Vintage Dead was how the Grateful Dead sounded in 1966. Not good. This was their first studio record, and it was excellent. Much of this is catchy pop music. The organ riff in Cold Rain and Snow sounds a bit like the little tunes to play when warming up, but I can dance to it—it works. In Sittin’ on Top of the World I can’t tell if the singer has figured out that his baby has left and he’s going to suffer. Maybe it’s denial, maybe he’s too high to care, but it is a bouncy little song. The lyrics in Cream Puff War sound serious—you’re killing each other’s souls– but by the end the Just Kidding flag is flying—go somewhere else to fight your cream puff war. The Golden Road to Unlimited Devotion might be spiritual, maybe, but it is about getting high and dancing barefoot. The New, New Minglewood Blues has a line I know I’ve heard before—my number one occupation is stealing women from their men—but I can’t find it in any rock song older than this.
A big improvement from Vintage Dead was not to give Pigpen 20 minutes to run Midnight Hour into the ground. He did a good job in six minutes on Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl. The bluesmen such as Junior Wells and Muddy Waters who did the song played it straight. They didn’t want to sound sexy when addressing a school girl. Man, Pigpen went the full Humbert Humbert on this version. The way he sang I want to put a tiger in your sweet little tank still sounds creepy.
converselyspeaking 