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Thread: Grateful Dead Anthem Of The SUn 50th Anniversary Edition

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    Grateful Dead Anthem Of The SUn 50th Anniversary Edition

    Well, the other thing that I got from Amazon this week is the 50th anniversary reissue of the second Grateful Dead album, Anthem Of The Sun, which came out yesterday.

    For those who don't know the story about this record, it's kind of a highly underrated record, in my opinion, being one of the best psychedelic albums, and in it's own way, also being a link between the "rock n roll" of the 60's and prog rock of the 70's and beyond.

    The band famously ran up a ridiculous bill recording the album (apparently, there was a clause in their Warners contract that stipulated they could take as long as they wanted in the studio). Musically, the band had made a quantum leap beyond the music heard on their first album, having adding relatively complex compositions like New Potato Caboose and That's It For The Other One (the latter being one of the first "suites" on a rock oriented records, with the individual "movements" listed, as a dodge to squeeze more publishing money out of the record). Born Cross Eyed actually starts on the 2 (with the band resting on the downbeat at the top of each cycle during the verses).

    Beyond that, they dragged in Phil Lesh's college buddy Tom Constanten into the studio to add some prepared piano craziness to the finale of That's It For The Other One. In particular, Constanten placed a gyroscope against the soundboard of the piano, gave it whirl, producing a sound that startled producer David Hassinger out of his chair (I believ the sound in question is the groaning sound you hear about half way through the We Leave The Castle segment). Hassinger would eventually quit the project, frustrated by the band's general lack of interest in "hit singles" and constant experimentation with no clear idea of what they were reaching, the straw that broke the camel's back apparently being Bob Weir's reqeust for "the sound of thick air".

    It was to the point where their A&R guy Joe Smith wrote a very unpleasant letter to the band, identifying the album's ongoing sessions, as "The most unreasonable project we have ever been associated with". He in particular called out Phil Lesh for being "difficult to deal with". Keep in mind that Smith was looking for a commercially successful record, whereas Lesh had studied with Berio (and at one poitn had planned to travel to Germany to study with Stockhausen, but couldn't raise the needed funds), and had once composed an orchestral piece that required 125 musicians and four conductors.

    Adn then they had the brilliant idea to incorporating live recordings, creating a mashup of multiple live recordings and studio performances. Such production tricks are common place now, but in 1968, it was practically unheard of (well, it was in the realm of what Frank Zappa sometimes called "swinging teenage rock n roll").

    So what's special about this reissue? Well, you get both the original 1968 version, as well as the 1971 remix. In fact, I believe this is the first time the remix has appeared on CD. I was introduced this album through an 80's era pressing which used the 1971 mix. As such, that's the version I was used to long before I heard the original mix. There's lots of relatively subtle differences (such as the way the mashup on the Quadlibet For Tenderfoot section of That's It For The Other One is mixed) but the most obvious is the way Born Cross Eyed ends. As the new liner notes acknowledge, "Once you've heard the E chord from God that Phil's remix reveals at the end of Born Cross Eyed, you miss hearing it on the original". And that's how I always felt when I listened to the earlier CD edition (the one that appeared in the Golden Road boxset).

    Also, you get a bonus CD of a October '67 Winterland show. There's also great new liner notes, often times funny ones, too. And there's the 3D rendering of the album's original front cover on the slip case! WOW!

  2. #2
    Jazzbo manqué Mister Triscuits's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by GuitarGeek View Post
    In fact, I believe this is the first time the remix has appeared on CD.
    I was lucky with the remix albums: I bought Aoxomoxoa in 1971, when it was still the original mix. I never got around to buying Anthem until 1980, and of course I got the remix (with the white cover). I still have both of those copies. So when they came out on CD, they perfectly complemented my vinyl copies: Aoxomoxoa on CD has always been the remix, and Anthem on CD has always been the original, both being the versions I didn't already have! (The one thing about the remixes that really bugs me is the missing coda on "Doin' That Rag.")
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    Member FrippWire's Avatar
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    My favorite Dead album. The perfect blend of experimentation, songs and jamming. TC's presence was this album's secret weapon.

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    Quote Originally Posted by FrippWire View Post
    My favorite Dead album. The perfect blend of experimentation, songs and jamming. TC's presence was this album's secret weapon.
    TC and Phil, I'd say, were the secret weapons, along with Jerry's willingness to go full tilt weird at a moment's notice. I think it was Phil and Jerry working in collusion that pushed the band toward the more esoteric areas.
    Last edited by GuitarGeek; 07-17-2018 at 04:58 PM.

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    Just gave Anthem a listen, probably the first time since high school or college. Funny, it sounds pretty tame today to my RIO-destroyed ears. Very enjoyable, but tame. When I was 18 or 19 I thought this was an impenetrable mind-blowing freak-out. Thanks for pointing out the existence of the 50th reissue.

    I wonder if they'll do reissues of all the albums on their real 50th birthdays. That would be pretty cool. In the Dark in 2037!

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by arturs View Post
    Just gave Anthem a listen, probably the first time since high school or college. Funny, it sounds pretty tame today to my RIO-destroyed ears. Very enjoyable, but tame.
    "Destroyed" is a good word in this context. I suppose if you're gonna compare the actual songs to Henry Cow, Univers Zero, or whatever, yeah, Anthem Of The Sun (and indeed most of the Grateful Dead catalog) is gonna sound "pretty tame", for the most part. On the other hand, I would say We Leave The Castle and the multi-tracked feedback collage coda that ends the album are anything but "tame".



    Personally, I still think it's one of the all time great psychedelic albums, and it's a damn shame that it's not as well known as certain records. I mean, even Satanic Majesties seems to get more press and acclaim than Anthem Of The Sun.

    I wonder if they'll do reissues of all the albums on their real 50th birthdays. That would be pretty cool. In the Dark in 2037!
    Well, they've already put out 50th anniversary editions of the first 2 albums, so I imagine they're gonna do the same for the other albums, at least so far as the Warners era records are concerned (which were all released in pretty quick succession circa 67-73). I imagine they'll at least carry this up through American Beauty. I'm not sure what you'd put on a deluxe edition of Skullfuck, Europe '72 (remember: they put out a big mega boxset of the entire Europe '72 tour already), or Bear's Choice (unless they want to released the Dead/Allmans/Fleetwood Mac jam that came from the same shows).

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    Member FrippWire's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by GuitarGeek View Post
    TC and Phil, I'd say, were the secret weapons, along with Jerry's willingness to go full title weird at a moment's notice. I think it was Phil and Jerry working in collusion that pushed the band toward the more esoteric areas.
    You are absolutely correct. Phil's history with Berio, etc and Jerry's willingness to inject weirdness -- spot on.

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