Anthem of the Sun [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Grateful Dead | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 25, 2003)
• Original Release Date: 1968
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Rhino
• ASIN: B00007LTIH
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,167 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Expanded & remastered (HDCD) version of the band's 1968 album, plus a wild 34-minute version of the 'Alligator'/'Caution'/'Feedback' suite recorded live at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium in 1968. Digipak. Warner/Rhino. 2003.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Grateful Dead's Timeless Anthem!!, February 8, 2004

By 

Louie Bourland (Garden Grove CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Anthem of the Sun (Audio CD)

"Anthem Of The Sun" is The Grateful Dead's second album originally released in 1968. Even at this stage, the band was already turning new corners and had reinvented itself both in the studio and onstage. The original five-piece Dead line-up had expanded with the addition of second drummer/percussionist Mickey Hart and additional keyboardist Tom Constanten giving a fuller muscular sound to the entire band.
"Anthem Of The Sun" captures the psychedelic Dead in its prime and is a mindblower to listen to with headphones. The album itself is a carefully constructed mix of studio and live recordings along with a tedious but rewarding editing and mixing job and wild studio effects.
Tracks such as "The Other One", "Aligator" and "Caution" have since become Grateful Dead classics and are among many a Deadheads favorites.
The bonus material on the Rhino remaster is a complete unedited live recording of "Alligator", "Caution" and "Feedback" captured at the Shrine Exposition Center in Los Angeles in August 1968. This is worth the price of the reissue alone as it features the band fully jamming with the ignition turned up to full - a prime example of when the band members were all on the same wavelength, they truly gave it their all.
As a hidden bonus track, an alternate mix of "Born Cross-Eyed" is featured which includes an additional 30-seconds of feedback sound collage in its fadeout.
As mentioned above, The Grateful Dead had already turned a corner with "Anthem Of The Sun" and this was ONLY their second album. It all depends on which Deadhead you talk to when asking what the bands greatest album is. However, in my opinion, "Anthem" ranks up there with "Live/Dead" as the Dead's all-time greatest album. The Beatles have "Sgt. Pepper". The Beach Boys have "Pet Sounds". Pink Floyd has "The Dark Side Of The Moon". The Grateful Dead has "Anthem Of The Sun".

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic cosmic Dead, May 5, 2003

By 

Howard Sauertieg "Howard Sauertieg" (Harrisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Anthem of the Sun (Audio CD)

This remastered CD is an essential replacement for the original CD issue. Rhino's remastered version not only cleans up the sound, but it also restores the dynamics of the original mix, so the louds are LOUD, the lows are LOW, etc.

The song list on ANTHEM includes most of the new material the band was performing in concert in '67-'68. Some of ANTHEM was recorded in the studio, the rest is a collage of concert recordings (anywhere from a half dozen to a dozen, it's hard to tell) faded in and out chaotically by Garcia and Lesh. They say they "mixed it for the hallucinations," and that effectively describes the album's ambience.

Apart from the chaos, ANTHEM includes some nice melodies - particularly "Cryptical Envelopment" and "New Potato Caboose."

"Alligator" is the great original Dead jam/dance number. It lurches forward from complete goofiness to a kind of wriggling rhythmic grandeur; then Garcia steps in and propels the tune into Pigpen's bluesy voodoo-love rap, "Caution: Do Not Stop On Tracks." This finale builds gradually, deceptively grows calm and then explodes into feedback & electronic squeaks and squawks, cymbal crashes, just a whole lot of noise.

They don't make albums like ANTHEM OF THE SUN anymore.

The bonus material is of the same vintage as the live TWO FROM THE VAULT recordings, and it demonstrates how these ANTHEM numbers sounded before they received the studio treatment (including, but not limited to, the famous kazoos on "Alligator"). Great performance from start to finish. The CD also includes a hidden bonus track, well worth the search.

Only 4 stars because the ANTHEM mix is somewhat crude & sloppy, though that's a natural outcome when drug-addled amateurs take over the studio. Dick's Picks 22 and Volume 6 of the Dead Download Series make some of album's source material available in the raw, but the artificial ANTHEM is still one of my favorite Dead discs.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars True art., December 21, 2004

By 

Shadowgraphs - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anthem of the Sun (Audio CD)

This is probably one of the ten best CD's I own. In my opinion, it's not as much of an album as it is a work of art; it was assembled in a radically different way from pretty much every other rock album out there. The only thing I can think of that blends live and studio recordings in a tasteful manner is Miles Davis' Live-Evil... and even that has some problems with it. Every second of this album is meaningful and stimulating; I find it very hard to do anything but listen when I put it on. Perhaps this is why the Grateful Dead have such a reputation for being a "stoner" band. After all, hallucinogens would only enhance the hypnotizing nature of the music here.

What really blows my mind, though, is how tasteful and brilliantly sequenced the edits are. Pink Floyd didn't do nearly as good a job of making everything flow smoothly and sound natural on their "psychedelic" album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn; some songs on it have sections that were clearly cut short. Here, one can barely tell what segments came from where and how long they last. Both sides of the album sound like one giant song, which I think is really a good thing.

As an added bonus, live versions of the entire second side as well as "Born Cross-Eyed" are included. They're not the best to listen to right after the album propper, but sound awesome when heard seperately.