Product Notes
Behind the spaced-out, sprawling live shows, behind the endless sea of bootlegs, lay the Grateful Dead's five original Warner Bros. albums. Not only did these contain the songs with which the Dead would fill their shows and build their legend, but they documented Garcia and friends as they arrived as songwriters and learned to turn the studio into a fertile breeding ground just as they had the stage. Here, on 180-gram vinyl with lacquers cut from the original analog masters, are The Grateful Dead (1967), Workingman's Dead (1970) and American Beauty (1970) plus, for the first time since the early '70s, the original mixes on vinyl of Anthem of the Sun (1968) and Aoxomoxoa (1969)! It's a fascinating trip through the landscape of bluegrass, blues, country, folk, jazz and rock that the Grateful Dead helped define as psychedelia: Viola Lee Blues; Morning Dew; Beat It On down the Line; Alligator; China Cat Sunflower; St. Stephen; Cosmic Charlie; Uncle John's Band; Casey Jones; Cumberland Blues; Truckin'; Sugar Magnolia; Friend of the Devil; Ripple; Box of Rain , and on and on