The Grateful Dead, "The Grateful Dead" (Warner Bros., 1967)

By the early '80s, it had become fashionable for rock 'n' roll critics to bash the Grateful Dead.

The negative press represented a turnaround from a decade before, when the better-known rock publications tended to heap praise on the band's recordings, particularly its classic 1969-70 troika of "Live/Dead," "Workingman's Dead" and "American Beauty."

Then came a shift in trends, and the band's combination of roots music and extended improvisation became passe, especially among writers who were enamored of punk rock and/or Bruce Springsteen. The Dead's late-'70s output didn't help matters, as some of the material began to sound a lot like disco and/or the Doobie Brothers.

The band's reputation in journalistic circles probably reached its nadir in 1983 with the appearance of The New Rolling Stone Record Guide, edited by Dave Marsh and John Swenson. While the book's first edition gave the Dead some credit where it was due, the update seemed to go out of its way to try to dissuade anyone from buying any of the band's albums: Who'd want to listen to something deemed by the reviewer as "a pox on the face of pop"?

The Record Guide's rating system awards stars for supposed merit, and the '83 version was quick to stick several of the Dead's recordings with one star: "a record where even technical competence is at question or it was remarkably ill-conceived."

Among the albums garnering that single star was the band's 1967 debut, "The Grateful Dead." Everything about the project was questioned, from its production values and song selection to band members' abilities to sing and play their instruments.

Remember, the review was written in the '80s, when new recordings had to feature a glossy sheen dressed up with synthesized percussion. Anything taped the old-fashioned way - that is, capturing the performance as it went down - apparently wasn't worth hearing.

That's pretty much what "The Grateful Dead" is, a document of the band's live sound circa early 1967, albeit a trimmed-down version; the Dead already was breaking the 20-minute barrier on some of their favorite songs in those days. Many of the tunes on the original LP clocked in around two or three minutes, although the latest CD reissue restored several to their full lengths.

Although the Grateful Dead continued to tour a full 28 years after the debut's release, some of the tracks remained live staples until the end: "Beat It On Down the Line," "Cold Rain and Snow," "Morning Dew" and "New Minglewood Blues." That's saying a lot for an album that allegedly was "ill-conceived."

For whatever reasons, the band stopped playing some of the better tracks on the album early on. The catchy "The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)," released as a single, made only a few documented live performances. "Cream Puff War," which served as a vehicle for a monster jam in concert, was dropped because Jerry Garcia didn't like the lyrics he wrote for it. And Sonny Boy Williamson's lecherous "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl," as performed by Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, was supplanted by other blues and R&B tracks he later preferred to sing with the Dead.

The centerpiece of the debut is "Viola Lee Blues," a 10-minute workout based on a tune originally recorded in the late '20s by Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers. The Dead's version starts with a blast of electronic sound, followed by a rousing riff that leads into the main section of the song, which is a modified 12-bar blues. The lyrics, as sung by several members of the band, are difficult at first to decipher, but focus on the lament of a poor soul who receives a life sentence for a crime that usually draws six months to a year.

From the blues-based section, the band picks up the tempo and launches into an improvisation driven by Garcia's guitar runs, Pigpen's organ and Phil Lesh's free-form bass, before settling back into the original riff for a quick reprise of the last verse. Groundbreaking stuff for early '67, certainly.

Because "The Grateful Dead" sounded very little like anything the band would record after, many fans (and especiallly critics) tended for years to write off the debut as an unsuccessful effort at navigating the recording studio.

But opinions change, and as hour after hour of the Dead's live archival material is released, more listeners are acknowledging the band's genius. The scathing reviews of two decades ago have given way to general acclaim; the online All Music Guide, for example, gives "The Grateful Dead" four stars out of five maximum.

It's not 1983 anymore.