American Beauty

About

The Grateful Dead spent the late '60s establishing themselves as kings of psychedelic jamming, but they made a drastic detour starting with 1970's concise, rootsy <i>Workingman's Dead</i>. Later the same year, <i>American Beauty</i> proved the move was more than a one-off dalliance. Like its predecessor, it took the blue, folk, and country sounds that had always been part of the band's foundation and put them at the forefront. In the proce, the album helped usher in the "back to the land" roots-rock movement that found America rebounding from the 1960s' psychedelic fireworks to something that felt simpler and steadier. <i>American Beauty</i> also birthed the band's biggest single to date (and the biggest until “Touch of Gray,” 16 years later): the streetwise boogie travelogue "Truckin'." In just 43 minute, this compact and hugely influential LP brought to being some of the band's—and rock ‘n’ roll’s—most celebrated song, tracks that would become classic-rock standards and mainstays of the Dead's repertoire. .

via Apple Music

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