Disco de Grateful Dead: “From the Mars Hotel”

Mars Hotel sticks out as one of the most interesting and imaginative, as well as best, Dead albums, veering at times from their country style. The lovely "Unbroken Chain" is perhaps their best song ever, as every instrument clicks to create a track of compelling beauty, and Jerry's melodic guitar is just as strong as in his more typical work. Another gem is "Scarlet Begonias," with its cool offbeat rhythms. "China Doll" is great psychedelia with harpsichordish overlays, and "Pride of Cucamonga" cruises with soft swagger. You don't need to be a Deadhead to appreciate Mars Hotel, which is for one and all.

MARS HOTEL illustrates all that was great and,furthermore,important about GARCIA,LESH,WEIR and co.

It unleashes a wealth of riches that has been known to leave many a listener struck down with open mouthed awe.

Kicking off with the boogie rock and roll of U.S BLUES featuring GARCIA'S deft ,meticulous guitar work a feature that permeates this whole joyous confection,the warm,delicate and intensly moving CHINA DOLL follows with its baroque feel and 'oh my' those harmonies in the finale .Listen and weep.

UNBROKEN CHAIN occupies another plateau altogether and is simply astonishing.It somehow personifies that whole DEAD,AIRPLANE,CSN,HAIGHT ASBURY scene in all its lush marvel.Warm with a hint of biblical imagery in the lyrics.

SCARLET BEGONIAS has an eccentric rythym that is both ingenious and infectious.LOOSE LUCY is the DEAD rocking out with fun.Delightfully playful.PRIDE OF CUCAMONGA reaffirms their country credentials and features GARCIA'S superb pedal steel.The wistful SHIP OF FOOLS with its captivating sing a long chorus exudes elegance.

Check into MARS HOTEL,believe me,you WONT want to leave.

This is one of my favorite Dead studio CDs. This along with Workingman's Dead, Anthem of the Sun, and American Beauty, is a great representation of how good studio Dead can be! These songs breathe life with each and every note played between the boys! My favorite songs are Unbroken Chain, China Doll, and Scarlet Begonias. If you love the Grateful Dead or you are just a curious listener, give Mars Hotel a shot!

"Unbroken Chain" is the best song that the Dead ever performed in the studio. Even though the tune's writer Phil Lesh, was reportedly somewhat dissatisified with it, I have always been astonished by its beauty and power. Technically fascinating passages are wrapped up in between angelic lyrical passages, and the overall effect is stunning. Unfortunately, Mars Hotel also features one of the Dead's worst offerings in "Money, Money", and the "Scarlet Begonias" has none of the power of the good live versions. Still, the playing and tone of the album are quite solid overall, and it is more than worth the price of admission for "Unbroken Chain" alone.

The Grateful Dead are truly maddening. It was obviously nearly impossible to capitalize on the sheer intensity and creativity these guys were capable of generating on the stage and stuffing it all into a tiny studio in an attempt to capture it on tape. Most of the Grateful Dead's catalog of studio releases fall between the range of downright awful to "not bad". Mars Hotel is one of the very few studio albums that rises above all that.

For those familiar with the list of material the Grateful Dead performed live, half of the tracks on this album were in regular rotation throughout most of their years. These are all very strong tracks. These would be U.S. Blues, China Doll, Scarlet Begonias, and Ship of Fools. Reviews could be written about each of these songs individually as they tend to be an amazing blend of all the genres the Dead grew up with and had merged into their own unique sound.

Of the lesser known four tracks, Unbroken Chain is thought of among "heads" to be possibly one of, if not their best song ever. It's certainly an 11 on the scale for complexity, which is the main reason they refused to play it in concert for so many years. Loose Lucy, Pride of Cucamonga, and Money Money are all good enough songs in and of themselves, but tend to detract somewhat from the overall mood of the album. Specifically, Pride is an overt attempt at a country tune. While the Grateful Dead are extremely adept at Country-influenced music (see American Beauty for prime examples of their genious blend of Country, Blues, etc.), Pride just seems to go overboard and ruin the feel set in place by China Doll, Unbroken Chain, and Scarlet Begonias.

The other somewhat frustrating fact about the Grateful Dead is that they reinvented themselves so many times over the years, it's impossible to say "If you want one album to expose yourself to the Grateful Dead, try this one". There is no way to "experience" the Grateful Dead that way. Mars Hotel fits nicely into their early-'70s material, primarily influenced by improv-jazz (a la Wake of the Flood).

Short of resorting to their later work such as "In The Dark" where their studio releases and live performances diverged far less, this album most closely resembles what the Dead were accomplishing night after night on the road. If you intended to have one Grateful Dead CD in your collection, this would be a great choice.