Grateful Dead: From the Mars Hotel
50 years anniversary edition
CD622
- 3 CD
Rhino - 2024
Grateful Dead: From the Mars Hotel
50 years anniversary deluxe edition
Lesh opined once that the Grateful Dead's studio albums were like advertisements for their concerts. And their concerts were for something else: the opportunity for personal transcendence. Forty minutes of songs, no matter how well-written, sung, performed, and recorded, simply aren't enough aural room to take you to the cosmos and back. And not just because a concert is longer than an LP and there's more time to stretch out and experiment. That's part of it, certainly, but just as important is the fact that no one knows exactly what's going to happen at a Grateful Dead concert, not even the band. This could be a good thing, this could be a bad thing, this could be exhilarating, this could be insipid, but this is what happens when you travel without a musical road map. Sometimes, in order to get where you want to go, it's helpful not to know where you're going. - Ray Robertson, FROM THE MARS HOTEL (50TH ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION) LINER
With the FROM THE MARS HOTEL (50TH ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION) 3CD set, we're going to give you the best of both roads. First, the straight path of the original release, primed to pristine condition with newly remastered audio by GRAMMY®️ Award-winning engineer David Glasser, Plangent Processes tape restoration and speed correction. Then we'll diverge to the road less traveled where the real adventure begins with demos of "China Doll" and "Wave That Flag" – the song that became "U.S. Blues" – as well as a previously unreleased live performance of the Grateful Dead at University of Nevada-Reno on 5/12/1974. This one features epic highs from a huge "China Cat Sunflower" > "I Know You Rider," to fresh MARS HOTEL cuts to classics such as "Brown-Eyed Women," "Tennessee Jed," "Mississippi Half-Step," "Truckin'," "Sugar Magnolia," all amplified to the nth degree by the dizzying Wall of Sound. Grab your map, your compass, your astral guide, and follow us to the June 21st finish line!
On February 9, 1973, the Grateful Dead debuted a number of songs that would become classics of their repertoire, including "Eyes Of The World," "Row Jimmy," "Here Comes Sunshine," and an interesting, but short-lived ditty called "Wave That Flag." It would stick around for six or so months, before disappearing for good...sort of. On February 22, 1974, more than a year after "Wave That Flag” debuted, the Dead played "U.S. Blues" for the first time, and astute listeners will hear the similarities to "Wave That Flag." It's a rare song in the Grateful Dead canon that underwent a substantial transformation before settling on its final arrangement as U.S. Blues. We're thrilled to include this demo of "Wave That Flag" played and sung entirely by Jerry Garcia and recorded in his home just before the February 9, 1973, show, in order to teach the band the new song. - Archivist David Lemieux
Tracklist
CD 1
1. U.S. BLUES
2. CHINA DOLL
3. UNBROKEN CHAIN
4. LOOSE LUCY
5. SCARLET BEGONIAS
6. PRIDE OF CUCAMONGA
7. MONEY MONEY
8. SHIP OF FOOLS
Bonus Tracks
9. China Doll (Demo)
10. U.S. Blues (Wave That Flag)(Demo)
Live at University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 5/12/74
CD 2
1. SUGAREE
2. MEXICALI BLUES
3. TENNESSEE JED
4. JACK STRAW
5. BROWN-EYED WOMEN
6. BEAT IT ON DOWN THE LINE
7. CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER>
8. I KNOW YOU RIDER
9. EL PASO
10. U.S. BLUES
11. GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD
12. IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES
13. ME AND BOBBY MCGEE
14. DEAL
CD 3
1. AROUND AND AROUND
2. MISSISSIPPI HALF-STEP UPTOWN TOODELOO
3. TRUCKIN'
4. THE OTHER ONE>
5. ROW JIMMY
6. BIG RIVER
7. SHIP OF FOOLS
8. SUGAR MAGNOLIA