Grateful Dead: From the Mars Hotel (50th anniversary, indie exclusive, neon pink vinyl, remastered) [RHINO]

Why you'll love it

This 50th anniversary indie exclusive is remastered and pressed on neon pink vinyl. It's the Dead's last studio album before their 1974 touring hiatus and the studio home of "Scarlet Begonias."

This edition

• 50th anniversary edition
• Neon pink vinyl
• Indie exclusive
• Remastered

About the album

The cover shows a real San Francisco building, the Mars Hotel, dropped into an alien landscape by artists Kelley/Mouse. The real thing was a derelict flophouse; the album named after it is one of the Dead's sunniest, most tightly played studio records.

The band returned to Coast Recorders on Folsom Street, where they had cut a single for their first album in 1967, and produced it themselves with engineer Roy Segal. Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter wrote most of the songs: "U.S. Blues," rewritten from an earlier tune, the gentle "China Doll," the funky "Loose Lucy" and "Scarlet Begonias," introduced live just a month before recording. Phil Lesh wrote and sang two, "Unbroken Chain" and "Pride of Cucamonga," with poet Bobby Petersen, Bob Weir brought "Money Money" with John Perry Barlow, and "Ship of Fools" closes things on a reflective note. John McFee guests on pedal steel and Ned Lagin adds synthesizer, and this anniversary edition finally credits singer Sarah Fulcher's backing vocals.

While making it, the Dead were also testing a massive touring P.A. called the Wall of Sound. Their idea of a quiet week in the studio was clearly different from ours.

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Tracklist

Listen

On Grateful Dead Records / Rhino (cat# R1 726186), a reissue of the 1974 album.