DU Album of the Day: Grateful Dead - "American Beauty"

[LynneSin]

Today we are going with the Grateful Dead for DUAOTD because today is Phil Lesh's birthday (he's 72). Happy Birthday Phil Lesh.

I'll be honest, I'm not a Deadhead. Don't get me wrong, I like the music and even went to one Dead show, the last show ever done at JFK in Philadelphia (that was 1989, a few weeks later they found a giant crack in the stadium and had to shut it down moving the scheduled Rolling Stones concert (which I also had tickets for) over to Veterans Stadium.

I picked "American Beauty" because it has some of my all time favorite Dead songs including "Ripple" and I also love "Box of Rain" which is a Phil Lesh song

Box of Rain

Live version of "Ripple"

Enjoy!

[hifiguy]

1. Probably the Dead's best studio album.

Amazing tunes from the band and Robert Hunter was at the absolute top of his game.

I also love "Box of Rain" and quoted the final chorus in the brief eulogy I gave at my mom's funeral back in '09. That is probably my all-time favorite Dead song and I am something of a Dead Head.

There's something about "Candyman" that is incredibly eerie and sinister despite the slow pace and almost honky-tonky instrumentation.

This is an album that belongs in everyone's collection.