CD Review - "Garcia Plays Dylan"

Over the years, the Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia's other endeavors -- Legion of Mary, Jerry Garcia Band, Jerry Garcia & Merl Saunders -- recorded or performed covers of dozens of songs written by Bob Dylan. A representative sampling of them has been compiled in the two-CD set, Garcia Plays Dylan, featuring previously unreleased live performances, remastered in HDCD.

On the surface, they seem an unlikely pair: the smiling, optimistic Jerry Garcia, and the sullen, brooding Bob Dylan. When it came to music, they might as well have been born brothers. Through music, they developed a strong and enduring bond.

Dylan toured with the Dead in 1986 and 1987 and made a half dozen appearances with them again in 1995. Performances recorded during the 1987 tour resulted in the Dylan and the Dead album.

In a 1991 interview, Garcia said of Dylan, "He gave rock 'n' roll the thing I'd wished it had when I was a kid -- respectability, some authority. He took it out of the realm of ignorant guys banging away on electric instruments and put it somewhere else altogether."

After Garcia's death in 1995, Dylan said, "There's no way to measure his greatness as a person or player. He really has no equal. There's no way to convey the loss. It just digs down really deep."

Because the tracks on Garcia Plays Dylan are all live performances, recorded as early as 1973 and as late as 1995, in venues ranging from small clubs to a football stadium, the audio quality varies quite a bit from song to song. This is noticeable, but because of the historical significance of this fusion of rock legends, the technical inconsistencies are easily tolerable.

With these songs concentrated in this one package, it's easy to see why Garcia was considered one of the best interpreters of Dylan's lyrics. The personal bond between the two is evident in the emotions Garcia brings to his renditions.

This set is both collectible and listenable, providing as it does a sense of what happened when two of the most significant musical influences of the 20th century merged.

1. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry -- Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
2. Tough Mama -- Jerry Garcia Band
3. Positively 4th Street -- Jerry Garcia Band
4. Wicked Messenger -- Legions of Mary
5. Knockin' On Heaven's Door -- Jerry Garcia Band
6. Simple Twist of Fate -- Jerry Gacia Band
7. I Shall Be Released -- Jerry Garcia Band
8. When I Paint My Masterpiece -- Jerry Garcia Band
9. She Belongs To Me -- Grateful Dead
10. Forever Young -- Jerry Garcia Band
11. Tangled Up in Blue -- Jerry Garcia Band
12. Senor (Tales of Yankee Power) -- Jerry Garcia Band
13. Visions of Johanna -- Grateful Dead
14. Mighty Quinn (Quinn, The Eskimo) -- Grateful Dead
15. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue -- Grateful Dead