Live / Dead

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Live / Dead
Live album by Grateful Dead

Publication
(s)

November 10, 1969

Label (s) Warner Bros. Records

Genre (s)

Folk rock , psychedelic rock

Title (number)

7 on LP, 9 on CD

running time

75:07 (LP), 78:51 (CD)

occupation

production

Grateful Dead

chronology
Aoxomoxoa
(1969) 		Live / Dead Workingman's Dead
(1970)

Live / Dead is the fourth album by the Grateful Dead . It is the band's first live album .

History of origin

The album is a compilation of various concerts given by the band in early 1969.

The songs were recorded with a mobile 16-track recorder . The sound engineer Owsley Bear tried to have a microphone splitter developed by Ron Wickersham in order to record both the vocals and the instruments without any loss of quality. This was the beginning of the Grateful Dead Wall of Sound .

The songs " The Eleven " and " Turn On Your Lovelight " were chosen from a performance on January 26, 1969 at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco .

" Dark Star " and " St. Stephen " were picked from a performance on February 27, 1969 at the Fillmore West . The lyrics to Dark Star are considered perhaps the best that Robert Hunter wrote and a figurehead for the Grateful Dead. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame chose this song in their list of the 500 most important songs.

From another appearance in Fillmore West on March 2, 1969, the songs " Death Don't Have No Mercy ", " Feedback " and " And We Bid You Goodnight " were selected.

Unlike later years, the varied setlist little in the early years. In particular, a medley of the songs " Dark Star ", " The Eleven " and " St.Stephen " were played almost weekly at every gig, so the band often improvised and played the songs in different ways.

Unlike Aoxomoxoa , the album was a financial success. After Warner Bros. Records put $ 180,000 into Aoxomoxoa, a live album as a double LP at a lower price seemed like a very good idea.

successes

The album reached number 64 on the Billboard charts .

On August 24, 2001, the album reached gold status .

Music journalist Robert Christgau wrote that the album contained some of the best improvised rock songs of all time.

All Music Guide commented that few albums portray the essence of a band as reliably as Live / Dead .

The Rolling Stone chose Live / Dead at number 244 of the 500 best albums of all time .

Trivia

Live / Dead is the last album with Tom Constanten , who left the band because he saw no future for himself with the high number of live performances.

The band also use the pseudonym McGannahan Skyjellyfetti to identify songs that were created jointly in the band, such as the song " Feedback ". The name was based on a character from Kenneth Patchen's work Memoirs of a Shy Pornographer .

Production costs amounted to 100,000 US dollars .

Track list

1969 LP

page 1

  1. "Dark Star" ( Jerry Garcia , Robert Hunter) - 23:18

Page 2

  1. "St. Stephen “(Robert Hunter, Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh ) - 6:31
  2. "The Eleven" (Robert Hunter, Phil Lesh) - 9:18

Page 3

  1. "Turn On Your Lovelight" (Deardric Malone, Joseph Scott) - 3:05 pm

page 4

  1. "Death Don't Have No Mercy" ( Gary Davis ) - 10:28
  2. "Feedback" (McGannahan Skjellyfetti) - 7:49
  3. "And We Bid You Goodnight" (Sarah Doudney) - 0:37

2003 CD

  1. "Dark Star" (Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter) - 23:18
  2. "St. Stephen “(Robert Hunter, Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh) - 6:31
  3. "The Eleven" (Robert Hunter, Phil Lesh) - 9:18
  4. "Turn On Your Lovelight" (Deardric Malone, Joseph Scott) - 3:05 pm
  5. "Death Don't Have No Mercy" (Gary Davis) - 10:28
  6. "Feedback" (McGannahan Skjellyfetti) - 7:49
  7. "And We Bid You Goodnight" (Sarah Doudney) - 0:37
  8. "Dark Star" studio recording (Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter) - 2:44
  9. " Live / Dead Radio promo" - 1:00

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll ( Memento from August 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Robert Christgau. Reviews of Grateful Dead albums
  3. ↑ Review by Allmusic (English)
  4. ↑ The 500 best albums of all time

Web links