Grateful Dead (album)

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The informal titles for this album, "Skull and Roses" and "Skull Fuck", redirect here.

Grateful Dead
Live album by The Grateful Dead
Released	October 1971
Recorded	Early 1971
Genre	Country rock, folk rock, rock and roll
Length	70:12
Label	Warner Bros. Records
Producer	Grateful Dead with Bob and Betty
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Robert Christgau (B+) link
The Grateful Dead chronology
American Beauty (1970) Grateful Dead (1971) Europe '72 (1972)

Grateful Dead is an eponymous live double album by the Grateful Dead, released in 1971. Also known as Skull & Roses (due to its iconic cover art) and Skull Fuck (the name the band originally wanted to give to the album, which was rejected by the record company).^[1]

While it is mainly a live album, there were a few overdubs performed by the band including lead and background vocals that are doctored up over the original live recordings, as well as adding an organ track played by Garcia associate Merl Saunders to the tracks "Playing In The Band" and "Wharf Rat" and burying Pigpen's organ in the mix of some of the other tunes such as "The Other One" and "Big Railroad Blues".

"Playing in the Band" received a good amount of airplay, and became one of the Dead's most played songs in concerts. The closing segue of "Not Fade Away" into "Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad" also received airplay and became a fan favorite. "Wharf Rat" provided the name for the Wharf Rats, a group of Dead concert-goers who remain drug and alcohol free.

The album's cover art, composed by Alton Kelly and Stanley Mouse, is based on an illustration by Edmund Joseph Sullivan for an old edition of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.^[1]

[edit] Track listing

[edit] Side one

1. "Bertha" (Garcia, Hunter)
2. "Mama Tried" (Merle Haggard)
3. "Big Railroad Blues" (Noah Lewis)
4. "Playing in the Band" (Weir, Hunter)

[edit] Side two

5. "The Other One" (Grateful Dead)

[edit] Side three

6. "Me & My Uncle" (John Phillips)
7. "Big Boss Man" (Smith, Dixon)
8. "Me & Bobby McGee" (Kristofferson, Foster)
9. "Johnny B. Goode" (Chuck Berry)

[edit] Side four

10. "Wharf Rat" (Garcia, Hunter)
11. "Not Fade Away" (Holly, Petty)
12. "Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad" (Traditional)

[edit] 2003 reissue

1. "Bertha"
2. "Mama Tried"
3. "Big Railroad Blues"
4. "Playing in the Band"
5. "The Other One"
6. "Me & My Uncle"
7. "Big Boss Man"
8. "Me & Bobby McGee"
9. "Johnny B. Goode"
10. "Wharf Rat"
11. "Not Fade Away/Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad"
12. "Oh Boy!" (live)
13. "I'm a Hog For You" (live) (Leiber/Stoller)
14. "Grateful Dead radio spot"

[edit] Personnel

• Jerry Garcia - lead guitar, vocals
• Bob Weir - rhythm guitar, vocals
• Phil Lesh - bass guitar, vocals
• Bill Kreutzmann - drums
• Ron "Pigpen" McKernan - organ, harmonica, vocals

with

• Merl Saunders - organ

[edit] Recording dates

• "Johnny B. Goode" recorded at Winterland Arena, San Francisco on March 24, 1971
• "Big Railroad Blues" and "Not Fade Away/Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad" recorded at Manhattan Center, New York on April 5, 1971
• "Playing In The Band", "Oh Boy!" and "I'm A Hog For You" recorded at Manhattan Center, New York on April 6, 1971
• "Mama Tried", "Big Boss Man" and "Wharf Rat" recorded at Fillmore East, New York on April 26, 1971
• "Bertha" and "Me & Bobby McGee" recorded at Fillmore East, New York on April 27, 1971
• "The Other One" recorded at Fillmore East, New York on April 28, 1971
• "Me & My Uncle" recorded at Fillmore East, New York on April 29, 1971

[edit] Charts

Album - Billboard

[edit] Notes