canzone più lunga (oltre dieci minuti) e più sperimentale dell'album: "Viola Lee Blues", distorto blues psichedelico cosparso di assoli e caratterizzata da un ritornello ripetitivo ma mai banale. Non degna di particolari note ''New, new Minglewood Blues'', che di blues ha ben poco, e che non vanta certo l'originalità delle canzoni descritte prima.
Insomma, tutto sommato non è poi un disco così clamoroso: però se si vuole capire a fondo i Grateful Dead, gruppo fondamentale della musica rock in generale, questa è una tappa obbligatoria: in esso sono racchiuse le radici della band.
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 Bertha (05:44)
I had a hard run
Running from your window
I was all night running, running, running
I wonder if you care?
I had a run-in
Run around and run down
Run around a corner
Run smack into a tree
I had to move
Really had to move
That's why if you please
I am on my bended knees
Bertha don't you come around here anymore
Dressed myself in green
I went down to the sea
Try to see what's going down
Maybe read between the lines
Had a feeling I was falling, falling, falling
Turned around to see
Heard a voice calling, calling, calling
You was comin after me
Back to me
I had to move
Really had to move
That's why if you please
I am on my bended knees
Bertha don't you come around here anymore
Ran into a rainstorm
Ducked into a bar door
It was all night pouring, pouring rain
But not a drop on me
Test me, test me
Why don't you arrest me?
Throw me in the jail house
Until the sun goes down
Till it go down
I had to move
Really had to move
That's why if you please
I am on my bended knees
Bertha don't you come around here anymore
02 Mama Tried (02:44)
The first I remember knowin' was that lonesome whistle blowin'
And a youngin's dream of growin' up to ride.
On a freight train leavin' town, not knowin' where I was bound
No one could steer me right, but mama tried.
Was the only rebel child from a family meek and mild
Mama seemed to know what lay in store
In spite of all my Sunday learnin'
For the bad I kept on turnin' and mama couldn't hold me anymore.
And I turned 21 in prison, doin' life without parole
No one could steer me right, but mama tried, mama tried
Mama tried to raise me better, but her pleadin' I denied
That leaves no one but me to blame cause mama tried.
Dear old daddy rest his soul, left my mom a heavy load
She tried so very hard to fill his shoes
Workin' hours without rest, wanted me to have the best
Oh she tried to raise me right, but I refused.
And I turned 21 in prison, doin' life without parole
No one could steer me right, but mama tried, mama tried
Mama tried to raise me better, but her pleadin' I denied
That leaves no one but me to blame cause mama tried.
04 Playing in the Band (04:40)
Some folks trust to reason
Others trust to might
I don't trust to nothing
But I know it come out right
Say it once again now
Oh I hope you understand
When it's done and over
Lord, a man is just a man
Playing
Playing in the band
Daybreak
Daybreak on the land
Some folks look for answers
Others look for fights
Some folks up in treetops
Just look to see the sights
I can tell your future
Look what's in your hand
But I can't stop for nothing
I'm just playing in the band
Playing
Playing in the band
Daybreak
Daybreak on the land
Standing on a tower
World at my command
You just keep a turning
While I'm playing in the band
If a man among you
Got no sin upon his hand
Let him cast a stone at me
For playing in the band
Playing
Playing in the band
Daybreak
Daybreak on the land
Playing
Playing in the band
Daybreak Daybreak on the land
08 Me & Bobby McGee (05:43)
Busted flat in baton rouge, waitin' for a train,
Feeling nearly faded as my jeans,
Bobby flagged a diesel down, just before it rained,
Took us all the way to new orleans.
I took my harp on out of my dirty red bandanna,
I was blowin' sad while bobby sang the blues,
With them windshield wipers slappin' time, bobby clappin' hands,
We sang every song that driver knew.
Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to do.
Nothin' ain't worth nothin' but it's free.
Feelin' good was easy lord, when bobby sang the blues.
Feelin' good was good enough for me, good enough for me and bobby mcgee.
From the coal mines of kentucky to the california sun,
Bobby shared the secrets of my soul,
Standing right beside me, lord, in everything I done,
Bobby's body kept me from the cold.
Then somewhere near salinas, lord, I let her slip away,
Lookin' for that home, I hope she finds,
And I'd trade all my tomorrows for a single yesterday
Holding bobby's body close to mine.
Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose.
Nothin' was all she left for me.
Feelin' good was easy lord, when bobby sang the blues.
Feelin' good was good enough for me, good enough for me and bobby mcgee.
Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to do.
Nothin' ain't worth nothin' but it's free.
Feelin' good was easy lord, when bobby sang the blues.
Feelin' good was good enough for me, good enough for me and bobby mcgee.
09 Johnny B. Goode (03:44)
Deep down in Louisiana close to New Orleans,
Way back in the woods among the evergreens
There in an old cabin made of earth and wood
There lived a country boy named Johnny B. Goode.
He never learned to read or write so well,
But he could play a guitar like ringin' a bell.
Go go, go Johnny go, go; go Johnny go, go;
go Johnny go, go; Go Johnny go, go; Go Johnny B. Goode.
He used to carry his guitar in a gunny sack,
Go sit up in the trees by the railroad track.
The engineers seen him sittin' in the shade
Strummin' to the rhythm that the drivers made.
People passin' by would stop and say
"My my, but that little country boy can play!"
Go go, go Johnny go, go; go Johnny go, go;
go Johnny go, go; Go Johnny go, go; Go Johnny B. Goode.
His mamma told him "Someday you will be a man."
You will be the leader of a big old band
Many people comin' from miles around
To hear you play your music when the sun goes down.
Maybe someday your name will be in lights.
10 Wharf Rat (08:33)
Old man down, way down down, down by the docks of the city.
Blind and dirty, asked me for a dime, a dime for a cup of coffee.
I got no dime but I got some time to hear his story.
My name is August West, and I love my Pearly Baker best more than my wine.
More than my wine - more than my maker, though he's no friend of mine.
Everyone said, I'd come to no good, I knew I would Pearly, believe them.
Half of my life, I spent doin' time for some other fucker's crime,
The other half found me stumbling 'round drunk on Burgundy wine.
But I'll get back on my feet again someday,
The good Lord willin', if He says I may.
I know that the life I'm livin's no good,
I'll get a new start, live the life I should.
I'll get up and fly away, I'll get up and fly away, fly away.
Pearly's been true, true to me, true to my dyin' day he said,
I said to him, I said to him, "I'm sure she's been."
I said to him, "I'm sure she's been true to you."
Got up and wandered, wandered downtown, nowhere to go but just hang around.
I've got a girl, named Bonnie Lee, I know that girl's been true to me.
I know she's been, I'm sure she's been true to me.
Carico i commenti... con calma
