Grateful Dead - Blues For Allah (2019) 1975

Blues for Allah is the eighth studio album by the Grateful Dead. It was recorded February 27 – May 7, 1975, and released September 1, 1975. It was the band’s third album on their own Grateful Dead Records label and their third studio album in a row. Though it has not received RIAA certification as of 2020, Blues for Allah was the group’s highest-charting album until 1987’s In the Dark, reaching No. 12 during a thirteen-week stay on the Billboard Album Chart.

Allmusic Review

The Grateful Dead went into a state of latent activity in the fall of 1974 that lasted until the spring of the following year when the band reconvened at guitarist/vocalist Bob Weir’s Ace Studios to record Blues for Allah. The disc was likewise the third to be issued on their own Grateful Dead Records label. When the LP hit shelves in September of 1975, the Dead were still not back on the road — although they had played a few gigs throughout San Francisco. Obviously, the time off had done the band worlds of good, as Blues for Allah — more than any past or future studio album — captures the Dead at their most natural and inspired. The opening combo of “Help on the Way,” “Slipknot!,” and “Franklin’s Tower” is a multifaceted suite, owing as much to Miles Davis circa the E.S.P. album as to anything the Grateful Dead had been associated with. “Slipknot!” contains chord changes, progressions, and time signatures which become musical riddles for the band to solve — which they do in the form of “Franklin’s Tower.” Another highly evolved piece is the rarely performed “King Solomon’s Marbles,” an instrumental that spotlights, among other things, Keith Godchaux’s tastefully unrestrained Fender Rhodes finger work displaying more than just a tinge of Herbie Hancock inspiration. These more aggressive works contrast the delicate musical and lyrical haiku on “Crazy Fingers” containing some of lyricist Robert Hunter’s finest and most beautifully arranged verbal images for the band. Weir’s guitar solo in “Sage & Spirit” is based on one of his warm-up fingering exercises. Without a doubt, this is one of Weir’s finest moments. The light acoustic melody is tinged with an equally beautiful arrangement. While there is definite merit in Blues for Allah’s title suite, the subdued chant-like vocals and meandering melody seems incongruous when compared to the remainder of this thoroughly solid effort.
Meticulously Mastered from the Original Master Tapes: Limited to 2,500 Numbered Copies, Hybrid SACD Features Sublime Dynamics, Clarity, Detail, and Presence

"If you get confused, listen to the music play," counsels Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia on Blues for Allah. Surely, better advice has never been given. The band's only release during a self-imposed hiatus that lasted nearly 20 months, and the effort that witnessed the welcome return of percussionist Mickey Hart, the 1975 album marks the rebirth of a signature naturalism, spiritualism, and energy that had begun to fray because of ceaseless touring and financial pressures. And as experienced on this audiophile-caliber reissue, such inspired élan and elevated performance facets – embraced literally and figuratively on Bob Weir's hallmark "The Music Never Stopped" anthem – achieve transcendent heights.
Mastered from the original master tapes and strictly limited to 2,500 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's hybrid SACD possesses seemingly limitless dynamics, reference-grade presence, expansive soundstages, crystalline transparency, and a wealth of previously obscured information. Strongly informed by jazz themes and organic progressions, the album's arrangements unfold as a series of interlocking puzzle pieces that, together, comprise an adventurous landscape informed by compound structures, angelic harmonies, chiming tones, and brilliant colors. Every member's vocals resound with tube-like clarity and remain entirely free of artificial ceilings or unintended blurring.
The peerless transparency is reinforced by the chirping crickets on the title track, reggae-flecked crispness of "Crazy Fingers," and spinning-plate-on-a-stick rhythmic voodoo cast throughout by drummer Bill Kreutzmann. Recorded at Weir's intimate Ace Studios, Blues for Allah depicts the Grateful Dead returning to its collaborative roots: Entering the sessions with no preconceived ideas and letting inspiration move them brightly, resulting in improvised-meets-rehearsed compositions replete with varying time signatures, Middle Eastern motifs, and elegant scales. More than any other Grateful Dead studio record, Blues for Allah combines the ensemble's trademark exuberance with exacting precision and instrumental luster.
Aside from Phillip Garris' iconic, award-winning cover art dubbed "The Fidder," nothing illustrates the album's cosmic magic to the hair-raising extent of the album-closing "Blues for Allah" suite. A requiem, dirge, call to harmony, and plea for peace, the atonal closing track remains a subtle albeit universal statement about the importance of unity and the destruction that comes with war, division, and conflict. Delivered via Robert Hunter's poetic lyrics and the band's mesmerizing playing, the messages and prayerfulness resonate with as much – if not more – depth today than they did decades ago. Try not to lose yourself in the repeated refrains, Garcia's guitar arpeggios, or the invitation to twirl led by Keith Godchaux's graceful piano.
Of course, much of Blues for Allah is itself a dance goosed by a flurry of beautiful fusion devices and quicksilver melodies. Witness the taut "Crazy Fingers" – a series of haiku – or the knotty medley "Help on the Way/Slipknot!/Franklin's Tower," an exercise in controlled flow, urgent purpose, and, finally, liberating relief that remained a live staple from the moment it was introduced onstage. Not to be outdone, the wordless and acoustic-based "Sage & Spirit" feels the way its name sounds while the acid-jazz twists of "King Solomon's Marbles" swing via Phil Lesh's power-line-thick bass notes.
A soul-nourishing salve, Blues for Allah enchants with equal parts mysticism and reality, imagination and common sense. Rolling Stone scribe David Fricke insightfully deemed it a way to "shake away the darkness" and head "back to the light." Let it shine on brighter than ever via Mobile Fidelity's superb SACD reissue.