American Beauty (album)
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American Beauty is the fifth album by the Grateful Dead. It was recorded between August and September 1970 and originally released in November 1970 by Warner Bros. Records. The album continued the folk rock and country music explored on Workingman's Dead and features the lyrics of Robert Hunter prominently.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 258 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
History
The band began recording American Beauty only a few months after the release of Workingman's Dead. An odd occurrence was that the band recorded the album without their sound crew, which was out on the road as part of the Medicine Ball Caravan tour (which the Dead were originally scheduled to join), and this led to staff engineer Stephen Barncard replacing Bob Matthews as producer -- "a move that irks Matthews to this day." Barncard mused that "I had heard bad stories about engineers' interactions with the Dead ... but what I found were a bunch of hardworking guys."[1]
Both Workingman's Dead and American Beauty were innovative at the time for their fusion of bluegrass, rock and roll, folk music and, especially, country. Compared to Workingman's Dead, American Beauty had even less lead guitar work from Jerry Garcia, who instead filled the void with shimmering pedal steel guitar passages on both albums. It was during the recording of this album that Garcia would first collaborate with mandolinist David Grisman. "I just bumped into Jerry at a baseball game in Fairfax, and he said, 'Hey, you wanna play on this record we're doing?'" commented Grisman.[2] Phil Lesh, in his autobiography, commented "the magnetism of the scene at Wally Heider's recording studio made it a lot easier for me to deal with Dad's loss and my new responsibilities. Some of the best musicians around were hanging there during that period; with Paul Kantner and Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane, the Dead, Santana, Crosby, Nash, and Neil Young working there, the studio became jammer heaven ... Thank the Lord for music; it's a healing force beyond words to describe."[3]
"Truckin'" and "Ripple" were released as a single,[4] and the songs "Box of Rain", "Sugar Magnolia", and "Friend of the Devil" also received radio play. In his book on Garcia, Blair Jackson noted that "if you liked rock'n'roll in 1970, but didn't like the Dead, you were out of luck, because they were inescapable that summer and fall."[2] American Beauty peaked at #30 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart (North America), while the single, "Truckin'", peaked at #64 on the Pop Singles chart and achieved considerable FM rock radio airplay. It is the final album with Mickey Hart until his return to the band four years later in 1975.
Cover
The title wording on the front cover is an ambigram; it can also be read as "American Reality".[5] The artwork was produced by Mouse-Kelley Studios.
Critical reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |  [6] |
| Rolling Stone | [7] |
| Robert Christgau | (A-)[8] |
In 2003, the album was ranked number 258 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 1991, Rolling Stone ranked American Beauty's album cover as the 57th best of all time.[9]
Track listing
- "Box of Rain" (Robert Hunter, Phil Lesh) – 5:18
- "Friend of the Devil" (Jerry Garcia, John Dawson, Hunter) – 3:24
- "Sugar Magnolia" (Bob Weir, Hunter) – 3:19
- "Operator" (Ron McKernan) – 2:25
- "Candyman" (Garcia, Hunter) – 6:14
- "Ripple" (Garcia, Hunter) – 4:09
- "Brokedown Palace" (Garcia, Hunter) – 4:09
- "Till the Morning Comes" (Garcia, Hunter) – 3:08
- "Attics of My Life" (Garcia, Hunter) – 5:12
- "Truckin'" (Garcia, Lesh, Weir, Hunter) – 5:03
The 2003 Rhino reissue, on HDCD, added the following tracks:
- "Truckin'" (Single Edit) – 3:17
- "Friend of the Devil" (Live — May 15, 1970 at Fillmore East in New York City) – 4:21
- "Candyman" (Live — April 15, 1970 at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco) – 5:18
- "Till the Morning Comes" (Live — October 4, 1970 at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco) – 3:20
- "Attics of My Life" (Live — June 6, 1970 at Fillmore West in San Francisco) – 6:31
- "Truckin'" (Live — December 26, 1970 at Legion Stadium in Wilmington, Los Angeles, California) – 10:10
- "Ripple" (Single Version) – 3:02
- "American Beauty Promo" – 1:11
The final two tracks are unlisted. The "American Beauty Promo" is a radio commercial promoting the release of this album.
Personnel
- Jerry Garcia – guitar, pedal steel guitar on "Sugar Magnolia", "Candyman", and "Brokedown Palace", piano on "Box of Rain", vocals
- Mickey Hart – percussion
- Robert Hunter – lyricist
- Phil Lesh – bass guitar, acoustic guitar on "Box of Rain", piano, vocals, Lead on "Box of Rain"
- Bill Kreutzmann – drums
- Ron "Pigpen" McKernan – harmonica, vocals on "Operator"
- Bob Weir – guitar, vocals, Lead on "Sugar Magnolia" and "Trucking"
- Additional performers
- David Grisman – mandolin on "Friend of the Devil" and "Ripple"
- David Nelson – electric guitar on "Box of Rain"
- Ned Lagin – piano on "Candyman"
- New Riders of the Purple Sage
- Dave Torbert – bass guitar on "Box of Rain"
- Howard Wales – organ on "Candyman" and "Truckin'" and piano on "Brokedown Palace"
- Production
- Dave Collins — pre-mastering assistance
- Tom Flye — engineering, mixing, mastering supervision
- Joe Gastwirt — pre-mastering assistance
- Daniel Goldmark — editorial research
- Robin Hurley — production
- David McLees — executive production
- Jeffrey Norman — engineering
- Fred Ordower — engineering
- Rudson Shurtliff — engineering
- Design
- Robert Altman - photography
- Henry Diltz — photography
- Ginger Dettman — project assistance
- Herbert Greene — photography
- Stanley Mouse — photography, design
- Fred Ordower — photography
- Steve Pokorny — project assistance
- Amalie R. Rothschild — photography
- Steve Woolard — project assistants
- Reissue production credits
- Greg Allen — design, reissue art direction
- Shawn Amos — liner notes coordination
- Vanessa Atkins — editorial supervision
- James Austin — reissue production
- Stephen Barncard — production, audio supervision
- Hugh Brown — design, reissue art direction
- Jimmy Edwards — product management
- David Gans — liner notes, project assistance
- Joe Gastwirt - mastering, production consultation
- Daniel Goldmark — editorial research
- Rachel Gutek — design, reissue art direction
- Michael Wesley Johnson — associate production
- Eileen Law — research
- David Lemieux- reissue production
- Jo Motta — project coordinator
- Jeffrey Norman - mixing
- Gary Peterson — liner note coordination
- Steve Silberman, Bill Belmont, David Gans, Jeff Gold, Bill Inglot, Blair Jackson, Gary Lambert, Steve Lang, David McLees, Hale Milgrim, Randy Perry, Janette L. Simmons, Owsley "Bear" Stanley - project assistance
Charts
- Album
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1971 | Billboard 200 | 30[10] |
- Singles
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | "Truckin'" | Billboard Hot 100 | 64[11] |
Certifications
| Certification | Date |
|---|---|
| Gold[12] | July 11, 1974 |
| Platinum[12] | October 13, 1986 |
| Double Platinum[12] | August 24, 2001 |
Release history
The album was released in a multitude of ways in the years since its original release.[6] In 2001, the CD version was remastered, expanded and was also part of the The Golden Road (1965–1973) 12-CD box set. This version included live and unreleased studio tracks. On October 24, 2004, it was released as a DualDisc recording, including a DVD side with interviews with Mickey Hart and Bob Weir, a photo gallery, and lyrics to all songs. Additionally in 2001 a standalone DVD-Audio version was released including a 5.1 Surround Sound mix. The album—including the re-release bonus tracks—is also available on the iTunes Store.
| Region | Date | Label | Format | Catalog |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 1970-11-01 | Warner Bros. | LP | ? |
| 1978 | Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab | MFS-1-014 | ||
| Worldwide | 1987 | Warner Bros. | Compact Disc | 2-1893 |
| Cassette tape | M5-1893 | |||
| 1990 | LP | 1893 | ||
| United States | 2001 | Rhino | DVD-Audio | 74385 |
| 2003 | CD | 74397† | ||
| LP | ||||
| 2004-10-24 | Warner Bros./Rhino | DualDisc | 74385 | |
| 2007 | Grateful Dead | CD | 74794 | |
| Worldwide | Rhino | 1893 | ||
| WEA/Rhino | LP | 8122736821 |
† Re-mastered edition with bonus tracks
References
- ^ Garcia: An American Life by Blair Jackson, Penguin Books, 1999, pg. 196.
- ^ a b Garcia: An American Life by Blair Jackson, Penguin Books, 1999, pg. 202.
- ^ Phil Lesh: Searching for the Sound by Phil Lesh, Little, Brown and Company, 2005, pg. 190.
- ^ List of Grateful Dead singles on DeadDisc.com
- ^ Zwerling, Andy. American Beauty review from Rolling Stone, posted on Musical Stew Daily
- ^ a b Jason Ankeny. "Allmusic review". Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 2010-11-22.
- ^ Andy Zwerling (1997-01-21). "Rolling Stone Review". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2007-10-02. Retrieved 2010-11-22.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Robert Christgau Review". Retrieved 2010-11-22.
- ^ "Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Album Covers". Rate Your Music. 1991-11-14. Retrieved 2011-03-18.
- ^ "Billboard 200 album chart position". Rovi Corporation/Billboard. Retrieved 2010-11-22.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Billboard Hot 100 singles chart position". Rovi Corporation/Billboard. Retrieved 2010-11-22.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ a b c "RIAA Gold & Platinum database-American Beauty". Retrieved February 28, 2009.
The making of American Beauty and Anthem of the Sun are described by former members and associates of the Grateful Dead in the 1997 Classic Albums documentary Anthem to Beauty.
