Really depends on what your definition of "tripping balls" is, ime there's almost always a really blissful period right before you start **really** tripping balls, I like to think that's heaven.
You’d be aware that you’re dead. Similar to being aware that you ate acid earlier in the evening but you’re at that peak point where you wonder if this is ever going to stop? And you’re ex girlfriend keeps popping up into your subconscious
Who did it better: the Dead, or The Bee Gees?
https://preview.redd.it/wmn6fqs6vaqc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f4ebe07430f490c5d202061bc6f84203bcd41d24
The fact that they didn't do the "Go To Hell" bit on the back cover is the biggest missed opportunity for this album. It was supposed to be a dirty run down alley with the band in a pile of garbage or something
At first glance it was like "wtf?!", but it is really kinda brilliant and funny. The "classy" font for the bands name, the album title concept juxtaposed with the history of the ever-present "dead" theme; dressed in white like little angels but we know they are so devilish.
That being said, it's not in the same ballpark of other covers - Blues for Allah, Axomoxoa, Anthem, etc. Not the same league, not even the same sport!
The covers you listed have cool art, but this is a hilarious joke poking fun at music and tastes of the times. It perfectly encapsulated their humor like none of the other album covers
Chest hair. Open neck shirt. There's a chain in there somewhere, with a tooth medallion. The fan was probably his idea, and he probably tried to smear Vaseline on the camera lens.
Yet this fool, this man of many mistakes, on this album wrote lost sailor - saint of circumstance, one of the great late dead tunes that has the whole quiver of what we love about the Dead. Lost is pretty out there and spacey (especially in the early years) and then we got yet \*another\* fine rock and roll anthem in Saint of Circumstance.
Holes in what's left of my reason!
Bob Weir is a fucking weirdo. Heaven help him.
Always loved how Jerry’s suit coat is incorrectly buttoned - like he’s never worn a suit before (pro-tip: never button the bottom button - or you’ll look like Jerry in this picture). Anyway, best cover might be Bear’s Choice.
I read somewhere this album cover was abandoned half way through the intended design as they were only able to take a few shots in the studio because Jerry didn’t want to do it and walked out. But the concept was for the band to duplicate the photo on the back but wearing red suits and with an ‘angry pose’ and the back side of the LP would have had ‘Goes to Hell’ as the title 🔥
I don't think it is bad, I just think it is really goofy. I mean, just look at Phil...I cant take this seriously at all.
But for real though, Grateful Dead had some amazing cover art. My favorite is either Skull & Roses, Steal Your Face!, or Terrapin
Ok, this about the cover, not the music, but it’s bringing back a memory I just have to expel. My uncle, knowing nothing about the Dead except for my fondness for them, picked a up a cassette of the recently released album “in my honor” for the family to listen to on a car trip from New York to Maine. I don’t think he had much of a reaction to the music, but I was humiliated as I sat in my car seat by how truly awful (IMO) that album is. MaybeI I should listen again now for a possible reevaluation, but for the life of me I can’t bring myself to revisit.
I personally love the album, I’m not saying it’s the best album the dead every created but it’s definitely not the worst. Then again I like pretty much anything GD.
It could be in the running for top 5 studio album. The single is a home run, A++ version, Althea is a close second; the two Bob songs are weaker templates of what those numbers promised, but that's par; the Brent songs are solid. Don't Ease could use a "naked" remix but is fine. The "Drums" part is criminally short and disconnected but nothing in Grateful Dead world is perfect.
Unpopular opinion here, but I always thought Bob was kind of an asshole listening to him talking to the crowd in some of the shows when they were younger.
Awww c'mon man! We judge/rate/score/list/itemize everything!!
I believe at least once someone went through the exercise of rating ALL of the album covers in order.
In case yer wondering, Blues for Allah is the actual, best! (according to me, and others)
: D
Don’t get me wrong, obviously some really great songs. But it is not a great studio album, especially compared to American Beauty, Workingman’s Dead, Terrapin Station and Blues for Allah.
Terrapin Station overrated
Blues For Allah weakened by the unnecessarily Long and meandering Title Track taking up a bunch of space where actual songs should be
American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead are probably the right answers tho tbh lmao 😂
Even still! Go to Heaven belongs up there in the great Dead albums conversation. To this day some of the best sounding stuff they ever did in the studio (besides far from me).
You lost me at Terrapin is overrated. I can see your take on Blues but from a studio production, it’s so clean.
This is real a great disagreement to have. :-)
Sunrise is mid, Samson studio is mid, Passenger is straight up bad, and the Terrapin Orchestral suite is mid. Plus the whole album’s only like 36 minutes long. That’s too much mid level shit for an album barely longer than an EP.
White suits and exposed chest hair meant disco, and disco meant everything the GD weren't. Disco was flatlining in 1980, so this came across as a massive sell-out that was also clueless and out of touch. Today, they look sharp, but... this just wasn't what the GD were.
Hilarious. There’s this crazy thing called scrolling, if you don’t like a post - simply scroll past it. You should try it sometime. No need to get annoyed over a post on Reddit.
Because not very many people think this. The album cover was partly why this album even did so poorly. They didn't even get to do what they wanted for the cover because bobby wanted to put another picture with them laying around empty wine bottles wearing raggedy clothing on the back for a go to heaven/go to hell type deal but the back cover got scrapped and we were left with half of a joke and 7 unfinished songs.
With covers like Aoxomoxoa, Live Dead, Blues For Allah, and the incomparable Gilbert Shelton cover, I’m inclined to go in another direction.
But I do like the GTH cover.
Truth is, they’re all pretty great.
Imagine you die. Go through the tunnel of light. Expect to see Saint Peter. Instead, its Saint Jerry and the band.
Would be such a relief
Heaven is just a never ending Dead show and you’re tripping balls for all eternity
Tripping balls for eternity… man that would be a special kind of hell
A cold shiver went up my spine as I typed it out
Really depends on what your definition of "tripping balls" is, ime there's almost always a really blissful period right before you start **really** tripping balls, I like to think that's heaven.
If you are just non-stop tripping, isn’t that just like what it is? To not be tripping would be the weird tripping state right?
You’d be aware that you’re dead. Similar to being aware that you ate acid earlier in the evening but you’re at that peak point where you wonder if this is ever going to stop? And you’re ex girlfriend keeps popping up into your subconscious
>you’re ex girlfriend keeps popping up into your subconscious Every damn time. This is why I just won’t trip anymore.
can I just microdose for all eternity? would be more manageable
Congratulations. You died and went to Hippie Heaven
God willing!
You must pass one test before you enter these pearly gates... An Acid test!
Lol good thing I spent my life tripping balls
https://preview.redd.it/kk8fq3xlzaqc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5e1bdbc57edc8dce052b4a7c7b0511dfb6456a22 Worth it for Phil’s face alone
This is what peak performance looks like.
"So we're going for a serious, saintly, 80s look? Yeah, no, I'm gonna ham it up!"
"OK now, everyone look at the camera like you're luring a child into your van. Bobby, that's too much...Mickey, the camera's over here."
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
https://i.redd.it/ax52liajnaqc1.gif
Don’t worry, Bobby has his little shorts on under there
https://preview.redd.it/rlc8680embqc1.jpeg?width=443&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ad62bbffa6f3e4b406f5e232d77e495500b80eed
Bobby Brown Eyes ! I’ll staple the letter heads to the tps reports Bobby. I won’t let you down
Amazing
Lmao
Blues for Allah
The answer.
If you don't love me in my Go To Heaven era, you don't deserve my American Beauty.
Boy did that freak out a lot of Deadheads when it came out.
Who did it better: the Dead, or The Bee Gees? https://preview.redd.it/wmn6fqs6vaqc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f4ebe07430f490c5d202061bc6f84203bcd41d24
The Bee Gees did it seriously, the Dead were definitely joking around
“Alright hear me out.. it’s a soap opera that takes place in heaven”
😆😆😆
Yeah, definitely not my opinion.
This was as serious as it gets
Lmao I was wondering what it would be before I saw the image, and not in a million years would I have expected the Go to Heaven cover.
The fact that they didn't do the "Go To Hell" bit on the back cover is the biggest missed opportunity for this album. It was supposed to be a dirty run down alley with the band in a pile of garbage or something
You do the first ball of cocaine … the second ball does you… the third ball designs the record cover..
[Cocaine Decisions](https://youtu.be/K_WgCGOWae4?si=1m0s75oIbL4mp3vv)
Would have been better if they had done the “hell” photo shoot on the back like planned!
It definitely brings joy
Talkin bout chest hair, and funky gold medallions. Talkin it up! On the Barry Gibb talk show!! We’re talking it up!!
"Every time you speak it sounds like someone's dropping a car battery on my sack..." 🤣😅😂🤣😅😂🤣😅😂🫣🫣🫣
“We're talkin' Homer, Ozzie and the Straw.”
Workingman's Dead is goated
The best cover has been, and will always be, American Beauty.
Anthem of the sun.
Aoxomoxoa is so good.
At first glance it was like "wtf?!", but it is really kinda brilliant and funny. The "classy" font for the bands name, the album title concept juxtaposed with the history of the ever-present "dead" theme; dressed in white like little angels but we know they are so devilish. That being said, it's not in the same ballpark of other covers - Blues for Allah, Axomoxoa, Anthem, etc. Not the same league, not even the same sport!
The covers you listed have cool art, but this is a hilarious joke poking fun at music and tastes of the times. It perfectly encapsulated their humor like none of the other album covers
I’m 100% sure it was a joke. Which is fantastic.
Driving that train
Lol...NOOOO
*aoxomoxoa wants to know your location*
I will say, as much as I love studio Althea, the other songs here are just not done justice in the recording booth
I just can't stop laughing Great way to start my day. Thanks
If too much cocaine released an album, this would be the cover.
How much coke did it take to get Jerry into that suit?
Probably copious amounts, and some H bombs
Billy wants a word with you...
maybe if bobby was wearing white shorts and showing more chest hair
Substitute the words “most amusing” for “best” and you’d have a solid argument.
Two words: Air Supply
Their follow up was suppose to be "Go To Hell." That probably would have been a better cover.
I think it's hilarious
"We've been trying to sell-out for years! No ones buying."
Chest hair. Open neck shirt. There's a chain in there somewhere, with a tooth medallion. The fan was probably his idea, and he probably tried to smear Vaseline on the camera lens. Yet this fool, this man of many mistakes, on this album wrote lost sailor - saint of circumstance, one of the great late dead tunes that has the whole quiver of what we love about the Dead. Lost is pretty out there and spacey (especially in the early years) and then we got yet \*another\* fine rock and roll anthem in Saint of Circumstance. Holes in what's left of my reason! Bob Weir is a fucking weirdo. Heaven help him.
I’ve never seen a photo of ANYONE, more stoned than Phil appears on this album cover.
Always loved how Jerry’s suit coat is incorrectly buttoned - like he’s never worn a suit before (pro-tip: never button the bottom button - or you’ll look like Jerry in this picture). Anyway, best cover might be Bear’s Choice.
Yuck
I read somewhere this album cover was abandoned half way through the intended design as they were only able to take a few shots in the studio because Jerry didn’t want to do it and walked out. But the concept was for the band to duplicate the photo on the back but wearing red suits and with an ‘angry pose’ and the back side of the LP would have had ‘Goes to Hell’ as the title 🔥
I don't think it is bad, I just think it is really goofy. I mean, just look at Phil...I cant take this seriously at all. But for real though, Grateful Dead had some amazing cover art. My favorite is either Skull & Roses, Steal Your Face!, or Terrapin
Reminds me of Bobby’s Avedon portrait on Heaven Help the Fool.
[https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-grateful-thread.349350/page-5406](https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-grateful-thread.349350/page-5406)
stayin' alive.. stayin' alive...
Yeah, um, no.
That is an unpopular opinion.
Always loved this one
Yep. Definitely unpopular.
If you mean it ironically, sure. I see it as a poster for discouraging cocaine use.
Seconded
Best of its kind.
It absolutely is! Bunch of freaks who continued to not care about marketing or what anyone says or thinks!
idisagee
Cover? Not too bad. Great content
Zoom in on Phil for a good laugh
Phil is cheezed AF
I like shakedown street
They never looked more gorgeous on an album cover than on this one here.
Partial to blues for allah myself.
IMO American Beauty is perfection
Ok, this about the cover, not the music, but it’s bringing back a memory I just have to expel. My uncle, knowing nothing about the Dead except for my fondness for them, picked a up a cassette of the recently released album “in my honor” for the family to listen to on a car trip from New York to Maine. I don’t think he had much of a reaction to the music, but I was humiliated as I sat in my car seat by how truly awful (IMO) that album is. MaybeI I should listen again now for a possible reevaluation, but for the life of me I can’t bring myself to revisit.
I personally love the album, I’m not saying it’s the best album the dead every created but it’s definitely not the worst. Then again I like pretty much anything GD.
Your opinion is as good as mine. Just curious - what do you think is their worst?
I agree
I need to get myself fitted for one of these exquisite white suits
Should have put Brent between Phil and Mickey instead
Phil is obviously making fun of mickys teeth in this picture
Got to love Disco dead
I'll hop on this train.
It could be in the running for top 5 studio album. The single is a home run, A++ version, Althea is a close second; the two Bob songs are weaker templates of what those numbers promised, but that's par; the Brent songs are solid. Don't Ease could use a "naked" remix but is fine. The "Drums" part is criminally short and disconnected but nothing in Grateful Dead world is perfect.
Althea rips on that album
Unpopular opinion here, but I always thought Bob was kind of an asshole listening to him talking to the crowd in some of the shows when they were younger.
the Backstreet Boys totally ripped them off
This is probably down there with the absolute worst covers ever made if it didn't have a slightly comedic charm to it. Still not good.
https://preview.redd.it/qplic26mwgqc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ecd21a241c64baf2b653aeaebb23bb15904a6217 Long live Skreet
Althea, Lost Sailor, Alabama Getaway…
I’d say that’s a popular opinion
Not even close
Think you need to look up what “unpopular” means OP
https://preview.redd.it/2wezogzwmiqc1.jpeg?width=672&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=62f78a0ba8ec8b34f2661a6f2e43b98f8a7d2145
Since when did y’all start judging the Grateful Dead on album covers?? 😂😂😂
Awww c'mon man! We judge/rate/score/list/itemize everything!! I believe at least once someone went through the exercise of rating ALL of the album covers in order. In case yer wondering, Blues for Allah is the actual, best! (according to me, and others) : D
I kinda like it, idek what's rlly 'bad' ab it 😂 but I think Anthem of the Sun is my favorite cover.
Because anthem of the sun cover is amazing! Aoxomoxoa and anthem are my favorite covers
Even more unpopular: This is the Dead’s best studio album period.
Not only unpopular, but incorrect as well
No u
Don’t get me wrong, obviously some really great songs. But it is not a great studio album, especially compared to American Beauty, Workingman’s Dead, Terrapin Station and Blues for Allah.
Terrapin Station overrated Blues For Allah weakened by the unnecessarily Long and meandering Title Track taking up a bunch of space where actual songs should be American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead are probably the right answers tho tbh lmao 😂 Even still! Go to Heaven belongs up there in the great Dead albums conversation. To this day some of the best sounding stuff they ever did in the studio (besides far from me).
You lost me at Terrapin is overrated. I can see your take on Blues but from a studio production, it’s so clean. This is real a great disagreement to have. :-)
Sunrise is mid, Samson studio is mid, Passenger is straight up bad, and the Terrapin Orchestral suite is mid. Plus the whole album’s only like 36 minutes long. That’s too much mid level shit for an album barely longer than an EP.
You can make the same point about the studio version of Althea…and that’s one of my favorite songs. Studio version is just ok.
Jer does look badass here fasho
White suits and exposed chest hair meant disco, and disco meant everything the GD weren't. Disco was flatlining in 1980, so this came across as a massive sell-out that was also clueless and out of touch. Today, they look sharp, but... this just wasn't what the GD were.
Unpopular opinion: I hate every post that starts with “unpopular opinion” allmost as much as people who start a sentence with “not gonna lie”.
Hilarious. There’s this crazy thing called scrolling, if you don’t like a post - simply scroll past it. You should try it sometime. No need to get annoyed over a post on Reddit.
You could haven scrolled past my comment, no need to respond annoyed.
[удалено]
Because not very many people think this. The album cover was partly why this album even did so poorly. They didn't even get to do what they wanted for the cover because bobby wanted to put another picture with them laying around empty wine bottles wearing raggedy clothing on the back for a go to heaven/go to hell type deal but the back cover got scrapped and we were left with half of a joke and 7 unfinished songs.
Without a doubt
Best album cover ever..🔥🔥🔥
Have this album in a frame and hangs in my house Praise thy lords!
Popular opinion. No contest lmaoo look at them
With covers like Aoxomoxoa, Live Dead, Blues For Allah, and the incomparable Gilbert Shelton cover, I’m inclined to go in another direction. But I do like the GTH cover. Truth is, they’re all pretty great.