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Skeletons from the Closet: The Best of Grateful Dead

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Skeletons from the Closet: The Best of Grateful Dead was the first compilation album from the Grateful Dead. It was first released on LP in February 1974. The release was a ploy for Warner Bros. Records to cash in on the escalating popularity of the band (based on the sales of Workingman's Dead and American Beauty).[1]

Three of the tracks were not original Dead album studio recordings. This "Turn On Your Lovelight" first appeared on the album The Big Ball, which was a loss leader sampler distributed by Warner Bros.; it had also appeared in longer form on Live/Dead. "One More Saturday Night" was taken from the band's live release Europe '72. And "Mexicali Blues" was actually a track from guitarist Bob Weir's solo release (but essentially Dead album) Ace.

Warner Bros. released the album on CD and cassette in 1988 before re-releasing the LP in 1990. The album would be later re-released on by Rhino Records on May 24, 2004 as part of a greatest hits series by various bands. It contains the complete "Lovelight" from Live/Dead.

Skeletons from the Closet is the Dead's best-selling album, going triple platinum in the United States.

The back cover has been under much scrutiny by fans in terms of interpretation. It depicts three men playing cards with a globe in the center of the table in a futuristic diner with a flying saucer hovering outside in the background. The three men appear as Marlon Brando from The Wild One, a long-haired bearded man in a graduation cap and gown and a Bandito with a sly look on his face. Some have interpreted it as Man, Jesus Christ and The Devil playing cards for the world. However the artist, John Van Hamersveld, has never confirmed this.

Track listing

  1. "Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)" (Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan) – 2:07
  2. "Truckin'" (Garcia, Robert Hunter, Lesh, Weir) – 5:09
  3. "Rosemary" (Garcia, Hunter) – 1:58
  4. "Sugar Magnolia" (Hunter, Weir) – 3:15
    • Originally released on the album American Beauty.
  5. "St. Stephen" (Garcia, Hunter, Lesh) – 4:26
    • Originally released on the album Aoxomoxoa.
  6. "Uncle John's Band" (Garcia, Hunter) – 4:42
    • Originally released on the album Workingman's Dead.
  7. "Casey Jones" (Garcia, Hunter) – 4:24
  8. "Mexicali Blues" (John Perry Barlow, Weir) – 3:24
    • Originally released on the Bob Weir album Ace.
  9. "Turn on Your Love Light" (Deadric Malone, Joseph Scott) – 6:30 / 15:08 (2004 re-release)
    • Originally released on Live/Dead.
  10. "One More Saturday Night" (Weir) – 4:45
  11. "Friend of the Devil" (John Dawson, Garcia, Hunter) – 3:20
    • Originally released on the album American Beauty.

Personnel

Grateful Dead

Additional performers

Production

  • Stephen Barncard, David Hassinger - compilation producers
  • Dick Bogert - engineer
  • Betty Cantor-Jackson, Bob Matthews - producers, engineers
  • Dave Collins - digital remastering assistant
  • Joe Gastwirt - remixing, producer
  • Bob Seidemann - art direction
  • John Van Hamersveld - artwork
  • Bill Wolf - editing

Charts

Billboard

Chart Position
Pop Albums 75

RIAA Certification

Certification Date
Gold[2] March 14, 1980
Platinum[2] December 15, 1986
Double Platinum[2] June 27, 1994
Triple Platinum[2] January 31, 1995

See also

References

  1. ^ Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip . Jake Woodward, et al. Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2003, pg. 165.
  2. ^ a b c d "RIAA Gold & Platinum database-Skeletons from the Closet". Retrieved February 28, 2009.
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