Description
The Grateful Dead – Aoxomoxoa (CD)
Label: Rhino Entertainment Company / Warner Bros. Records – 8122-74394-2
Format: CD, HDCD, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Digipak
Country: Europe
Released: 2003
Barcode: 081227439422
Label Code (On Back Digipak): LC 02982
Label Code (On Disk): LC 00392
Design [Cover Illustration] – Rick Griffin
Tracklist:
1 St. Stephen 4:26
2 Dupree’s Diamond Blues 3:32
3 Rosemary 1:58
4 Doin’ That Rag 4:41
5 Mountains Of The Moon 4:02
6 China Cat Sunflower 3:40
7 What’s Become Of The Baby 8:12
8 Cosmic Charlie 5:29
Bonus Material
9 Clementine Jam 10:46
10 Nobody’s Spoonful Jam 10:04
11 The Eleven Jam 15:00
12 Cosmic Charlie (Live) 6:47
Credits:
Bass, Vocals – Phil Lesh
Drums, Percussion – Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart
Guitar, Vocals – Bob Weir, Jerry Garcia
Keyboards – Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Tom Constanten
Notes
15-page booklet, attached to the Digipak®
Bonus Tracks 9 to 11. Recorded live in the studio at Pacific Recording Studio, San Mateo. Ca. (8/13/68).
Track 12 recorded Live at Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco (1/25/1969)
Ⓟ2001 Grateful Dead Productions
This Reissue/Compilation Ⓟ 2003, Ⓒ 1969, 2003 Warner Strategic Marketing
CD and Digipak in very good condition.
Reviews:
+++++++++++++ EARTHQUAKE COUNTRY was its original title and it put the DeaD deeper in debt as Warner Br. has yet to recover studio costs for ANTHEM. It started off being a 8-track job but in the middle of recording, the studio was fitted with a 16 track machine and they indulged in the temptation to try and use all 16 tracks. Rick Griffin, the cover artist, gave it’s title. It was his first cover for the group, the epitome of the San Francisco psychedelic style. The cover was known to three-dimensionalize when viewed in the proper state of mind. Rick Griffin died in August 1991, from injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident. These days Jerry Garcia says he likes the cover more than the album contained inside it. “I feel that as far as that album is concerned, the artwork is more powerful than the music. It’s better!”. All songs are written by Garcia/Lesh and Hunter with Garcia the major vocal parts. With Tom Constanten officially added to the group, Pigpen had not much to do. WHAT’S BECOME OF THE BABY is an LSD drenched, nearly tuneless experimental song. The concept was to contain the whole band’s music in Garcia’s vocals. COSMIC CHARLIE is a slide guitar-driven blues. DUPREE’S harkened back to their jug band days. It’s a tale of a man who kills a jeweller to get his gold digging girlfriend a diamond ring and then learns, as he is condemned, that the judge was one of his girl’s many lovers. MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON has a harpsichord line by Constanten, who isn’t given credit but he plays keyboards and electronic music realization. Bob Weir said about the album in 1974; “it was over -produced and over-arranged”. The album’s most famous song is a cryptic rocker; SAINT STEPHEN, re-mixed by Phil Lesh. ROSEMARY is an experiment in psychedelia. The album is a very compressed-sounding affair. The DeaD used the studio as an instrument itself. The bizarre arrangements give the album its weird charms. “It was a report on what’s it like to be up or down (on LSD)” ; said Robert Hunter….
nr. 1 A strange, wonderful studio concoction with layer upon layer of acoustic and electric guitars, interesting keyboard textures and odd rhythmic arrangements. Some of this record seems weird for the sake of weirdness and I have a sneaking suspicion that more recent Deadheads might have trouble getting into the madcap spirit of the outing. The remix of Phil Lesh in the early seventies has taken some of the clutter off MOUN- TAINS OF THE MOON and a couple of other tracks, but he also destroyed the charming old-time vocal reprise from the ending of DOIN’ THAT RAG. Either way the album is a feast for the senses. BLAIR JACKSON, THE MUSIC NEVER STOPPED, PLEXUS UK 1983
nr. 2 The DeaD’s third album took to new frontiers the experimental techniques the band had begun toying with on ANTHEM. Fascination with studio gadgets and techniques-it was among the first 16-track records evermade-coupled with their perfectionist approach turned it into the most bizarre, and costly, recording ever. Much of it sounds from another planet, and a few of the songs lasted very long in the live show. The album complexities take some getting used to. Phil dominates much of the playing, his basslines snaking through the arresting rhythm of CHINA CAT, the one song that’s survived in the live repertoire. JAMIE JENSEN, BUILT TO LAST, FANTAIL UK 1990
nr. 3 Primarily a Garcia showcase and also the peak of keyboardist Constanten’s tenure with the band. Experimentations with tempos, vocal effects and recording tricks. It contains as many moments of excellence as excess. GOLDMINE, JULY 1987 |
nr. 4 The album was delivered as a finished product to Warner’s, cover and all. The record is in many ways brilliant, precisely mixed by Lesh and Garcia it is a record composition, not a recording of any thing and it’s flow is obliquely powerful. ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE nr. 40
nr. 5 This is the work of a magical band. Can you hear this music and not see them before your eyes? Seeing them is the wonder of seeing music. No other music sustains a life style so delicate and loving and lifelike. ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE, nr. 37
nr. 6 A beautiful and sensitive MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON make up for a rather weird WHAT’S BECOME OF THE BABY. ST. STEPHEN is alright, but better on live-tapes. DUPREE, RAG and CHARLIE are nice songs, but no thing special really. The Rick Griffin cover a classic though!! ERIK SCHOTHANS nr. 7 The album feature a strange juxtaposition of old ragtime numbers, along side weird and distorted workouts like MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON and a couple of songs that were to turn up on later live albums, ST. STEPHEN and CHINA CAT. It’s a less energetic than ANTHEM and in many ways somewhat less succesful. An outtake from the album called BARBED WIRE WHIPPING PARTY exist, a zany spoof on The Velvet Underground and in particular Lou Reed’s fascination with the Marqies De Sade. IAN FREER, FIRST HEARING, nr. 8
nr. 6 Aoxomoxoa – (Warner Bro. WS 1790) Released on June 20, 1969. “The Eleven” was recorded for the album, to be linked with “St. Stephen”, but was not included. “Barbed Wire Whipping Party” is one of the outtakes from the sessions for this album. Other studio outtakes from these September, 1968 to early 1969 sessions include “St. Stephen” with a cello and “The Eleven” with bagpipes. “St. Stephen” and “China Cat Sunflower” were written by Hunter when he was in New Mexico in February, 1966, working as a portrait artist. The word AOXOMOXOA is a palindrome thought up by artist Rick Griffin. One of working titles for the album was “Earthquake Country”. This was also the first recording ever made using sixteen track tape, an Ampex deck at Alembic studios. “Cosmic Charlie” is supposedly based on Charles “Cosmic Charlie” Bosch, one of the characters on the scene in the Haight, who was ‘so cosmic’; “Calico” is supposedly based on one of the Hog Farmers. I. W. Slabicky, 199337
