♪ Label: Rhino Records (Germany), 8122-74394-2
♪ Style: Psychedelic Rock, Acid Rock
♪ Country: Palo Alto, California, U.S.
♪ Time: 79:24
♪ Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
♪ Size: 503 Mb
This is a mildly surprising collection of music, essentially because it is so mellowed. The tunes are soft and gentle, the lyrics graciously decipherable, the vocals hesitant and wavering. There is a remarkable lack of harshly inflected rhythms and scalding guitar, for which the Dead have been so justly famed. Instead, Axoxomoxa is a wider application of the ideas we saw in Anthem of The Sun: long, dreamy ballads, occasionally interspersed with rock passages, but more often content to float their own ethereal way. Very different, a bit sadly, from the driving power of the first album. But this third one is a delight. It's filled with surreal (What's Become Of The Baby) and romantic visions (Mountains Of The Moon), rural whimsy and funk, and some great old blues (Dupree's Diamond Blues and Cosmic Charlie).
Somehow, the Grateful Dead have done the impossible. They've kept their standards in the face of white-hot pressures to change. Not only have they remained an intact musical unit, they've improved their skills and sharpened and adjusted their technique, all of which indicates that they have retained their sanity. I find that pretty amazing.
Heavily in debt, much of it from back taxes, seeing their community fall down around them, the Dead have willingly and happily played innumerable benefits and free concerts in the park (Golden Gate), because they love the music. When a human being takes this course of action, when he faces and withstands the demands to mold himself to the social main-current, concentrating only on the realization of his constructive ideas, you call him by one word: artist. The Dead are artists. They've ignored packaging trends, preferring to wrap their albums simply, without folding covers and other little goodies. They've made no media appearances, save for three, which I can remember: a KPIX special on the Haight, some two years ago; an Irving Penn photographic essay, titled "The Incredibles," in Look; and about 10 seconds on a CBS documentary of Bill Graham. The Grateful Dead are considered, very simply, poor commercial material and a sight from which the eyes of America's children must somehow be shielded.
(full version: deadsources.blogspot.com/2024/10/1969-aoxomoxoa-review.html)
01. St. Stephen (04:27)
02. Dupree's Diamond Blues (03:34)
03. Rosemary (02:00)
04. Doin' That Rag (04:44)
05. Mountains of the Moon (04:04)
06. China Cat Sunflower (03:42)
07. What's Become of the Baby (08:13)
08. Cosmic Charlie (05:44)
09. Clementine Jam (10:51)
10. Nobody's Spoonful Jam (10:09)
11. The Eleven Jam (15:05)
12. Cosmic Charlie [Live] (06:47)
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