![]() ![]() One of the band's iconic images, it was designed by Owsley Stanley to mark equipment cases, then rendered by Bob Thomas. The cover art prominently features the "Lightning Skull" logo. Release and reception Īlthough the song does not appear on the album, the title derives from the lyrics of "He's Gone": With the movie unfinished, the album was instead promoted in conjunction with the tour. Ultimately, by the time the album was released, the Grateful Dead resumed touring. He brushed our objections aside, saying, 'They’ll buy it anyway we need this record.' It’s a wonder the record was finished the fact it was released – against my better judgment – shows how desperate we were for product to take up the slack from lack of touring income". Bear and I went to Rakow, telling him the recordings were unusable. the result was a glutinous mud bath of sound, through which any music was scarcely discernible. Lesh explained Bear and he decided to mix "the whole thing in 'quad'. Rather than a dedicated stereo mix, during mastering, the quadraphonic mix was folded down to two channels. In anticipation, the album was mixed for the QS standard – one of several competing vinyl matrix formats. Īt the time of production, quadraphonic technology appeared ascendant. Some vocals were lost – particularly those by backing vocalist Donna Godchaux – needing to be dubbed in the studio. Additionally, the drum tracks suffered from distortion. This, along with the lack of a sound/mixing board, created sonic anomalies during tape mixing. One was wired out-of-phase in a phase-cancellation scheme requiring the singers to position very close to the microphones. Rather than a soundtrack for the yet-uncompleted film, the pair separately reviewed the audio from copies of Garcia's work tapes, then selected concert performances for a double-live album.īecause the sound system was stacked behind the band, restricted-frequency differential microphones were used in pairs, to prevent bleed and feedback loops. ![]() With lead guitarist Jerry Garcia focused on the film's sound synchronization and editing, Lesh and sound man Owsley Stanley were tasked with finishing the album tie-in first. In the meantime, band manager Ron Rakow agreed to the delivery of a soundtrack album to United Artists Records in return for additional organizational and film production costs. The completion of The Grateful Dead Movie would take nearly three years. In addition to recording the concerts on two 16-track machines, the shows were filmed for a movie release. I honored his decision, and the rest of us did, too." Although the hiatus was short-lived (the band began recording a new album just months later), a five-date "farewell" run was scheduled for October 16–20, 1974, in San Francisco. By the end of 1974, Jerry was done being that kind of hero. At some point, though, that’s not enough. Something had to give – so before it did, we made a decision to take some time off." Drummer Bill Kreutzmann stated, "I didn't think the Wall of Sound sounded great, but our interplay at some of those shows was phenomenal. Too many gigs, too much money spent, and too many people trying to get backstage all added up to a potentially explosive broth. īassist Phil Lesh recalled the "stresses and strains associated with large-scale touring – together with the devastating loss of Pigpen – were starting to create cracks and crevices in our unanimity of purpose. . Adding the employees required to operate the band's Grateful Dead Records label (and sublabel Round Records), publishing entity, direct-to-fan mailers, and other business operations, personnel required was several hundred. It required four semi-trailer trucks to transport, and due to the rigging time, necessitated two leapfrogging road crews with separate scaffolding sets. Averaging over 600 speakers powered by a minimum of 48 600-watt amplifiers, the massive and experimental sound reinforcement system advanced the technology, but presented an array of physical, audio, and technical difficulties. The Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack, a second album from the same run of shows, was released in 2005.Īfter a grueling schedule, caused in part by the cost of the band's unwieldy "Wall of Sound" public address system, the decision was made to stop touring and performing as the Grateful Dead, short of disbanding. It was the fourth and final album released by the band on their original Grateful Dead Records label. The album was recorded October 17–20, 1974, at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom, during a "farewell run" that preceded a then-indefinite hiatus. It is the band's fifth live album and thirteenth overall. Steal Your Face is a live double album by the Grateful Dead, released in June 1976. ![]()
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