A Reckoning...
The Dead go live again...
Before there was Rhino pressings or Record Store Day releases of Grateful Dead live shows, there was Arista just pumping out an album in 1981.
Reckoning was the sixth live album and seventeenth overall by the band. This recording took samples from the shows in September and October of 1980.
By the band’s own admission, it was supposed to be one double LP set. As Garcia said the band “ended with so much good material that it was a struggle.” That’s when they decided to make a second live album from their material. That would become, Dead Set, released a few months after this album.
Overall the album is wonderfully done. It starts off with one of their hits, Dire Wolf and it keeps the intensity up through the entire album. My personal favorite is a cover version of Bill Browning’s, Dark Hollow and Deep Elem Blues.
Dark Hollow was familiar to the band as Pentangle who toured with the Dead in 1969, sang their own version of the song and called it, Cold Mountain. This probably wasn’t lost on Garcia who ended up singing this song.
Deep Elem Blues tells the story of Deep Ellum, a Dallas neighborhood that was home to blues musicians Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie Johnson and Lead Belly, to name a few. A wonderful tribute to such great musicians who no doubt influenced the Grateful Dead.
It ends with the perfect song, Ripple, which is one of my favorite songs by the band. This song was written by Robert Hunter on the same afternoon he wrote, Brokedown Palace and To Lay Me Down. The band premiered it at the Fillmore West on August 18th, 1970.
Give the album a listen and let me know what you think.
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The Grateful Dead - Reckoning
Arista, 1981
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