Grateful Dead

The reputation that the Dead would eventually acquire as mellow roots-rockers is nowhere in sight on their 1967 debut album. They emerged as a frenetic, visceral garage band, with early tunes from their jug-band days like "Beat It On Down the Line" getting a jumpy jolt, replete with peppy organ and fuzzy lead guitar. But a foreshadowing change of pace arrives with the folky "Morning Dew," which sees the band digging into the kind of slow-burning jam that would come to define their sound.