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Show Notes

Anthem Of The Sun - Grateful Dead (Warner Bros. WS 1749)
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The Dead:
Jerry Garcia - lead guitar, acoustic guitar, kazoo, vibraslap, vocals
Bob Weir - rhythm guitar, 12-string guitar, acoustic guitar, kazoo, vocals
Pigpen (Ron McKernan) - organ, celesta, claves, vocals
Phil Lesh - bass, trumpet, harpsichord, guiro, kazoo, piano, timpani, vocals
Mickey Hart & Bill Kreutzmann - drums, orchestra bells, gong, chimes, crotales, prepared piano, finger cymbals
Tom Constanten - prepared piano, piano, electronic tape

Full album download includes Bonus Material:
Alligator (8/23/68 Shrine Exposition Center, Los Angeles, CA)
Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks) (8/23/68 Shrine Exposition Center, Los Angeles, CA)
Feedback (8/23/68 Shrine Exposition Center, Los Angeles, CA)
Born Cross-Eyed (Single)

Released on July 18, 1968

In November, 1967, the band began recording the album in Los Angeles, using eight-track tape recorders, with David Hassinger. During these sessions, "Turn On Your Lovelight", "Death Don't Have No Mercy", "The Other One", "New Potato Caboose", "Alligator" and "Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks)" had been recorded. Hassinger quit the project after he was asked by Weir to provide "the sound of thick air" in "Born Cross-Eyed".

The album is a musical collage taken from studio (September, 1967 at RCA Studio A in Hollywood; October, 1967 at American Studios in North Hollywood; December, 1967 at Century Sound in New York and Olmstead Studios in New York) and live (November 10 and 11, 1967 at Shrine Exposition, Los Angeles; January 20, 1968 at Eureka; January 26 and 27, 1968 at Eagles Auditorium, Seattle; February 2 and 3, 1968 at the Crystal Ballroom, Portland; February 14, 1968 at the Carousel Ballroom in San Francisco; February 22, 23, and 24, 1968 at the Kings Beach Bowl in Lake Tahoe; March 15, 16, 17, 29, 30, and 31, 1968 at the Carousel Ballroom in San Francisco) recordings.

The basic music ("Cryptical Envelopment", "The Other One", "Alligator") for the album was taken from the Dead's performance on St. Valentine's Day, 1968, at the Carousel Ballroom, in San Francisco.

It is possible that the basic music for "New Potato Caboose" and "Born Cross-Eyed" comes from the February 3, 1968 show at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, Oregon.

Portions of "New Potato Caboose" appear to be from the March 17, 1968 show.

A portion of "Feedback" is from the January 22, 1968 show at Eagles Auditorium, Seattle, Washington. A 13 second portion of "Feedback", from February 24, 1968 was used (see "Dick's Picks Volume 22", disc two for the siren sound heard at about 3:17 in order to find it).

The sequence for side two has "Alligator" (from the February 14, 1968 show at the Carousel Ballroom) into "Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks)" (from the November 10, 1967 show at the Shrine Exposition), and with some of "Feedback" from the March 17, 1968 show at the Carousel Ballroom. This basic music was then layered with various live and studio recordings. Dan Healy, Jerry Garcia, and Phil Lesh did the final mixing at Coast Recorders.

Phil Lesh plays the eight bar trumpet solo (based on Miles Davis' "Sketches Of Spain") during the "...from time to time..." chorus on "Born Cross-Eyed".

"Alligator" was written by Robert Hunter while he was working as a portrait artist in New Mexico, in February, 1966.

"New Potato Caboose" was written in mid-1967, some time after the Dead's first album was released. The "Spanish Jam" segment was inspired by the horn lines from "Solea" on the "Sketches Of Spain" album by Miles Davis.

(notes excerpted with permission from "The Compleat Grateful Dead Discography" by Ihor Slabicky)