The cover photo is the biggest surprise. Eschewing the usual Zap Comix-inspired illustration, the world's most tenacious hippie survivors have chosen to pose — in slick suits of John Travolta white — for a very contemporary, very artsy, airbrushed soft-focus portrait. But don't let the packaging fool you. Go to Heaven is mainly more of the same uninspired fluff that's become the Grateful Dead's recorded stock in trade.

The Dead move from Bob Weir and John Barlow's maundering ("Lost Sailor") and Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter's meandering ("Althea") to torrid attempts at funk ("Feel like a Stranger") with nary a fresh melody or original lick. Even a successful song like the infectious rocker, "Alabama Getaway" (which does its job with an admirable brevity that might have saved a few of the album's terminally long-winded compositions), seems to lack weight. There's no sense of urgency or honesty here, and without these two qualities, rock & roll remains vacuous, no matter how charming.

But there are two positive signs: "Far from Me" and "Easy to Love You," both primarily the work of keyboardist Brent Mydland. Mydland sings with the bourbon softness of Michael McDonald and crafts simple, straightforward pop compositions that allow the rest of the band to play tightly and impressively within definite musical boundaries. These tunes offer ample proof that the Grateful Dead can succeed on vinyl as well as they do in concert. More Mydland would seem a good idea in the future.

“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."