Description
The Grateful Dead – Wake Of The Flood (LP)
Label: Grateful Dead Records – GD-01
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Released: 15 Oct 1973
Artwork [Cover, Labels] – Rick Griffin
Tracklist:
A1 Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo 5:42
A2 Let Me Sing Your Blues Away 3:15
A3 Row Jimmy 7:11
A4 Stella Blue 6:22
B1 Here Comes Sunshine 4:37
B2 Eyes Of The World 5:16
Weather Report Suite
B3a Prelude
B3b Part I 5:36
B3c Part II (Let It Grow) 7:05
Notes:
This release is a label variant where “WAKE OF THE FLOOD” is broken into two lines on the label with “FLOOD” below “WAKE OF THE”.
℗ © 1973 Grateful Dead Records
Vinyl and Cover in good condition. Address stamp on one side of the label and inside the cover. With generic inner sleeve. Laminated sleeve with sello-tape and a large split at the bottom. See photo’s for details.
Reviews:
+++++++++++++ This LP was made incredibly quickly-just two months from beginning recording to the release-and every aspect of production, manufacture and distribution was handled under the eagle eye of quality-conscious Grateful Dead personal. Recorded, mixed and mastered in Sausalito, Marin County, and is being pressed to weigh exactly 128 grams which is heavier than an average album and provides better reproduction. Three pressing plants were used…Even the artwork on the cover has hidden qualities; hold it in front of you and turn it 45 degrees anti clock-wise. Then look at the cloud in the picture +++++++++++++
nr. 1 …. Musically, this is the goods as usual, with WAKE OF THE FLOOD sounding excellent, as it does in any format. And in musical terms, WAKE and BLUES FOR ALLAH are two of the best Dead sets around. RECORD COLLECTOR, 4/90
nr. 2 …A terrible letdown after the likes of WORKINGMAN’S DEAD and AMERICAN BEAUTY, continuing as it does those albums’ country-rock approach, but with little conviction. The Hunter-Garcia songwriting partnership that effected the group’s transition from jamming band to song band is here working with neither rigout nor direction, and their aimlessness is faithfully mirrored in the group’s performances, the lack of instrumental colour and the doped-sloth tempos: If the seven minute ROW JIMMY and the six minute STELLA BLUE were any slower, they’de be in reverse gear. And if EYES OF THE WORLD-the best thing here, by a country rock mile-sees them almost making it as a pop band, Keith Godchaux’s apalling LET ME SING YOUR BLUES AWAY signals a complete breakdown in the Dead’s already shaky quality control department. * ANDY GILL, Q MAGAZINE
nr. 3 Armed with their own label, the band set sale to create the kind of product that they would feel proud to have nailed to the mast. The first of these was the astonishing WAKE OF THE FLOOD, an almost mesmeric experience that was housed in Rick Griffin’s beautiful biblical cover. The pace of WAKE was uncluttered, simple and leisurely with such songs as STELLA BLUE providing the necessary muscle to punch home. Moaned about at the time, today WAKE’s sounds like one of the best records ever made! rating: 9 Edwin Pouncey, New Musical Express, 25/3/89
nr. 4 Produktie en geluidskwaliteit zijn voortreffelijk, maar ondanks prachtige momenten mist de plaat als geheel de power, de overtuigingskracht van vroegere studioplaten. Jerry Garcia is als componist een beetje op dood spoor geraakt, een krappe zege. OOR, NOVEMBER 1973
nr. 5 Albeit, well recorded, actually a quiet weak album. EYES OF THE WORLD is a gem, but the rest of the album is slow and uneventful, pastorally paced to the point of being leaden at times. GOLDMINE, JULY 1987
nr. 6 Capturing that ruminative, seemingly aimless part of the concert when the boogiers nod out, which doesn’t mean nothing is going on-what do boogiers know by now? Musically, this is a deceptively demanding combination of AMERICAN BEAUTY and AOXOMOXOA, sweet tunes mined for structure and texture-including good fiddle, which figures, and good horns, which doesn’t. But the lyrics are more of the old karma-go-round, with barely a hook phrase to come away with. I remember Robert Hunter when he was making up American myths. Original grade: B+, rating: B- ROBERT CRISTGAU, ROCK ALBUMS OF THE 70’S, VERMILION 1982
nr. 7 The band’s debut on their own label is a personal favourite, though I know many Deadheads who think it’s a little on the feeble side. I love the songs: MISSISSIPI HALF STEP TOODELOO is Hunter and Garcia at their playful best; WEATHER REPORT SUITE is the strongest of Weir’s early serious compositions; HERE COMES SUNSHINE is a melodic delight; STELLA BLUE perhaps the group’s most affecting ballad; and EYES OF THE WORLD is wonderfully played, with Lesh in particular, shining. Even the weak spots are well performed. **** BLAIR JACKSON, THE MUSIC NEVER STOPPED, PLEXUS
nr. 8 The DeaD are worshiped for their image as hip pratiarchs, which means that as long as Jerry Garcia has that acid twinkle in his eye, he’ ll never have to worry about his pedestrian set of chops. rating: * DAVE MARSH, R.S. RECORD GUIDE
nr. 9 Many of the songs on the album, which was snapped up by eager Deadheads, are variations on the theme of breaking away and starting afresh. There are also numerous references to crossing rivers, and of course to floods, both biblical and real. Side one slowly builds up, and has the only Keith Godchaux’s lead vocal. A mournful ROW JIMMY, struggling against a rising tide of lameness. The lovely STELLA BLUE, a song that “just popped out full grown”. On side two is an uplifting EYES, with its sparkling guitars and optimistic lyrics. Bob Weir is in fine voice on his impressive contribution, the side-ending WEATHER REPORT, with some energetic horn work by Martin Fierro. JAMIE JENSEN, BUILT TO LAST
nr. 10 What an album! Five beautiful Garcia/Hunter compositions, including one absolute killer of a song called HERE COMES SUNSHINE plus the added attraction of Doug Sahm on twelve string guitar and Vassar Clements on violin. The rest of the additional instruments (ex-Doug Sahm’s El Quintet members Martin Fierro and Frank Morin) blends in perfectly with the music, which retains in every ounce that Grateful Dead “feel”, yet is continually expanding and becoming more sophisticated. Put the record on and enjoy what is at the very least one of the best ten albums released sofar this year. ANDY CHILDS, ZIG ZAG Magazine
nr. 11 Wake Of The Flood – GD (Grateful Dead GD 01) Released on November 15, 1973. Early releases had a sticker on the back shrinkwrap listing the additional artists playing on the record. “Weather Report Suite, Part I” was co-written by Bob Weir and Eric Andersen when Andersen was living in Mill Valley, CA. “Stella Blue” was written by Hunter while the band was staying at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City. Before “Here Comes Sunshine”‘s second chorus, one can faintly hear several band members talking. I . W. Slabicky 1993
