Grateful Dead

Aoxomoxoa

1969

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Show Notes

Aoxomoxoa - Grateful Dead (Warner Bros. WS 1790)
Download MP3 (256kbps) or Download FLAC

The Dead:
Jerry Garcia - guitars, vocals
Bob Weir - guitars, vocals
Ron McKernan - Pigpen
Phil Lesh - basses, vocals
Mickey Hart & Bill Kreutzmann - percussion
Tom Constanten - keyboards

Full album download includes Bonus Material:
Clementine Jam (8/13/68 Pacific Recording Studio, San Mateo, CA)
Nobody's Spoonful Jam (8/13/68 Pacific Recording Studio, San Mateo, CA)
The Eleven Jam (8/13/68 Pacific Recording Studio, San Mateo, CA)
Cosmic Charlie (1/25/69 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA)

Released on June 20, 1969, and possibly as early as May, 1969.

The Dead recorded the album between late August, 1968 and early 1969, mostly at Pacific Recording Studios, San Mateo. This was one of the first recording ever made using sixteen-track tape, an Ampex MM-1000 deck at Alembic studios.

Peter Grant plays pedal steel on "Doin' That Rag".

"The Eleven" was recorded for the album, to be linked with "St. Stephen", but was not included.

The lyrics to "St. Stephen" and to "China Cat Sunflower" were written by Robert Hunter when he was in New Mexico in February, 1966, working as a portrait artist. Hunter had been working on "St. Stephen" before going to New Mexico.

The word AOXOMOXOA is a palindrome thought up by artist Rick Griffin. One of the working titles for the album was "Earthquake Country".

According to Robert Hunter, "Cosmic Charlie" is not based on Charles "Cosmic Charlie" Bosch, one of the characters on the scene in the Haight, who was 'so cosmic'. "Calico" is based on a woman who was one (and may still be) one of the Hog Farmers. The characters and themes in "St. Stephen" do not appear to be based on any real person of the Sixties; they may all come from Hunter's deep appreciation of English poetry and imagery.

In the studio on August 13, 1968, the Grateful Dead played extended versions of "Clementine", "Nobody's Fault", and "The Eleven"; these appear here as bonus tracks.

The engineers on the album were Bob Matthews and Betty Cantor.

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

Reviews

St. Stephen 266

Dupree's Diamond Blues 212

Rosemary 118

Doin' That Rag 281

Mountains Of The Moon 242

China Cat Sunflower 220

What's Become Of The Baby 492

Cosmic Charlie 329

Clementine Jam 645

Nobody's Spoonful Jam 604

The Eleventh Jam 900

Cosmic Charlie 407

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