Granted, that 10-number concert-which doubles the album’s length to nearly two and a half hours-duplicates some tunes from the original release.
#Skulls music and roses upgrade#
Now, a 50 th-anniversary edition of the album offers good reasons to upgrade from old copies: the original record-a double LP that later fit on a single CD-has been well remastered for this release, and it is accompanied here by a second disc that delivers a pristine recording of a previously unissued July 1971 Fillmore West concert. And with good reason: while no single song here proves quite as dazzling as Live/Dead’s “Dark Star,” the band impresses consistently, delivering solid new originals, all of which became concert staples, as well as covers that showcase strong interpretive abilities and affection for the Bakersfield Sound. Goode” Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried” “Me & My Uncle,” by John Phillips of the Mamas and Papas and a nine-minute medley that weds Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” to the traditional “Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad.”Īs much as the fans liked Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty, they apparently liked Grateful Dead (Skull & Roses) even more, buying enough copies to make it the group’s first gold record. The rest of the album consists of imaginatively arranged country and rock covers, among them Kris Kristofferson’s “Me & Bobby McGee” Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. It does include nods to country, but it paints a picture of a more versatile group, employing funky rock and offering a return to psychedelia via its centerpiece: an 18-minute version of Bob Weir and Bill Kreutzman’s “The Other One,” which first appeared on 1968’s Anthem of the Sun. There are also a couple of Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter cowrites, the rocking “Bertha” and “Wharf Rat,” a wino’s tale, as well as the infectious “Playing in the Band,” by Hunter and Weir. Indeed, it draws no songs from either of them. The 11-track Grateful Dead (Skull & Roses)-which features the band’s original lineup of Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Phil Lesh, and Bill Kreutzmann-doesn’t sound much like those LPs. Those albums find the Dead forsaking their earlier extended jams and psychedelic bent in favor of tightly constructed, melodic country-rock that emphasizes prominent, harmony-laden vocal work. At the time, the group was enjoying the back-to-back successes of Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty, which had been released within five months of each other in 1970. The record, which appeared in October 1971, contains performances from March and April of that year at seven New York and San Francisco concerts. Like the Beatles’ so-called White Album, the Grateful Dead’s eponymous second concert LP (following 1969’s well-named Live/Dead) has come to be known by a description of its cover art: Skull & Roses. A 50th Anniversary Edition of the Dead’s Second Live Album
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