Production
Most of the songs on this album had been played by the Dead since 1982 or 1983, which gave them a five-year edge on perfecting these songs for this album. After the critically panned Go to Heaven, which contained songs that were mostly under a year old, the maturity of In The Dark was significantly more appreciated.
The album title, "In the Dark", represents how the band compiled the album. The Dead are well known for their striving for that "perfect" sound (e.g. the Wall of Sound) as well as their experimental episodes. Since live music is their forte, they decided to try to capture a "hybrid" live sound for this album.
Since the band had been playing the songs for some time, they decided to record the baseline tracks for the album in a darkened theater ("In the Dark") that was empty (no audience), on a stage with the same lighting as they would use on tour (just to have the band perform in a more comfortable, familiar setting). The idea was to capture the "feel" they had for the songs as if they were playing them to a live audience.
They then brought these recorded tracks to the studio and then if needed, "cleaned" them up, overdubbing them or redoing a guitar, vocal, keyboard, or drum track in the studio using the same "riffs" they used on the stage recording.
From deaddisc.com: Garcia spoke about the recording in an interview; “Marin Vets turns out to be an incredibly nice room to record in. There's something about the formal atmosphere in there that makes us work. When we set up at Front Street to work, a lot of times we just sort of dissolve into hanging out. Going in without an audience and playing just to ourselves was in the nature of an experiment...”
In the Dark was released on CD in 1987 by Arista Records before being re-released in 2000 by BMG International. It was then remastered, expanded, and released with new cover art as part of the Beyond Description (1973-1989) 12-CD box set in October 2004. The remastered version was later released separately on CD, on April 11, 2006, by Rhino Records.
Read more about this topic: In The Dark (Grateful Dead Album)
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