Grateful Dead – From the Mars Hotel: The Angel’s Share (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:22:50 minutes | 1,77 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Grateful Dead – Rhino
Today, with Rhino’s surprise release of From The Mars Hotel: The Angel’s Share, the Grateful Dead vaults have once again been opened. Featuring 16 newly unearthed session recordings, the digital collection brings listeners directly into San Francisco’s Coast Recorders during the spring of 1974, revealing the band’s real-time process as they crafted such eternal staples as “Scarlet Begonias,” “Ship Of Fools,” “China Doll,” “U.S. Blues,” “Unbroken Chain” and more that would make up their classic From The Mars Hotel LP. The evolution of all of those songs and other album highlights is charted throughout this fourth edition of the band’s fan-favorite Angel’s Share series. Like previous installments that accompanied milestone reissues of Workingman’s Dead, American Beauty and Wake Of The Flood, From The Mars Hotel: The Angel’s Share brings together hours of expertly-curated outtakes, alternate versions, acoustic mixes, unexpected moments and revelations that have never been heard or available on DSPs until now.
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Grateful Dead – Wake of the Flood (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) (2023 Remaster) (1973/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 02:07:16 minutes | 4,87 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Grateful Dead – Rhino
By 1973, the disparity between the Grateful Dead’s studio work and their eminence as live performers was already well established. Their sixth studio album, Wake of the Flood, served as a transitional document, bridging the gap between the gentle Americana they’d presented three years prior on American Beauty, and the increasingly electrified jamming they were exploring on-stage around then, while also setting the scene for the more complex progressive sounds they’d soon be getting into. After satisfying their nine-title/dozen-disc deal with Warner Bros, the Dead began their own record labels: Grateful Dead Records (for group releases) and Round Records (for solo projects). Wake of the Flood was the first Dead disc issued entirely under the band’s supervision — which also included manufacturing and marketing. Additionally, the personnel had been altered, as Ron “Pigpen” McKernan had passed away. The keyboard responsibilities were now in the capable hands of Keith Godchaux — whose wife Donna Jean Godchaux also provided backing vocals. A majority of the tracks here had been incorporated into their live sets — some for nearly six months — prior to entering the recording studio. This gave the band a unique perspective on the material, much of which remained for the next 20-plus years as staples of their concert performances. Instead of hushed folk and bluegrass-informed songwriting, the Dead tap into the improvisatory, jazz-informed playing they excelled at live throughout Wake of the Flood. “Eyes of the World” contains some brilliant ensemble playing and Bob Weir’s “Weather Report Suite” foreshadows the epic proportions that the song would ultimately reach. The lilting Jerry Garcia ballad “Stella Blue” is another track that works well in this incarnation and remained in the Dead’s rotating set list for the remainder of their touring careers. The disconnect between the group’s powers as a live band and their limitations as a studio band was a sticking point throughout their lengthy run. Wake of the Flood doesn’t quite reach the goal of a middle ground, but it is one of the stronger studio documents the band produced, and captures hints of what they could do on-stage better than most of their studio sets from a time when they were truly unstoppable.
– Lindsay Planer & Fred Thomas
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Grateful Dead – Wake of the Flood: The Angel’s Share (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:28:36 minutes | 2,93 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Grateful Dead – Rhino
In celebration of Wake Of The Flood‘s 50th anniversary, the Grateful Dead vaults have been reopened to reveal a treasure trove of studio material that Dead Heads have never heard before. For the third edition of The Angel’s Share series, more than two hours of expertly-curated, previously unreleased session tapes are now available via Rhino, for the first time ever on all DSPs worldwide. Similar to previous installments that accompanied milestone reissues of Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty, Wake Of The Flood: The Angel’s Share brings together the outtakes, alternate versions, and in-studio conversations behind the creation of the album, including “Eyes Of The World,” “Stella Blue,” “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo” and every other song on the LP. Some unexpected moments and revelations are found in takes of “Let Me Sing Your Blues Away,” Keith Godchaux’s first and only vocal on a Grateful Dead studio record, and Bobby Weir’s continually evolving “Weather Report Suite.” Also featured is the track “Phil’s Song (Unbroken Chain)” that appeared later on The Mars Hotel. As the lid is lifted and the curtains are pulled back on a pivotal record – filled with classics that remain instant crowd-pleasers to this day – Wake Of The Flood: The Angel’s Share transports the listener to August 6-17, 1973 at Sausalito, CA’s Record Plant, turning it into a fly-on-the-wall experience of the band’s joyous and collaborative process.
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