The original 1972 LP featured most of the Grateful Dead members, and the new bonus live version recaptures the energy of that classic.
Author: Jeff Burger
Jeff Burger
Jeff Burger's website, byjeffburger.com, contains more than four decades' worth of music reviews and commentary. His books include the recently published Dylan on Dylan: Interviews and Encounters as well as Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon, Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters, and Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters.
Along with ‘Hot Rats,’ the recordings in this box underscore Zappa’s strengths as a jazz-rock fusion composer, arranger and bandleader.
Six years removed from their last big hit, the group was unsure how to move forward. A new collection focuses on what they came up with.
Though the group would begin to splinter less than a year after the Royal Albert Hall show, you’d never know it from that performance.
Some of the recordings (especially many of the concert tracks) are as good as—or arguably even better than—the familiar ones.
The new album—more a heartfelt tribute to the music Springsteen grew up with than an attempt to reinvent it—is a home run.
Throughout the well-recorded album, which draws from their first three albums, the guitar pyrotechnics range from excellent to astonishing.
In his best moments, Axl Rose sings up a storm and is a compelling stage presence. And the rest of the band is on fire.
At least half of its songs are recognized as Dead classics: “Box of Rain,” “Friend of the Devil,” “Sugar Magnolia,” “Truckin’” and “Ripple.”
Performing in the city of his birth to more than 50,000 admirers, Joel exudes a sense of triumph and validation—and understandably so.