By Chris Verkaik

Staff Writer

For the last year or so I've been playing around with this half-baked theory of mine that every Bob Dylan song will eventually be recorded, and perfected, by somebody else. I don't mean to disrespect the man, but Dylan has always been more concerned with the song itself than its presentation, and something always got left out. Time and again somebody else will record a Bob Dylan song, and, hearing it for the first time, I suddenly realize that the song had been left incomplete until that moment.

So Jimi Hendrix records ``All Along the Watchtower'' and suddenly the listener understands the urgency of the message. Nanci Griffith records ``Boots of Spanish Leather'' and the heartbreak and betrayal hit you right over the head. The Band records ``I Shall Be Released'' and finds a longing so integral to the song you wonder how you could have missed it before. These things were always present in the song before, but somebody else had to come along and show it to you, it seems Dylan had no intention of doing that for us.

I think this is the reason so many artists release entire albums of Dylan covers and particularly why ``Postcards of the Hanging: Grateful Dead Perform the Songs of Bob Dylan'' was an album just waiting to happen. The Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan have had a long history together, even touring together at times, and the songs of Bob Dylan were frequent additions to the band's live shows. This album is a collection of the best of these covers recorded live in concert.

With the exception of ``All Along the Watchtower,'' these are not songs typically covered by other artists. The selections largely come from a period in the mid to late `60s when Dylan was writing weird, late-night hazy ramblings -- wonderful songs seemingly about everything and nothing all at once. Few would dare perform songs like ``Ballad of a Thin Man,'' ``Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues'' or ``Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again,'' but the nebulous nature of these songs have always fit the Dead's musical style perfectly.

Just as the songs come from a particular period of Dylans's career, the live recordings that make up the album largely come from performances in the mid to late `80s. Unfortunately, this isn't the band's best period. By then the single ``Touch of Grey'' had made the band superstars, and it seems even the Grateful Dead were not completely immune to the excesses of the decade. While hardly washed up, they weren't making music quite like they used to.

As if to make this very point, the album includes just one recording from 1977, arguably a time when the band was at its peak and even a novice could tell the difference between the effortless, subtle grooves of the band in the `70s and the unnecessary heaviness of the band in the `80s.

This doesn't mean the album is without merit, however. If nothing else, the band gives these songs a bounce they've never had before. Dylan fans that have always wanted to dance along to ``Desolation Row,'' for example, will finally have their chance. The band takes their time with these songs; bringing buried things to the surface and giving more obvious things a new life. Jerry Garcia's guitar, in particular, weaves in and out of Dylan's lyrics, seemingly creating a second layer of meaning running parallel to and complementing the original.

Like Dylan himself, both Garcia and Bob Weir, who share the lead on these recordings, are vocalists of limited ability. Nevertheless, they tackle these songs with an earnestness Dylan always seemed too cool for, and wring every last bit of meaning from the frequently maze-like lyrics.

The result is an album of new perspectives on some old songs, some new revelations into what they all might mean, one more fitting tribute to the power of Bob Dylan's songwriting and a new album well worth seeking out.