Grateful Dead In The Dark CD

The great comeback album, or at least an album that no deadhead expected at this stage in their career. Garcia had been seriously ill for some time, and was not expected to recover. Suddenly, a new studio album was announced, as a seemingly fit Garcia started to tour and was reputedly appalled when they had a huge hit single with the autobiographical "Touch Of Grey." Other strong tracks are Weir's "Hell In A Bucket" and the magnificent "Black Muddy River" written by Garcia and Hunter.

The Grateful Dead's last lineup returned intact for In the Dark, an album that ironically thrust the band back into the spotlight on the strength of the band's lone Top 40 single, "Touch of Grey." Fans had long mused that the Dead's studio albums lacked the easygoing energy and natural flow of their live performances, and In the Dark does come close to capturing that lightning in a bottle. Jerry Garcia, who apparently had to relearn the guitar after a near-fatal illness, approaches his instrument recharged, while his voice (a beneficiary of the extended hiatus?) shows some of its original smoothness. Of his four songwriting collaborations with long-standing lyricist Robert Hunter, "Touch of Grey" is far and away the best. "When Push Comes to Shove" and "West L.A. Fadeaway" use familiar blues-based riffs that lack the pair's often-contagious chemistry, and "Black Muddy River" has one foot firmly stuck in mawkish MOR terrain (although Garcia can be dealt a free pass here in light of the song's real-life implications as an attempt to make his peace with the world). What pushes In the Dark past the band's also-rans are two terrific songs from Bob Weir and John Barlow, the cheerfully cranky "Hell in a Bucket" (co-written with Brent Mydland) and the cautionary tale "Throwing Stones." Rarely have Weir's songs sounded so effortless; punctuated by Garcia's guitar, they have more in common with the upbeat, flavorful sound of past Garcia/Hunter compositions than the pair's own work this time out (a rare case of role reversal). In the middle of it all is a country-rock song from Mydland, "Tons of Steel," that sounds oddly out of place. Although the album is unmistakable as the work of the Dead, much of it recalls the punchy, pungent production of Dire Straits' recent work. It's not the second coming of the Dead, but a more entertaining epilogue you couldn't ask for. [In 2004, Rhino released a remastered, expanded edition of In the Dark as part of the exhaustive 12-disc box Beyond Description (1973-1989); in 2006, this expanded CD was released separately. The expanded disc contained six bonus tracks: the non-LP B-side "My Brother Esau," an alternate version of "West L.A. Fadeaway" from 1984, a live version of "Throwing Stones," plus studio rehearsals of "Black Muddy River," "When Push Comes to Shove," and "Touch of Grey."] ~ Dave Connolly

Recorded at Marin Veterans Auditorium and Club Front Studios, San Rafael, California.

Grateful Dead: Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir, Brent Mydland.

Personnel: Bob Bralove (programming).

Audio Mixer: Tom Flye.

Liner Note Author: Dennis McNally.

Recording information: Club Front, San Rafael, CA; Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, CA; Marin Veterans Auditorium, San Rafael, CA; Schaefer Stadium, Foxboro, MA.

Photographers: Susana Millman; Herbert Greene; John Werner ; Herbie Green.

Unknown Contributor Role: Margaret Fabrizio.

The Grateful Dead: Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir (vocals, guitar); Brent Mydland (vocals, keyboards); Phil Lesh (bass, background vocals); Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann (drums, percussion).

Additional personnel: Bob Bralove (programming, effects).

Mojo (Publisher) (p.153) - "Following Garcia's near-death diabetic coma in summer 1986, this was a rejuvenated band....After 'Touch Of Grey' gave them their first Top 10 hit...it also projected the Dead to a wider, younger audience."