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The Grateful Dead’s "American Beauty"

Bastien

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Posts: 35819

Bastien @ 2016-03-14 20:15:02 UTC

American Beauty , along with its predecessor Workingman's Dead , was changing rock and roll. The Grateful Dead 's fusion of rock, folk, bluegrass, and country was creating an exciting new sound that had traditionalists scratching their heads and music lovers dancing in the streets. One episode of Freaks and Geeks featured a character named Deadhead Laurie, and she put it perfectly: "I wish I never heard (American Beauty) just so I could hear it again for the first time."


Hard copies of American Beauty are usually worn out and mangled, due to excessive listening. The all-time classic is an embarrassment of riches, chock-full of scripture-esque tracks, and is still recruiting new generations of Deadheads to this day. It's beautiful, joyous, sad, reflective, and inspiring. American Beauty dominated the summer and fall of 1970 and remains loved and revered nearly half a century later. These ten covers of its songs prove it - some hold the originals in awe, some forge their own special path, and all of them are very much alive.



Susanna Hoffs' elven rasp and Matthew Sweet's chill vocals and groovy guitar more than capture the infectious spirit of "Sugar Magnolia," arguably the happiest song ever written.



Originally a member of Jefferson Airplane (studio-mates of the Dead during the making of American Beauty) and now a prominent and thriving figure in the bluegrass community, Jorma Kaukonen brings his teflon cool persona and takes on the wonky and hooky "Operator" and transforms it into a soulful bluegrass hootenanny.


Discover the 8 other covers on CoverMe.


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