The Grateful Dead: Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir (vocals, guitar); Phil Lesh (vocals, bass); Tom Constanten (keyboards); Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann (percussion); Ron "Pig Pen" McKernan.
Additional personnel: John "Marma-Duke" Dawson, David Nelson, Peter Grant, Wendy, Debbie, Mouse.
Recorded at Pacific Recorders, San Mateo, California in 1969. Includes liner notes by Gary Lambert.
The Dead's first attempt at sixteen-track recording, AOXOMOXOA was remixed at Alembic Studios in San Francisco in 1971 by original engineers Bob Matthews and Betty Cantor. This is the mix used for the CD issue.
All tracks have been digitally remastered using HDCD technology.
Named after one of famed San Francisco poster artist Rick Griffin's lysergic palindromes, the Grateful Dead's third album saw the band inject their acid-fueled sting into folk music of various ages. Hunter added a lyrical landscape perfect for the band's blend of exploration and tradition. Portraits of a rebellious mystic ("St. Stephen") and a dandy day-tripper ("Cosmic Charlie"), proper Olde English tales ("Dupree's Diamond Blues"), and hallucinatory excursions to the borders of Hunter's muse ("China Cat Sunflower," "Mountains Of The Moon") are remarkable in that their expansive overview is interwoven with precise detail.
The elongated strides of ANTHEM OF THE SUN were replaced with short bursts that hinted at the music's timeless sources. "St. Stephen" is a raw clarion call from Temple Mount. "Dupree's Diamond Blues" sounds like it fell out of the bluegrass tradition into a field of poppies. "Cosmic Charlie" is built on a "Revolution"-like riff, but with a far more subtle thrust and sweetly contrary harmonies. And "What's Become Of The Baby" is a nearly nine-minute excursion into weirdness that clearly mapped out one of the interstellar musical spaces the Grateful Dead had begun visiting.
- Format: Vinyl
- Released: 09/06/2011
- Genre: Pop
