Grateful Dead-Wake Of The Flood (1973)

 

Artist: Grateful Dead

Title: Wake of the Flood

Label: Grateful Dead Records

Format: LP

Cat #: GD-01

Year of Release: 1973

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1973

Sold Price: $12.99

Listed Condition: VG+/VG clipped upper left corner

Sell Date: 11/10/20

Discogs Last Sold: 8/22/20

Low: $7.88

Median: $14.95

High: $20.00

Current low price: $16.00 VG+

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 4

Have/Want: 125/103

Where Sold: Fernandina Beach, FL

Time it took to sell: 3 years

Where and When Bought: Worcester, MA That's Entertainment $5.99 used early to mid 80's

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A-

Sad To See It Go?: No

I had a complete vinyl collection of the Dead up through the Dead Set/Reckoning period, liked In The Dark in the CD era, then dropped out for Built To Last and the Hornsby live years.  I probably got a few boots and a couple Dick's Picks along the way also, and saw them live around 10 times, mostly in Worcester when I was in High School, but also Foxboro with Dylan headlining 4th of July in '87 and Giants Stadium with Dylan forced to open a month before Jerry died.

I wouldn't say I'm a "dead head," but I like the Dead fine.  I view their release periods split up by eras: the studio peak Warner years, the "indie years," the Arista years "pre-coma," Arista "post-coma" and everything released after Jerry died.  

Wake Of The Flood is the first of the "indie years": Grateful Dead Records, which released 3 studio albums and a live double, before being resurrected for the endless live Dick's Picks reissues.  In the mid 80's I saw the Dead pre-coma two nights back-to-back in '84 and dutifully collected their discography, as I was accustomed to doing.  The Grateful Dead mid-70's albums were hard to find.  I got From The Mars Hotel in the early CD years as a Original Fidelity Master, I found Blues For Allah at Al Bums in Worcester used at a generic used price, and in my first year of school in Boston, a street seller sold me Steal Your Face double for $2 in very nice shape.  I remember excitedly finding Wake Of The Flood at That's Entertainment in Worcester for the "elevated" price of $5.99 (they rarely rose above $2.99 unless it was a rare piece).  I played it once, thought it was a mid-level Dead album and filed it away, never to hear it again start to finish.

Until today.  Somehow most of these songs have found their way into my memory banks.  Most of them were live staples before this was released.   The thing that I immediately noticed as there isn't the production glop you might find in the Arista years.  I love Terrapin Station but some of the sound is heavy handed.  I have various reasons for preferring Terrapin to Wake overall.  The material is better.  The Dead were right for taking over their production (although United Artists was their distro, so not independent in the truest sense.  UA got this in the top 20 on Billboard, so they didn't really lose any sales ability until it was time for catalog sales.  Save for the occasional horns and George Harrison-style guitar effect, this is fairly stripped down for a 1973 rock production.  This was by design, as they started their own label for creative freedom, before they got sick of label business and went to Arista.

"Eyes Of The World" has always been one of my favorite Dead tracks on live versions I've heard passively over the years, and listening to this album in headphones start to finish was overall enjoyable for me.  The epics, while a bit ponderous, I appreciate.  Jerry's "Stella Blue" has a nice buildup and Weir's work in "Weather Report Suite" make for a dueling concept of sorts.  The side openers "Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo" and "Here Comes Sunshine" are also baseline live staples.  Keith & Donna Godchaux replaced Pigpen, so blues, grit, balls and notorious alcoholism were replaced with jazzier keyboards, hippy chick background vocals, and more notorious alcoholism.  The single was his (aided by Hunter), "Let Me Sing Your Blues Away," but it was not a hit either with the bands live set (only played 6 times), or Billboard (non charting).    A different deal going down.  

Revisiting the era thing, a more accurate timeline divider are the keyboard players, which more or less dovetails with my psychological Dead timeline breakdown, give or take an album or year.

Again, I am fine with the Dead.