[rating=9.00]
As the first notes of “Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks” pan back and forth in the stereo spectrum, this four CD set cull from the latest Grateful Dead archive gargantua, Thirty Trips Around the Sun, gets off to a rousing start. The lone studio track (appearing on a gold 7-in vinyl 45 in the limited edition of eighty discs or USB), within a collection of tracks from each of the thirty shows included in the larger set, gives way to an elevating intensity Jerry Garcia ratchets up even further as he leads the headlong charge of the band on concert cuts from 1966 and 1967: “Cream Puff War” and “Viola Lee Blues.” And by the time those cuts end, the thought arises that this career-spanning collection stands as something like a chronicle of contemporary rock and roll as much as homage to what’s arguably its most enduring band.
Hyperbole perhaps, but casting aside stereotypes and preconceptions about the Grateful Dead reveals an appetite for musical eclecticism none of their peers (and arguably none of their descendants) embraced so fully and earnestly. The band further freshened their inimitable permutations of folk, blues, country and rock through arguably the most literate lyricist rock has ever known, Robert Hunter. Hunter, whose command of language distinguishes the Dead canon of original material in such a way their material itself is as notable in its own way as the idiosyncratic approach to improvisation that appears in this handsomely efficient package with a “Dark Star” from the Greek Theatre in 1968. Not just embroidered on as temporary decorations to maintain some semblance of au courant fashion, the band integrated durable threads of jazz jamming, classical composition and electronic music within performances all the way from the early staple “Morning Dew” to the latter-day magnum opus “Let It Grow.”
Mention of famous tunes in well-known venues may not be any more of a surprise here than the supreme clarity of sound emanating from recordings (again) mastered so expertly by engineer Jeffrey Norman. Nor is the appearance of material, such as early warhorses or “Bird Song,” so inextricably intertwined with Grateful Dead history through the many other archival releases official and unofficial (though the absence of much 1973/4/5 material is a bit odd). The multiple and profound means by which this band inspired themselves over the years, had roots in an abiding desire for musical exploration and experimentation that took the form of adding Mickey Hart as a second drummer as well as professional initiatives like their own record label and the legendary Wall of Sound, a logical extension of which is an project as extensive and excellent on every front as this one as it follows in the footsteps of Europe ’72: The Complete Recordings or Spring 1990: Volume One/The Other One.
Rough edges have all but been smoothed by the appearance of a certifiably rare number called “The Rub” (sly earthy Pigpen at his best) from 1971 which is juxtaposed with “Tomorrow is Forever, ” a cover of a Dolly Parton song where Garcia duets with Donna Jean Godchaux; there hasn’t been a Dead title like this that hasn’t contained some similar revelation, but that ongoing theme is yet another reaffirmation/reflection of the way the group continuously surprised their audiences.
While Thirty Trips may not have been sequenced to simulate the logical flow and momentum of a show, moving through it from start to finish suggests just that kind of momentum, even so far as it extends throughout the arc of the history of Grateful Dead’s performing history of three decades. David Lemieux and company don’t need to belabor the (relative)low points of that continuum, but only to elucidate the growth of the band as musicians and songwriters in the span of time from 1973’s “Here Comes Sunshine” to 1982’s “Feel Like A Stranger”then on to 1992’s “So Many Roads.” Still, the juxtaposition of “Comes A time” from 1986 and “Morning Dew” from the very next year, is as clearly illuminating as can be about the up and down of Garcia’s life in and out of the band. As valiant, as he sounds on the former, he is full of gusto, though like the whole band on the final disc, slightly faltering on the latter.
The Definitive Live Story 1965-1995 might well have ended on those notes, as did the Grateful Dead’s performing career, with their titular leader’s death. But as post-passing activities have shown, much as this set also demonstrates, the greatest anthologies often have a life of their very own as vibrant as the tale of the band they depict. While it may very well arguable to describe Thirty Trips Around the Sun as either definitive or exhaustive (even in its larger forms), when its conclusion arrives with Bob Dylan’s “Visions of Johanna,” it’s impossible to avoid thinking of the lyrics from 1970’s Workingman’s Dead: ‘….see how everything leads up to this day.’
