Детали релиза : Grateful Dead - Blues For Allah (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) (1975/2025) [FLAC (tracks)]

Album Review: Blues For Allah (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) - Grateful Dead

The Grateful Dead released Blues for Allah in September 1975 when they were in the midst of an extended hiatus from the road. It had been nearly a year since the band had been outwardly active, Allah's arrival was a welcome surprise. Even more surprising: the music marked a striking departure from their earlier work, bearing the imprint of both experimentation and introspection. It reflected a band that was searching for new ways to express itself in the studio after more than a decade of being defined by in-concert improvisation. Previously, their studio albums—even at their most psychedelic—leaned toward concise, song-oriented forms; Blues for Allah was one of the first times the Dead successfully bridged the gap between the expansiveness of their concerts and the precision of studio recording. Having entered the recording process for Blues for Allah with no fixed compositions, the Dead emerged with one of their most adventurous and unusual records, full of jazz-inflected textures, Middle Eastern modal influences, and loose, exploratory structures. It was also the first full studio album to feature the return of drummer Mickey Hart, who had rejoined the band in 1974. His presence, along with the steady pulse of Bill Kreutzmann, gave the music a polyrhythmic foundation that pushed the Dead into new rhythmic territories.

The album opens with the ambitious triptych of "Help on the Way/Slipknot!" and "Franklin's Tower," a three-part suite that would become a live staple. "Help on the Way" introduces a sleek, jazzy groove with intricate guitar lines from Jerry Garcia and a sophisticated vocal arrangement, while "Slipknot!" is full of dissonance and shifting time signatures that resolve into the joyous release of "Franklin's Tower," whose circular melody and refrain of "If you get confused, listen to the music play" became an unofficial ethos for this period of the Dead's output. Other highlights include the upbeat "The Music Never Stopped," which features Donna Jean Godchaux's vocals, the languid, reggae-tinged "Crazy Fingers," and the complex instrumental workout, "King Solomon's Marbles." However, it's on the title suite that the Dead really go for broke; built on sparse instrumentation, modal improvisation, and chant-like vocals, the 12-minute track is meditative and a little bit creepy, and also one of the most overtly political songs in the band's catalog.

When the band finally returned to the road in the fall of 1975, the experience of making Blues for Allah deeply informed their live shows, and this expanded anniversary edition includes a selection of live performances highlighting how the Dead incorporated this jazzy approach into their sets. Soundcheck rehearsals from August 1975 find them working through "Sage & Spirit," and "Help On The Way/Slipknot!/Franklin's Tower," while excerpts from a stadium show in March 1975 includes embryonic renditions of "Blues for Allah." Meanwhile, a June '76 theater show was recorded as the band was well into their return to the road, and this reissue includes five Blues for Allah songs alongside "Dancing in the Streets" and "Eyes Of The World."

© Jason Ferguson/Qobuz