Reckoning

It may interest "somebody" to know that, someone like me, who prefers DARK STAR(s) and usually chooses Dead CDs that feature long instrumental jams... absolutely LOVES Reckoning. The main thing I wish to mention is: the production quality here is VERY NOTICEABLY SUPERIOR to the original, single CD...that alone makes its purchase desirable. It's great that, while the music is acoustic, Phil Lesh still plays his electric bass...and it sounds great. CD #2 does have some tasty selections. The opening track, a "rehearsal" of To Lay Me Down, a song which can, at times, be a little dull, comes across (to me) as magical and is, now, the only version of that song I listen to. CD #2 also contains two instrumentals which are quite stunning. The last two tracks on CD 2, which are from 1978 and have somewhat less fidelity, are highlights too. Normally, the song Tom Dooley seems a bit trite when groups like the Kingston Trio perform it, but Tom Dooley here sounds surprisingly authentic & American-rootsy. Also, the final track, Deep Elem Blues, is the only version I've heard where Jerry solos on bluesy slide guitar...so it's also very enjoyable. OF COURSE the first CD is AN ULTIMATE CLASSIC...even though I sometimes program it for individual songs, every track on CD 1 is pure enchantment!

This CD summarizes a period of the Dead experience that is not as popular as some of their other work. However, this CD can show you a more beautiful side to the sound of the Grateful Dead than perhaps any other CD. There are so many beautiful moments on this CD that it will linger in your head far after it has finished playing. If you are a fan of the Dead you should no doubt pick up this CD and explore. There are pieces of the these songs that you have never heard in other versions. Queiter, yet more powerful, simply because they are so understated. "It Must Have Been The Roses" is the perfect example of the understated Dead song that perhaps shines brighter on this CD than any other version. The "Deep Hollow" has a groovy, shaking, supple beat that fits perfect in an acoustic arrangement. The "Ripple" is so poetic you might think you have never hear this song. Then there is the "Bird Song" that will cause you to never hear this song again - to hear an acoustic jam - a space open unlike many others in this song. Do not pass this CD up. It will be on of your favortie Dead CDs. If you are a fan of acoustic music you should not miss it either.

Excellent cd; essentially what would be the Grateful Dead’s “unplugged” album. Some really good songs are on this cd. My personal favorites are: monkey and the engineer, dire wolf, cassidy,Iko Iko, ripple, and the heaven help the fool jam. I’m a big Bobby fan and he is amazing on cassidy and monkey and the engineer. The whole band really plays well through out both discs. Overall one of my favorite dead cds. Can listen to it over and over again. Easiest way for me to explain the sound is folk-roots-dead. Makes me want to jam out around a campfire. For the price I paid I am very satisfied with this cd.

Loved it all- some rare inclusions on this album

This is gorgeous music. The first vinyl I bought would not play but skipped and was not getting it done so I returned it. I wanted it so bad that I ordered it again and for some reason the second copy was pristine and sounded beautiful. I love vinyl but it is quirky. Maybe one out of fifty is going to have an issue.

Gratefulm Dead's "Reckoning" album is seriously one of their finest ever releases! Must have. From the acoustic sets performed in October of 1980. Grateful Dead songs we all love performed in an "earthy" and "folksy" way with all of the soul that made the Dead the best band ever!! Get this album! Get for your head. Get it for your grandmother. Get it for your kid! Everyone loves this album. Classic.

This is what Jerry has always been all about _ I played a little with him in 1962-63 when he was nobody. I stayed a nobody and he didn't, which is the way life is. But this is the kind of stuff he did then and the kind of stuff he could always go back to. Obviously he expanded his repertoire in the next 30 years, but if you want to hear where a lot of the Dead classics come from, listen to this. These are the roots upon which he expanded into a genius. The best live Dead albums are this, Europe 72 and Dead Set, which contains a heartrending version of "Brokedown Palace.'' uneven but some brilliant sides. the American beauty-Workingman's Dead Duo and you don't need much more.

Good cd! Rekoning

A legendary album from a legendary Band and time. All those who had the honor to experience that period and music know,what I'm talking about. That album is like the essence of the beauty the Grateful Dead had to give. It sure is a legacy.

Molto efficace l'intreccio non elettrificato delle corde, lo swing che duetta col bluegrass e col jazz vero e proprio. Ottima prova, sia nella ripresa di vecchi brani che nell'invenzione di nuove fughe

This is a strangely unrepresentative recording, showing a side of the Dead that had little exposure, amazingly, given the hundreds of concerts they gave over the decades. I first heard "Reckoning" in the early 1980s on vinyl, and loved it long before I understood the band's main appeal - the long passages of electric weirdness. As other reviewers have said, these edited snippets come from a series of 1980 gigs when they briefly went back to the 1970 format, preceding the long electric set with a shorter acoustic one. The best known example of that era is the epic Harpur College concert of May 1970, preserved on Dick's Picks volume 8. But the playing in 1980 bears little resemblance to that of 1970. On "Reckoning",they aim to recreate elements their electric set but without electric guitars, and with Brent Mydland limited to piano and harpsichord. The result is strangely moving. As people have said before me, the versions of "Bird Song" and "China Doll" are hushed and intimate - and I've never heard better takes on either of those songs. "Bird Song", only recently restored to their sets, sounds as fresh as if its subject, Janis Joplin, had only just gone to her grave, while "China Doll" has the sound of a song at last fulfilling its potential. The same could almost be said of "Cassidy", here a rushing, tumbling ride, coming off the crest of Lesh's electric base to burst joyously into its final "flight of the seabirds". Even with all those wonderful "Cassidys" of 1976 and 1977, the "Reckoning" version remains the one I go back to. On top of that magical trio, there is a wonderful, whispering "It Must Have Been the Roses" and a beautiful "Ripple". Alongside these originals are the traditional numbers, including a tense, urgent take on "Jack-a-Roe", one of those folk songs that Garcia makes his own, whatever his limitations as a singer. But it's misleading to say that the Dead were "going back to their roots"; the sound is not primitive or sparse, and is certainly a long way from the sweetly ramshackle sound of 1970, when players seem to stop mid-solo to pass the joint. It's still a campfire sound, but full and warm, with all the intricacy you would expect of Garcia and Lesh in tandem, and not unlike the balance created for MTV Unplugged some years later. The remastering has added to its clarity, without taking anything away from its natural mute, a quietness that makes you lean in to listen. As an afterthought, I have to say that "Reckoning" is, to my ears, greatly preferable to the electric companion discs of "Dead Set", where the band sound - for the first time - simply slick. Tight is one thing - slick is another. As the decade wore on, they alternated between slickness and sloppiness, suffering also through their ageing repertoire. With the exception of the unfailingly mysterious "Althea", the relatively small number of new songs they wrote together after 1978 were inferior to the "Row Jimmys" and "Jack Straws" of the early 70s. Rather than vamping the blues - a job largely left to Bob Weir - or traipsing through Dylan, it's a shame they didn't make up the shortfall by adding in more American folk songs, and folk songs in general. "Reckoning" shows how that might have played out.

Si no te gusta Grateful Dead no sé que haces leyendo esta recomendación, si te gustan y no tienes el disco no sé que haces que no lo compras, no baja el cabrito del disco, pero es sencillamente una obra maestra.

Great album and the second disc makes it even better. Dark Hollow is a stand out along with Ripple.