[2020-10-30] The Grateful Dead "American Beauty (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)" 3CD set (Warner/Rhino)

Linda · **Posted:** Wed Sep 09, 2020 1:58 am

Description
By any measure, 1970 was a high-water mark for the Grateful Dead. Hot on the heels of the incredible success of Workingman’s Dead that summer, the band returned in the fall with the equally stunning American Beauty. Those back-to-back classics not only introduced songs that would be a key part of the group’s live repertoire for decades, but they also opened a gateway into the world of the Grateful Dead for generations of Dead Heads. American Beauty will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year with a new release.

AMERICAN BEAUTY: 50th ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION will be available on October 30. This three-CD set (all discs are HDCD-encoded) includes the original album with newly remastered audio, plus an unreleased concert recorded on February 18, 1971 at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY. The show was mixed from the 16-track analog master tapes by Jeffrey Norman at Bob Weir’s Marin County TRI Studios and mastered by Grammy® Award-winning engineer, David Glasser.

Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart recorded American Beauty in August and September 1970 at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco with producer Stephen Quinn Barncard. When they entered the studio, Workingman’s Dead was still on the charts going strong. Such a quick follow-up on studio albums was unheard of for the band, and a feat they would never repeat. Equally shocking was the high level of craftsmanship exhibited by new songs like, “Friend Of The Devil,” “Sugar Magnolia,” “Truckin’,” and “Ripple.” Today, it’s still considered to be one of the greatest albums ever made.

“It still boggles my mind to think of the Grateful Dead's creative output in 1970. For any other band, catching lightning with an album as perfect and excellent as Workingman's Dead is a once-in-a-lifetime achievement. The Dead, however, followed up just a few months later with an album that virtually every Dead Head considers its equal. Ten songs, nearly all of which became cornerstones of the band's live repertoire for the next 25 years. Today, 50 years on, these songs are still essential parts of the band members' continuing live activities,” says David Lemieux, Grateful Dead archivist and the set’s producer. “The 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition includes one of the first, and best, live performances of 1971, just a couple of months after the release of American Beauty, and the five live debuts in the show demonstrate that the spectacular creativity of 1970 was no fluke. This was the new Dead, and we're still tapping our feet and humming along to these songs 50 years later.”

AMERICAN BEAUTY: 50th ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION includes the band’s previously unreleased live performance from February 18, 1971 at the Capitol Theatre, one of the most requested archival recordings in the Dead’s vault.

On stage that night, the Dead debuted a whole new batch of songs, five in all: “Wharf Rat,” “Playing In The Band,” “Bertha,” “Greatest Story Ever Told” and “Loser.” Fans were also treated to a few standbys from the previous decade, including “St. Stephen” and an inspired “Dark Star” jam that led into “Wharf Rat” and back to “Dark Star.” Notably, keyboardist Ned Lagin (who played piano on “Candyman” on American Beauty) sat in with the band for the show.

In the set’s liner notes, So Many Roads author David Browne recounts the history surrounding the album and dives deep into the making of this masterpiece. He writes: “American Beauty was, at heart, a beautifully made record. The interplay of rippling piano, vocal harmonies, and slide guitar in ‘Brokedown Palace’ was unlike anything they had created before, even on Workingman’s Dead. Thanks to Barncard’s expertise with recording acoustic instruments, ‘Ripple,’ perhaps [Robert] Hunter and Garcia’s most meditative song, had a country-stream clarity. ‘Friend Of The Devil’—a Hunter, Garcia, and John “Marmaduke” Dawson tale of an on-the-run rogue that almost ended up with Dawson’s New Riders Of The Purple Sage—had the same crispiness. (Both tracks also benefited from overdubbed mandolin parts from David Grisman.)”

Tracklist
[CD1: Original Album Remastered]
1. Box Of Rain
2. Friend Of The Devil
3. Sugar Magnolia
4. Operator
5. Candyman
6. Ripple
7. Brokedown Palace
8. Till The Morning Comes
9. Attics Of My Life
10. Truckin’

[CD2: Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY (2/18/71)]
1. Bertha
2. Truckin’
3. Hurts Me Too
4. Loser
5. Greatest Story Ever Told>
6. Johnny B. Goode
7. Mama Tried
8. Hard To Handle
9. Dark Star>
10. Warf Rat>
11. Dark Star>
12. Me And My Uncle

[CD3: Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY (2/18/71)]
1. Casey Jones
2. Playing In The Band
3. Me And Bobby McGee
4. Candyman
5. Big Boss Man
6. Sugar Magnolia
7. St. Stephen>
8. Not Fade Away>
9. Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad>
10. Not Fade Away>
11. Uncle John’s Band

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HGPZ1Q4/?tag=imwan-20

dcscott · 26 Oct 2007

The Dark Star>Wharf Rat>Dark Star is awesome. This is a must buy.

Seth Hollander · **Joined:** 23 May 2015 **Posts:** 58

2/18/71 officially released! GREAT! Well played and (GD) historic show: 5 important songs debuted that night and it was Mickey Hart's last show until he sat in on the then-final GD show, 10/20/74. That Dark Star/(1st ever) Wharf Rat sandwich is indeed lovely, no matter how many Dark Stars you may have heard before.

If you are just a casual Dead consumer and are happy with your current copy of American Beauty, I still recommend you buy this for 2/18/71.

'71 was a big year of change for The Dead. The path away from Psychedelia into their Pastoral/Jazz-inflected Americana period began in the summer of 69 as the Workingman's Dead songs started arriving on stage, leading to the departure of Psych-keyboardist TC in early '70 (and that is the story I wanted the concert included with WD50 to tell!). During '70 Jerry switched from his SG to a Strat and undertook serious study of Roy Buchanan's Strat playing. The departure of Mickey after 2/18/71 ('71's first show), was the final nail in the Psychedelia version of the band's coffin. The new phase of the band would really gel after Keith Godchaux joined on piano (10/19/71), and the addition of Ned Lagin to the band for the 2/18/71 show also presages that.

When 2/19/71 was released as From The Vault 3, I was sad: this boring show instead of 2/19?!?! When 2/2x/71 was released in the Workingman's Dead 50th, I was sad and bewildered: they went off-pattern for this? But 2/18/71 is coming now! HUZZAH!

I liked how the first three 50th Anniversary editions each included live material from the time period leading up to the albums (i.e. the first album was recorded in early 67 and features a concert from late 66, the second recorded/assembled in early 68 has a concert from late 67, etc). When they broke that pattern for Workingman's Dead, only to add a show that I don't care for, I was able to NOT buy it. But I am gonna get 2/18/71! Hell, they coulda stuck it in a deluxe edition of Ready Or Not and I'd still buy it!

NoURider · **Joined:** 21 Jul 2006 **Posts:** 3309

I am all in, natch. As I am off today, I missed my GD announcement from GD at 9:30 this morning, and missed out the limited edition print for the release already. I missed on WD'd print as well, but I had not looked until a day after. Oh well. But this welcome addition. But they need to start picking up the pace on the releases, as the next studio is Wake of the Flood from 1973.

PeterJ · 16 May 2007

Looking forward to this! Ordered.

Linda · **Posted:** Sat Sep 12, 2020 6:31 am

A sample:

Linda · **Posted:** Sun Oct 04, 2020 2:54 pm

And another:

Mr Fuse · 01 Dec 2006

Dead Net is releasing Outtakes and Demos for these sessions on 10/15. Just like Workingmans.

[2020-10-30] The Grateful Dead "American Beauty (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)" 3CD set (Warner/Rhino)

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