"Steal Your Face ? Ha! Steal Your Money Is More Like It !"

Disc one
"Promised Land" (Berry) – 3:17
"Cold Rain and Snow" (trad., arr. Grateful Dead) – 5:38
"Around and Around" (Berry) – 5:07
"Stella Blue" (Hunter, Garcia) – 8:48
"Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo" (Hunter, Garcia) – 8:04
"Ship of Fools" (Hunter, Garcia) – 7:01
"Beat It On Down the Line" (Fuller) – 3:24

Disc two
"Big River" (Cash) – 4:55
"Black-Throated Wind" (Barlow, Weir) – 6:07
"U.S. Blues" (Hunter, Garcia) – 5:42
"El Paso" (Robbins) – 4:17
"Sugaree" (Hunter, Garcia) – 7:37
"It Must Have Been the Roses" (Hunter) – 6:00
"Casey Jones"(Hunter, Garcia) – 7:04

I have always heard the quote in the title of this post attributed to Lester Bangs, and that seems about right. It sounds like something Lester would have said or written, and I know a lot of people(including most members of The Grateful Dead themselves) agree with him.

I do not. I like "Steal Your Face" quite a bit. Mind you, I know that the sound is terrible, and I know that there no "jams" on the record, but I still love it just the same. I don't know exactly why.

"Steal your Face" turned 31 on Tuesday, and I would like to say that I am glad that it exists.

I said that I don't know exactly why I love it so, but I think I know some of the reasons. First of all, it is one of the first Grateful Dead albums I ever heard. My friend John had it on vinyl. Plus, at the time I heard it, it was out of print, it was somewhat rare, and it had that sort of special-"hey, a lot of people might not have heard this" quality to it. That's stupid, I know, but it is how I felt at the time.

I do actually like a few of the songs on the album a lot. The "Sugaree" is still one of my favorite versions of that tune I have ever heard. Ditto the "Must Have Been the Roses" and "El Paso". And "Promised Land" as well. I looooove that version of "Promised Land".

Beyond those reasons, I don't know what to tell you. As I have said before, I seem to like a lot of things that other Deadheads hate. Perhaps I'm a bit of a contrarian ? I don't know. But.."Like I told you...What I said...Steal your face right off your head"