New box set sheds light on Grateful Dead

Grateful Dead

Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978 (Grateful Dead Productions/Rhino)

ESSENTIAL "Fire on the Mountain"

We learn from the liner notes to "Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978," that the Grateful Dead's historic trip to Egypt in 1978, when it became the first American band to perform at the Giza Light and Sound Theater at the feet of the Sphinx, happened because the group wanted to see how playing in such a unique and mystical place would affect its music.

The Grateful Dead's three-night stand in Cairo was a huge cultural event. Musically, however, the concerts have long been judged by band and fans alike as average performances.

Thirty years after the fact, "Rocking the Cradle" revisits the better parts of the Dead's concerts in Egypt, editing down six sets of music into two CDs and a DVD (they throw in a third bonus CD when you order online). Much of the music comes from the third night of the run, and the DVD contains a charming home-movie feature depicting the Grateful Dead running around Egypt with family and friends.

In assessing Egypt's effect upon the Dead, it is clear it compelled the band to slow down and stretch out its sound. Mellow to begin with, the Dead occasionally teetered toward the catatonic in Cairo. The normally bouncy "Stagger Lee," for example, sounds like it's on its death bed.

But the ballads fare well. Jerry Garcia's "Stella Blue" and Bob Weir's "Looks Like Rain" light up the Arabian night. The highlight of the Egyptian experiment is a 21-minute chunk of psychedelic bliss that begins Hamza El Din's troupe engaging the Dead in the Nubian oud master's meditative "Ollin Arageed" before the band segues into an otherworldly version of its own "Fire on the Mountain." [Scott McLennan]