Anthem of the Sun

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Anthem of the Sun
Studio album by Grateful Dead

Publication
(s)

July 18, 1968

Label (s) Warner Bros. Records

Genre (s)

Folk rock , psychedelic rock

Title (number)

5 as LP, 9 as CD

running time

38:57 (LP), 79:38 (CD)

occupation

production

chronology
The Grateful Dead (album) (1967) Anthem of the Sun Aoxomoxoa (1969)

Anthem of the Sun is the second studio album by the band Grateful Dead .

History of origin

The album was recorded in various recording studios from September 1967 to March 1968 . The first was American Studios in North Hollywood . David Hassinger, who has already produced her debut album The Grateful Dead and also worked with Rolling Stones and Jefferson Airplane , has been recruited as producer . With the second album, the band tried to record their songs as they usually played on live shows, as they did not succeed on their debut album.

In December 1967 the band moved to two other recording studios in New York City . At that time, Hassinger dropped out of album production because the process wasn't going fast enough for him. Only a third of the album was recorded at this point. In particular, Bob Weir's experiments with sound and tone and his questions about how to adapt this to the style of the band prompted Hassinger to comment that none of the band could really sing and none of them knew what they were actually doing. Jerry Garcia commented on this by saying that the band wanted to learn how to work in a studio for themselves so that they could do this work themselves in the future.

Grateful Dead decided to record the album without a producer , moved to a studio in San Francisco and recorded the album himself with the help of sound engineer Dan Healy.

Between the recordings in North Hollywood and New York, the band gave live concerts to try out the new songs. The recordings from these concerts were evaluated by Garcia, Lesh and Healy and incorporated into the songs that had already been recorded in order to create the band's typical live atmosphere.

In the course of the revision of the album Tom Constanten was taken into the band, who should play the piano on some of the songs. Constanten's piano playing was mostly only noticed on studio albums and was drowned out in live performances, but his experiments with the piano and keyboard gave the album a special note in the spirit of psychedelic rock . The band took advantage of the studio's capabilities and used more instruments than would have been possible on stage. With the help of different instruments such as kazoos , percussion instruments , harpsichords , timpani , güiros and trumpets , the band tried to create their idea of ​​psychedelic rock. Garcia compared this to a musical collage .

To get more money from the label, the first track on the album, That's It For The Other One , had to be split into four songs. Robert Hunter , long-time friend of Garcia and future co- songwriter of Grateful Dead, supported Lesh and Pigpen with the lyrics to the song Alligator .

The then chairman of Warner Bros., Joe Smith, judged Anthem of the Sun to be the most unreasonable project that Warner Bros. had ever volunteered.

The first records were marked with the words “The faster we go, the rounder we get”, which was located in the center circle around the label sticker.

In 1972 the album was reissued in a revised version with the same product number (# WS-1749). The only difference between the old and the new LP are the letters "RE" after the master's number in the new edition.

In 1997 the DVD Anthem to Beauty was released, which contains a compilation of Anthem of the Sun and American Beauty with comments on their "making of".

In 2001, a revised version of the five songs and four additional songs by Rhino Records for the box set The Golden Road (1965-1973) was released , which were then also released in 2003 as a single CD.

successes

Rolling Stone voted the album 287th of the 500 best albums of all time .

The album reached number 87 on the Billboard charts .

Track list

1968 LP

Side one

  1. That's It for the Other One - 7:40:
  2. New Potato Caboose (Phil Lesh, Robert Petersen) - 8:26
  3. Born Cross-Eyed (Bob Weir) - 2:04

Side two

  1. Alligator (Phil Lesh, Ron McKernan, Robert Hunter ) - 11:20
  2. Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks) (Jerry Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Ron McKernan, Bob Weir) - 9:37

2003 CD

  1. That's It for the Other One - 7:40:
    • Cryptical Envelopment (Jerry Garcia)
    • Quadlibet for Tender Feet (Jerry Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Ron McKernan, Bob Weir)
    • The Faster We Go, The Rounder We Get (Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir)
    • We Leave the Castle (Tom Constanten)
  2. New Potato Caboose (Phil Lesh, Robert Petersen) - 8:26
  3. Born Cross-Eyed (Bob Weir) - 2:04
  4. Alligator (Phil Lesh, Ron McKernan, Robert Hunter) - 11:20
  5. Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks) (Jerry Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Ron McKernan, Bob Weir) - 9:37
  6. Alligator (live) (Phil Lesh, Ron McKernan, Robert Hunter) - 18:43
  7. Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks) (live) (Jerry Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Ron McKernan, Bob Weir) - 11:38
  8. Feedback (live) (Grateful Dead) - 4:01
  9. Born Cross-Eyed (single version) (Bob Weir) - 2:55

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The 500 best albums of all time

Web links