By 1980, The Grateful Dead were having an identity crisis. The psychedelic \u201860s were long gone, and with it went the security of knowing their music would fit into any musical scene. Add into this the departure of Keith and Donna Godchaux in early 1979, and you had a band on the ropes.<\/p>\n
Enter Brent Mydland, a keyboardist who had worked with guitarist\/vocalist Bob Weir. The first effort with Mydland at the keys and vocals, Go To Heaven<\/i>, is by no means a great album, but was a step better than their previous effort.<\/p>\n
Right off the bat, Mydland proved that his presence was one that was going to be reckoned with. Not only was he not afraid to use all types of keyboards (Keith Godchaux had limited himself to the acoustic piano, for the most part), but he was a good songwriter in his own right and had a unique vocal style of his own. The fact that on his debut with The Dead he sang two songs, \u201cFar From Me\u201d and \u201cEasy To Love You,\u201d doubled his predecessor\u2019s output.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t to say that he immediately righted the ship of The Dead. \u201cEasy To Love You\u201d is a bit of a throwaway song, and while \u201cFar From Me\u201d is a good effort, Mydland still was learning the ropes with The Dead and coming into his own voice, something that he wouldn\u2019t reach until the band\u2019s final two studio albums.<\/p>\n
But his contributions to the keys and backing vocals were one of the reasons that Go To Heaven<\/i> was a small step in the right direction for The Dead. \u201cFeel Like A Stranger\u201d is possibly one of the more underrated songs from this period in their history (despite being a fan favorite live), and showed the doubters that The Grateful Dead still could make relevant music at the dawn of a new decade and 15 years into their own career.<\/p>\n
Likewise, while I\u2019ll admit that \u201cAlabama Getaway\u201d is a lesser single in The Dead\u2019s catalog, it isn\u2019t the 20-megaton bomb that some might make it out to be. It\u2019s an upbeat number featuring some solid guitar and vocal work by Jerry Garcia that, in retrospect, turns out to be somewhat enjoyable.<\/p>\n
If only the remainder of Go To Heaven<\/i> continued with this promise. Garcia\u2019s reliance on slow, plodding ballads continues with \u201cAlthea,\u201d one of the sleepiest songs he had done in a while (which is saying something). And I can\u2019t say I\u2019ve ever discovered what was so magical about \u201cLost Sailor\u201d and \u201cSaint Of Circumstance,\u201d two Weir-penned songs that became interlaced in live shows much like \u201cChina Cat Sunflower\u201d and \u201cI Know You Rider.\u201d They\u2019re not terrible, mind you\u2026they\u2019re just nothing special. Throw in another interlude from drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart (\u201cAntwerp\u2019s Placebo,\u201d a whole 38 seconds\u2019 worth) and another nod to their early days with a modern-day take on \u201cDon\u2019t Ease Me In,\u201d and you have the last studio material The Dead would bring out for seven years.<\/p>\n
The reissue of this disc \u2013 originally part of the Beyond Description<\/i> box set \u2013 doesn\u2019t add anything special to the mix. Another slow Garcia-vocal ballad of \u201cPeggy-O,\u201d another track that got a lot of mileage live, is featured, as are an early studio version of \u201cJack-A-Roe\u201d (which was much livelier when played live) and the previously unreleased \u201cWhat\u2019ll You Raise\u201d\u2026which leaves a lot to be desired. Throw in a handful of live tracks (\u201cAlthea,\u201d \u201cLost Sailor,\u201d and \u201cSaint Of Circumstance\u201d) for good measure, and there\u2019s your finished product.<\/p>\n
Like Shakedown Street<\/i> before it, Go To Heaven<\/i> is not a very cohesive effort from The Grateful Dead, but it did suggest that the band was moving in the right direction, albeit slowly. Pity that it would be near the other side of the decade before the band graced listeners with new studio material.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5668],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-42023","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-grateful-dead","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42023"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}