The Grateful Dead

Grateful Dead

Warner Bros. WS-1689

The first Grateful Dead album. LP originally released in 1967. An expanded CD version of the album was released in 2003. A limited edition vinyl version was released for Record Store Day in 2011. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the release of the album a picture disc LP and a double CD deluxe edition of the album were released in 2017.

Tracks

Original LP:

• The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion) (McGannahan Skjellyfetti)
• Beat It On Down The Line (Jesse Fuller)
• Good Morning, Little School Girl (H.G. Demarais)
• Cold Rain And Snow (McGannahan Skjellyfetti)
• Sittin' On Top Of The World (Jacobs/Carter)
• Cream Puff War (Jerry Garcia)
• Morning Dew (Dobson/Rose)
• New, New Minglewood Blues (McGannahan Skjellyfetti)
• Viola Lee Blues (Noah Lewis)

• Alice D. Millionaire (Garcia/Kreutzmann/Lesh/McKernan/Weir)
• Overseas Stomp (Lindbergh Hop or The Lindy Hop) (Jones/Shade)
• Tastebud (McKernan)
• Death Don't Have No Mercy (Edited studio take) (Davis)
• Viola Lee Blues (Edited version) (Noah Lewis)
• Viola Lee Blues (Live) (Noah Lewis)

• Standing On The Corner
• I Know You Rider
• Next Time You See Me
• Sittin' On Top Of The World
• You Don't Have To Ask
• Big Boss Man
• Stealin'
• Cardboard Cowboy
• It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
• Cream Puff War
• Viola Lee Blues
• Beat It On Down The Line
• Good Mornin' Little Schoolgirl
• Cold Rain And Snow
• One Kind Favor
• Hey Little One
• New, New Minglewood Blues

• Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals
• Bill Kreutzmann - drums
• Phil Lesh - bass
• Pigpen (Ron McKernan) - keyboards, harmonica, vocals
• Bob Weir - guitar

San Francisco's Grateful Dead:

Bob Weir, Pigpen, Bill The Drummer
Jerry ("Captain Trips") Garcia, and Phil Lesh

• Producer - Dave Hassinger
• Arranger - The Grateful Dead
• Engineer - Dick Bogert
• Cover design - Mouse Studios
• Collage - Kelly
• Photography - Herb Greene, Gene Anthony
• Recorded mainly at RCA Studio A in Hollywood

Recorded in roughly three days in January 1967 in Los Angeles. The Dead supposedly selected Dave Hassinger, a Warner Brothers staff producer, because he had worked as engineer on two Rolling Stones records that they liked.

Golden Road was recorded separately at Coast Recorders in San Francisco.

In an early interview Garcia described the album;

I think our album is honest. It sounds just like us. It even has mistakes on it. But it also has a certain amount of excitement on it. It sounds like we felt good when we were making it. We made it in a short period, four days, and it's the material we've been doing onstage for quite a long time. It sounds like one of our good sets.

... So we went down there and what was it we had, Dexamyl? Some sort of dietwatcher's speed, and pot and stuff like that. So in three nights we played some hyperactive music.

Cryptic or ambiguous lettering has been a feature of a number of Grateful Dead LP sleeves. The lettering at the top of this cover reads;

In the land of the dark the ship of the sun is driven by the

Grateful Dead

We didn't like it because we thought it was a tad pretentious. So we talked to Stanley [Mouse] and said could you do something that almost says something but doesn't quite. The result of that has been that all the places we've been where people have had the album, we've been able to hear their translations.

Note that Cold Rain and Snow and New, New Minglewood Blues though credited as band compositions are adaptations of existing songs.

Related releases

Initially released with a gold Warner Brothers label and then reissued in 1968 by Warner Brothers (as WS 1689) with a green label.

One single was released in conjunction with this LP:

• The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion) / Cream Puff War, Grateful Dead, March 1967, Warner Brothers 7016

The album was included with bonus tracks in the box set:

• The Golden Road (1965-1973), Grateful Dead, 2001

A limited edition vinyl was released for record store day in April 2011.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the release of the first Grateful Dead album a double CD deluxe edition of the album was released in 2017:

• The Grateful Dead: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, Grateful Dead, 2017

• The Grateful Dead: 50th Anniversary Picture Disc LP, Grateful Dead, 2017

• The Grateful Dead / Anthem Of The Sun, Grateful Dead, 1976?

• Complete Studio Albums Collection, Grateful Dead, 2013

• What A Long Strange Trip It's Been - The Best Of The Grateful Dead, Grateful Dead, 1977, Warner Bros. 2W-3091

• Skeletons From The Closet, Grateful Dead, 1974, Warner Bros. W-2764

Two Originals, Grateful Dead, 197?

• The Very Best Of The Grateful Dead, Grateful Dead, Sept 2003