Steal Your Face

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Steal Your Face is a live double album by the Grateful Dead, released in June 1976. The album was recorded live in concert between October 16 and October 20, 1974, at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom as part of the band's then–"farewell run".

Background

The title of the album derives from the lyrics of "He's Gone", a song that does not appear on the album ("Like I told ya, what I said, steal your face right off your head").

In an interview, Jerry Garcia said: "None of us liked it. I'm sure even Phil and Owsley didn't like it that much. I think part of it was that we were not working, and we didn't have anything else to deliver."

Despite the discontent of the band, the album was issued under duress in order to fulfill a contractual obligation to United Artists. The cover art featured a logo (a grinning skull with a lightning bolt on the frontal bone) designed by Owsley Stanley and rendered by Bob Thomas. The logo has since been identified as the "steal your face", or "stealie" logo, though it first appeared on the cover of History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear's Choice).

Although the album was released during the band's working life (and with its full consent), it was omitted from the 2004 Rhino Records Beyond Description (1973–1989) boxed set that otherwise collected all of the Dead's studio and live works from this era. Instead, a five-CD album called The Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack, which documents the same run of shows as Steal Your Face, was released concurrently with the boxed set. Only one performance from Steal Your Face also appears on The Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack: "Casey Jones", from October 17, in an abbreviated form. Three songs appear on both albums but are from different shows: "Stella Blue", "Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo", and "U.S. Blues".

Track listing

Side one

1. "Promised Land" (Chuck Berry) – 3:17
2. "Cold Rain and Snow" (trad., arr. Grateful Dead) – 5:38
3. "Around and Around" (Berry) – 5:07
4. "Stella Blue" (Robert Hunter, Jerry Garcia) – 8:48

Side two

5. "Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo" (Hunter, Garcia) – 8:04
6. "Ship of Fools" (Hunter, Garcia) – 7:01
7. "Beat It On Down the Line" (Jesse Fuller) – 3:24

Side three

8. "Big River" (Johnny Cash) – 4:55
9. "Black-Throated Wind" (John Barlow, Bob Weir) – 6:07
10. "U.S. Blues" (Hunter, Garcia) – 5:42
11. "El Paso" (Marty Robbins) – 4:17

• "Black-Throated Wind" is an edited version with a fade-out approximately 1:20 from the end of the performance

Side four

12. "Sugaree" (Hunter, Garcia) – 7:37
13. "It Must Have Been the Roses" (Hunter) – 6:00
14. "Casey Jones" (Hunter, Garcia) – 7:04

Recording dates

According to the Grateful Dead Family Discography, the recording dates for the performances included on Steal Your Face are thought to be as follows:

• "Casey Jones" and "It Must Have Been the Roses"  – recorded live on October 17, 1974, at the Winterland.
• "Ship of Fools", "Beat It On Down the Line" and "Sugaree" – recorded live on October 18, 1974, at the Winterland.
• "Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo", "Black Throated Wind", "U.S. Blues", "Big River" and "El Paso" – recorded live on October 19, 1974, at the Winterland.
• "Promised Land", "Cold Rain and Snow", "Around and Around", and "Stella Blue" – recorded live on October 20, 1974, at the Winterland.

Personnel

• Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals
• Donna Jean Godchaux – vocals
• Keith Godchaux – keyboards, vocals
• Mickey Hart – drums on "The Promised Land"
• Bill Kreutzmann – drums
• Phil Lesh – bass guitar
• Bob Weir – guitar, vocals