American Beauty (Album)

American Beauty
Studio album by Grateful Dead
Publication (s)	November 1970
Label (s)	Warner Bros. Records
Format (s)	CD, LP
Genre (s)	Rock , country , folk
Title (number)	10
running time	41 min 23 s
occupation	Guitar / pedal steel guitar at Sugar Magnolia , Candyman and Brokedown Palace / piano at Box of Rain / vocals : Jerry García Guitar / vocals: Bob Weir Harmonica / vocals: Ron "Pigpen" McKernan Electric bass / acoustic guitar at Box of Rain / piano / vocals: Phil Lesh Drums : Bill Kreutzmann Percussion : Mickey Hart
production	Grateful Dead , Steve Barncard
Studio (s)	Wally Heider Studios, San Francisco
chronology Workingman's Dead (1970) American Beauty Grateful Dead (1971)

American Beauty is the fifth studio album by the band Grateful Dead . It was recorded between August and September 1970 and released in November 1970.

In 2003 the album reached number 258 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 best albums of all time . American Beauty 's album cover was ranked 57th on the list of all-time best album covers in the same magazine in 1991.

history

The band began recording American Beauty just a few months after Workingman's Dead was released . Amazingly, the band recorded the album without their sound engineers, who were on the Medicine Ball Caravan tour (which was originally supposed to be part of the Grateful Dead), which led to Steve Barncard's chief engineer replacing Bob Matthews as producer - "A move that still annoys him to this day".

Both Workingman's Dead and American Beauty were considered extremely innovative, mainly due to the amalgamation of different styles of music, such as bluegrass , rock 'n' roll , folk or country . Like Workingman's Dead , American Beauty doesn't include Jerry Garcia's guitar solos. During the recording of this album Garcia first worked with the mandolinist David Grisman . "I ran into Jerry at a baseball game in Fairfax and he said, 'Hey, do you want to play on the record we're making?'" Commented Grisman.

Truckin ' / Ripple was released as a single , and the tracks Sugar Magnolia and Friend of the Devil were widely played on the radio. In his book on Garcia, Blair Jackson noted, "If you liked rock 'n' roll in 1970 but not the Dead, you were out of luck because there was no getting around them that summer and fall." American Beauty ranked # 30 on the Billboard Pop Albums Chart (North America), while the single Truckin 'reached # 64 on the Pop Singles Chart and enjoyed considerable success on radio stations. American Beauty is the last album with Mickey Hart until his return to the band in 1975.

Track list

Initial release

Side one

1. Box of Rain (Hunter, Lesh ) - 5:16
2. Friend of the Devil ( Garcia , Dawson, Hunter) - 3:20
3. Sugar Magnolia (Weir, Hunter) - 3:15
4. Operator ( Ron McKernan ) - 2:21
5. Candyman (Garcia, Hunter) - 5:12

Side two

1. Ripple (Garcia, Hunter) - 4:10
2. Brokedown Palace (Garcia, Hunter) - 4:18
3. Till the Morning Comes (Garcia, Hunter) - 3:13
4. Attics of My Life (Garcia, Hunter) - 5:09
5. Truckin ' (Garcia, Lesh, Weir, Hunter) - 5:09

The same track list also applies to the 1987 and 2001 CD versions.

2003 reissue

1. Box of Rain (Hunter, Lesh) - 5:18
2. Friend of the Devil (Garcia, Dawson, Hunter) - 3:24
3. Sugar Magnolia (Weir, Hunter) - 3:19
4. Operator (Ron McKernan) - 2:25
5. Candyman (Garcia, Hunter) - 6:12
6. Ripple (Garcia, Hunter) - 4:09
7. Brokedown Palace (Garcia, Hunter) - 4:09
8. Till the Morning Comes (Garcia, Hunter) - 3:09
9. Attics of My Life (Garcia, Hunter) - 5:14
10. Truckin ' (Garcia, Lesh, Weir, Hunter) - 5:17
11. Truckin ' (single edit) - 3:17
12. Friend of the Devil (live) - 4:21
13. Candy Man (live) - 5:18
14. Till the Morning Comes (live) - 3:20
15. Attics of My Life (live) - 6:31
16. Truckin ' (live) - 10:10

Additional contributors

• Dave Torbert - electric bass at Box of Rain
• David Nelson - electric guitar for Box of Rain
• David Grisman - mandolin with Friend of the Devil and Ripple
• Howard Wales - organ at Candyman and Truckin and piano at Brokedown Palace
• Ned Lagin - piano with Candyman
• New Riders of the Purple Sage
• Robert Hunter - lyrics

Chart placements

Album - Billboard

year	Chart	position
1971	Pop albums	30th

Singles - Billboard

year	single	Chart	position
1971	"Truckin '"	Pop singles	64

RIAA awards

Award	date
gold	July 7th 1974
platinum	October 13, 1986
Multi-platinum (2 ×)	August 24, 2001

Individual evidence

1. ↑ rateyourmusic.com
2. ↑ Blair Jackson: Garcia: An American Life. Penguin Books, 1999, p. 196.
3. ^ ^{A b} Blair Jackson: Garcia: An American Life. Penguin Books, 1999, p. 202.
4. ↑ ^{a b} https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000192627
5. ↑ ^{a b} https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000192627
6. ↑ riaa.com ( Memento from August 3, 2005 in the Internet Archive )