Grateful Dead

Built To Last [Expanded]

1989

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Show Notes

Built To Last - Grateful Dead (Arista AL-8575)
This turned out to be the Grateful Dead's final studio album.
Released on Halloween, 1989.
Victim Or The Crime was written by Bob Weir and actor Gerrit Graham; the melody is a paraphrasing of a section of a work by Bela Bartok.
Brent Mydland's I Will Take You Home was written for his daughters Jennifer and Jessica.
Some of the album was recorded at George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch studios.
Believe It Or Not, Gentlemen, Start Your Engines, and Sh*t Happens (entitled "Tough Changes" by Robert Hunter in his book "A Box Of Rain") were recorded as demos for this album, but were not released. The first two are included in the Expanded Edition.
Initially, the band recorded much of the album at Marin County Veteran's Auditorium, as was done for "In The Dark"; these recordings were not used. The album recording was started in late April, 1989. Most of the songs were developed by first determining an appropriate tempo for the song, recording an enhanced click track (with a drum machine), Weir, Mydland, Lesh, and Garcia establishing an appropriate layout and length, and then each band member worked on their parts individually. This allowed each musician to work, separately, with the same tempo and performance.
On Victim Or The Crime numerous mechanical and industrial sound samples were used, including breaking lightbulbs on the twos and fours and different stampers being sampled on every other four of a four bar rhythm pattern.
I Will Take You Home features only Mydland, Lesh, Hart, and Garcia, with Garcia playing a brief MIDI-guitar "horn", which is in the pocket trumpet or piccolo trumpet range.
On We Can Run, most of the background vocals are the band, tripled; on one portion, Mydland is singing melody, and he is doubled to sing the solo. Garcia's MIDI-guitar was recorded in a conventional manner, with mics placed close to and about three feet away from the amplifier.
For Foolish Heart, the vocals were downplayed to make them an element of the music.
Standing On The Moon was written in 1988.
The album was recorded using the Dolby SR noise reduction system.
The RIAA certified the album as "Gold" on Jamuary 3, 1990.

(notes excerpted with permission from "The Compleat Grateful Dead Discography" by Ihor Slabicky)

Reviews

Foolish Heart 312

Just a Little Light 284

Built To Last 305

Blow Away 371

Victim or the Crime 458

We Can Run 333

Standing on the Moon 323

Picasso Moon 404

I Will Take You Home 235

Foolish Heart 691

Blow Away 722

California Earthquake 359

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Grateful Dead

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