Grateful Dead - From the Mars Hotel 50th Anniversary (3CD)

FROM THE MARS HOTEL (50TH ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION) features remastered audio by GRAMMY(r) Award-winning engineer David Glasser, with Plangent Processes tape restoration and speed correction. Produced for release by Grateful Dead Legacy Manager and Audio Archivist, David Lemieux, the DELUXE EDITION also includes 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. As the band filled an outdoor football stadium with epic highs like huge "China Cat Sunflower" > "I Know You Rider," Mars Hotel cuts including "U.S. Blues" and classics such as "Brown-Eyed Women," "Tennessee Jed," "Mississippi Half-Step," "Truckin'," "Sugar Magnolia," a massive wind storm was no match for the Wall of Sound. Designed to improve the listening and performance experience at what were becoming larger gigs and longer, more dynamic and varied sets, the Wall of Sound required 21 stage hands, and underlined the resounding effect the Grateful Dead were having on American audiences and culture at the time, even as the entire operation remained homespun and humble. 

Recorded in San Francisco's Coast Recorders studio, FROM THE MARS HOTEL finds Keith Godchaux particularly shining across a variety of keys, from the "China Doll" harpsichord to the pounding piano on Bob Weir's "Money Money," to the churchy organ that elevates "Ship Of Fools." Lyricist Robert Hunter packs "U.S. Blues" with a barrage of imagery, pop-culture references and sardonic asides - as Canadian author Ray Robertson writes in the 50th Anniversary Edition's liner notes, it "carries an undeniable whiff of late-capitalism ennui...it's the most fun you'll ever have dancing to the end of the American Empire." Jerry Garcia's jaunty lead guitar drives bouncing melodies across the LP, while guests include Ned Lagin's unnerving synth effects on "Unbroken Chain," Clover member John McFee's country-rock pedal steel on "Pride Of Cucamonga," and more.

Disc 1

U.S. Blues

China Doll

Unbroken Chain

Loose Lucy

Scarlet Begonias

Pride Of Cucamonga

Money Money

Ship Of Fools

-Bonus Tracks-

China Doll (Demo)

Wave That Flag (Demo)

Disc 2

-Live From The University Of Nevada-Reno, 5/12/74-

Sugaree

Mexicali Blues

Tennessee Jed

Jack Straw

Brown-Eyed Women

Beat It On Down The Line

China Cat Sunflower>

I Know You Rider

El Paso

U.S. Blues

Greatest Story Ever Told

It Must Have Been The Roses

Me And Bobby McGee

Disc 3

-Live From The University Of Nevada-Reno, 5/12/74-

Deal

Around And Around

Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo

Truckin'>

The Other One>

Row Jimmy

Big River

Ship Of Fools

Sugar Magnolia

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Release date 06.21.24