Content
While mainly a live album, there were a few overdubs including the doctoring of lead and background vocals. For the three new band originals "Bertha", "Playing in the Band", and "Wharf Rat", the band invited Jerry Garcia associate Merl Saunders to overdub an organ part. This made the organ playing of Saunders more prominent than that of Pigpen, whose organ contributions tend to be buried in the mix.
"Playing in the Band" received a good amount of airplay, and became one of the Dead's most played songs in concerts. The closing segue of "Not Fade Away" into "Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad" also received airplay and became a fan favorite.
The album's cover art, composed by Alton Kelly and Stanley Mouse, is based on an illustration by Edmund Joseph Sullivan for an old edition of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. In its original issue on vinyl, this album also has the first acknowledgment by the band for its legion of fans, referred to as "Dead Heads" within an invitation to contact the band.
Read more about this topic: Grateful Dead (album)
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