Song Of The Day 11/20/2012: The Grateful Dead - "Box Of Rain"

EUGENE, OR -- Apologies for being 15 hours late on today's Song Of The Day. Last night I stayed in the Shasta Lake Motel in Lakehead, CA, and although they advertised free WiFi, it turned out to be one of those get-what-you-pay-for things; i.e., bupkis. Then this morning I white-knuckled the I-5 through the Siskiyous in a driving rain storm, and frankly didn't feel out of the woods until I hit Eugene. I'm at a Starbucks now. Don't look.

Anyway, after I'd hit a relatively safe place to launch my music player in Oregon, I noticed there were some Grateful Dead albums on it. I don't remember when I put them there. You should know that I consider the Grateful Dead one of music history's most overrated bands, although I noticed the two albums I downloaded, American Beauty and Workingman's Dead, were even acclaimed by certain music critics as the Dead's high water mark. I guess at some point recently I figured, well, what the hell, I'm going on a long road trip and I'll give the Dead a chance after 45 freaking years.

Good news, Deadheads: These albums ain't bad. In fact I really like Workingman's Dead, which contains two songs I think are pretty wonderful, "High Time" and "Easy Wind," and one I think is just a cut or two short, "New Speedway Boogie." And of course "Casey Jones," which I never really hated. American Beauty's okay. It's got "Friend of the Devil." And also today's Song Of The Day, which seemed appropriate as I was deep-diving my way through the Ashland mountains.

There you go, Deadheads. I've listened to two albums. Then I listened to The Weeknd all the way to Eugene. Don't bug me again for another 45 years.