[2024-06-21] The Grateful Dead "From The Mars Hotel (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edtion)" 3CD box set (Grateful Dead)

Linda · **Posted:** Tue Mar 26, 2024 10:24 pm

Amazon USA
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYN8VRPY/?tag=imwan-20

Amazon Canada
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CYN8VRPY/?tag=imwanca-20

Amazon UK
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Description
50 years ago, the Grateful Dead were cooking with gas. It was spring 1974, the band had successfully emerged from a series of hectic, harrowing times, and would soon follow their transformative Wake Of The Flood with the second acclaimed album release on their very own Grateful Dead Records: From The Mars Hotel. During the mere eight months that had passed between those two beloved LPs, the group also played some of their most exploratory live music and largest venues to date, famously amplified by the homemade, 75-ton Wall of Sound that they debuted on March 23rd, 1974, at their hometown Cow Palace in Daly City, CA. Eternal staples such as “Scarlet Begonias,” “Ship Of Fools” and “U.S. Blues” would first be introduced into setlists along that season’s tour, before the Grateful Dead spent two months recording and honing them in the studio for From The Mars Hotel. Not to mention perennial classics like “China Doll” and “Loose Lucy,” or “Pride of Cucamonga” and “Unbroken Chain” – the final two tracks Phil Lesh would sing on a Grateful Dead studio album. Now, as Grateful Dead members and tributaries continue to celebrate and bring so many of these formative songs to the masses, From The Mars Hotel has been remastered and expanded with newly unearthed material and rarities, in honor of its 50th Anniversary.

Out June 21st via Rhino, six days before the album’s original release on June 27, 1974, From The Mars Hotel (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) features remastered audio by GRAMMY® Award-winning engineer David Glaser, with Plangent Processes tape restoration and speed correction. Produced for release by Grateful Dead Legacy Manager and Audio Archivist, David Lemieux, the deluxe edition also includes demos of “China Doll” and “Wave That Flag” – the song that became “U.S. Blues” – as well as a previously unreleased live performance of the Grateful Dead at University of Nevada, Reno on 5/12/1974. As the band filled an outdoor football stadium with epic highs like a huge “China Cat Sunflower” > “I Know You Rider,” Mars Hotel cuts including “U.S. Blues” and classics such as “Brown-Eyed Women,” “Tennessee Jed,” “Mississippi Half-Step,” “Truckin'” and “Sugar Magnolia,” a massive wind storm was no match for the Wall of Sound. Designed to improve the listening and performance experience at what were becoming larger gigs and longer, more dynamic and varied sets, the Wall of Sound required 21 stage hands, and underlined the resounding effect the Grateful Dead were having on American audiences and culture at the time, even as the entire operation remained homespun and humble.

Recorded in San Francisco’s Coast Recorders studio, From The Mars Hotel finds Keith Godchaux particularly shining across a variety of keys, from the “China Doll” harpsichord to the pounding piano on Bob Weir’s “Money Money,” to the churchy organ that elevates “Ship Of Fools.” Lyricist Robert Hunter packs “U.S. Blues” with a barrage of imagery, pop-culture references and sardonic asides – as Canadian author Ray Robertson writes in the 50th Anniversary Edition’s liner notes, it “carries an undeniable whiff of late-capitalism ennui…it’s the most fun you’ll ever have dancing to the end of the American Empire.” Jerry Garcia’s jaunty lead guitar drives bouncing melodies across the LP, while guests include Ned Lagin’s unnerving synth effects on “Unbroken Chain,” Clover member John McFee’s country-rock pedal steel on “Pride Of Cucamonga,” and more.

From The Mars Hotel peaked at #16 on the Billboard 200 chart in 1974, contributing to the Grateful Dead’s historic achievement last month, when they broke the all-time record for most Top 40 albums on the Billboard 200.

Tracklist
[CD1: From The Mars Hotel (2024 Remaster)]
1. U.S. Blues
2. China Doll
3. Unbroken Chain
4. Loose Lucy
5. Scarlet Begonias
6. Pride Of Cucamonga
7. Money Money
8. Ship Of Fools
Bonus Tracks:
9. China Doll (Demo)
10. Wave That Flag (Demo)

[CD2: Live From The University Of Nevada, Reno, 5/12/74]
1. Sugaree
2. Mexicali Blues
3. Tennessee Jed
4. Jack Straw
5. Brown-Eyed Women
6. Beat It On Down The Line
7. China Cat Sunflower
8. I Know You Rider
9. El Paso
10. U.S. Blues
11. Greatest Story Ever Told
12. It Must Have Been The Roses
13. Me And Bobby McGee
14. Deal

[CD3: Live From The University Of Nevada, Reno, 5/12/74]
1. Around And Around
2. Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
3. Truckin'
4. The Other One
5. Row Jimmy
6. Big River
7. Ship Of Fools
8. Sugar Magnolia

Packshot (click for full size):

Linda · **Posted:** Wed Mar 27, 2024 2:44 pm

"Wave That Flag (Demo)"

Linda · **Posted:** Sat Apr 06, 2024 10:57 am

The USA pre-order price has dropped by $4, down to $30.99:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYN8VRPY/?tag=imwan-20

Linda · **Posted:** Thu May 23, 2024 8:45 pm

"Ship Of Fools (Live From The University Of Nevada, Reno, 5/12/74)"

Linda · **Posted:** Thu Jun 13, 2024 9:45 pm

"Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo (Live From The University Of Nevada, Reno, 5/12/74)"

[2024-06-21] The Grateful Dead "From The Mars Hotel (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edtion)" 3CD box set (Grateful Dead)

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