Grateful Dead (Skull and Roses) cover

Grateful Dead (Skull and Roses)

The Grateful Dead

Album · 1971 · Warner Bros. 2WS 1935

The Grateful Dead’s live double album Grateful Dead (Warner Bros. 2WS 1935) came out in 1971 with no title on the cover or labels; it is generally known as Skull & Roses from the cover art, drawn by Alton Kelley and Stanley Mouse. It was the band’s first album certified gold by the RIAA. The recordings were made between 24 March and 29 April 1971 at Winterland in San Francisco, the Manhattan Center in New York and the Fillmore East in New York.

The band was Jerry Garcia on lead guitar and vocals, Bob Weir on rhythm guitar and vocals, Phil Lesh on bass and vocals, Bill Kreutzmann on drums and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan on organ, harmonica and vocals. Mickey Hart had left the band in February 1971 and does not play on the album. Merl Saunders added organ to “Bertha,” “Playing in the Band” and “Wharf Rat” in the studio.

Much of the program comes from country, blues and folk. It includes Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried,” Noah Lewis’s “Big Railroad Blues,” Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster’s “Me and Bobby McGee” and John Phillips’s “Me and My Uncle.” The closing side joins “Not Fade Away” to “Goin’ Down the Road Feeling Bad,” a traditional song arranged by the Grateful Dead, recorded at the Manhattan Center on 6 April 1971; the segue also received radio airplay. Garcia had played bluegrass and old-time music in the early 1960s, including banjo with the Sleepy Hollow Hog Stompers, and he later took part in bluegrass projects including Old & In the Way.

Tracklist

  1. 1 Bertha - Live at Fillmore East, New York, NY, April 27, 1971 5:40
  2. 2 Mama Tried alt version 2:11
  3. 3 Big Railroad Blues - Live at Manhattan Center, New York, NY, April 5, 1971 3:34
  4. 4 Playing in the Band - Live at Manhattan Center, New York, NY, April 6, 1971 4:39
  5. 5 The Other One - Live at Fillmore East, New York, NY, April 28, 1971 18:04
  6. 6 Me & My Uncle - Live at Fillmore East, New York, NY, April 29, 1971 3:03
  7. 7 Big Boss Man - Live at Fillmore East, New Yor, NY, April 26, 1971 5:11
  8. 8 Me & Bobby McGee - Live at Fillmore East, New York, NY, April 27, 1971 5:43
  9. 9 Johnny B. Goode - Live at Winterland, San Francisco, CA, March 24, 1971 3:42
  10. 10 Wharf Rat - Live at Fillmore East, New York, NY, April 26, 1971 8:31
  11. 11 Goin’ Down the Road Feeling Bad alt version 9:13

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