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Sep 23, 2025 Web Exclusive By Hays Davis

The 50th anniversary edition of the album Blues for Allah looks back on the Grateful Dead reconnecting as a creative whole, following 1974’s self-imposed hiatus that gave no clear indication of their path forward. With the band gathering in guitarist/vocalist Bob Weir’s small home studio with a mutual agreement that they wouldn’t prepare ahead of time, the songs were developed in the studio rather than coming in having already been worked up and road-tested. The result is an intriguingly well-rounded Dead experience that meshes future setlist regulars with memorable instrumental inroads and some of their most experimental studio directions since the ’60s.

Some songs had already been worked out, with “Help On the Way,” “Slipknot!,” and “Franklin’s Tower” to later find their way into numerous Dead shows, and guitarist/vocalist Jerry Garcia had elements of the title track together. The two-part “King Solomon’s Marbles” is an instrumental workout with a lively rhythmic setting that included returning drummer Mickey Hart. A reggae lilt drives the sweet “Crazy Fingers,” leading into the gorgeous instrumental “Sage & Spirit.” The set’s detailed booklet quotes Garcia that the multi-part title track was “Not of this world. It’s not in any key and it’s not in any time. And the time lengths are all different.” Drummer Bill Kreutzmann felt that its closing movements “bordered on acid-jazz composition. Wild stuff. Deep cuts.” And Hart’s idea of adding a box of crickets to the second side of the album weaves a uniquely natural element into the proceedings. Finally, with the discovery that there was room for one more song, Weir brought in “The Music Never Stopped,” which would go on to become another live staple.

The 3-CD edition (with other configurations also available) contains discs that not only take the album into multiple live settings during the year of its making, but also they start with an August ’75 soundcheck/rehearsal at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall. At a March ’75 SNACK Benefit concert at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco, Bill Graham introduces the band members with Merl Saunders as “The Grateful Dead and their friends” before they ease into a 10-minute meditation on “Blues for Allah,” during which the Dead build to a massive free-jazz crescendo before they segue to “Stronger Than Dirt (Or Milkin’ the Turkey)” (from “King Solomon’s Marbles”)>”Drums” and then reverse course. Even though the SNACK material would be seen as concert rarities in the years ahead, the band lovingly treats these songs live like setlist evergreens, and the audience response is rapturous. (www.dead.net)

Author rating: 8/10