“We mixed it for the hallucinations,” Jerry Garcia said of the Grateful Dead’s second album, 1968’s “Anthem of the Sun.”
Much had changed by the time the album was reissued just three years later. Trips were no longer hip. The album’s infamous sonic murk sounded like a downer to label execs.
A new mix was served up, reportedly designed to make the psychedelic album more inviting to the many new Dead fans who’d discovered the band via the roots rock of “Workingman’s Dead” and “American Beauty.”
As a result, the 1971 remix was “the most commonly heard version for the past 45-plus years,” Dead archivist David Lemieux says.
Yet something was lost along the way. There are “countless differences,” Lemieux says, “with the original mix being more primal, psychedelic and experimental.” Collectors have long sought out the original vinyl for a straight shot of the Dead at its psychedelic peak. Other fans swear by the latter cleaner mix, which dominated rereleases (although not exclusively) into the new century.
Now comes a 50th anniversary CD, which wisely works both sides of the street.
Disc 1 of “Anthem of the Sun: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition” opens with a “fully remastered” version of the 1968 mix, followed by the 1971 edition, also newly remastered. A second CD features a Oct. 22, 1967, concert from Winterland in San Francisco, with new percussionist Mickey Hart.
“Anthem of the Sun: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition” streets July 13 via Grateful Dead Productions and Rhino Records. (No word about a vinyl version. The usual digital downloads are on tap.)
“Anthem of the Sun” ranks No. 10 on this web site’s list of the top psychedelic albums.
“Anthem” was a make-or-break album for the Dead, a tripping-balls live act that had come out flat with its first album. For the second try, instead of making a straight-ahead album, they decided to mix studio and live recordings into a sonic “collage” that would sprawl across both sides of the album.
The heavy lifting in post-production was done by guitarist Garcia and bassist Phil Lesh. “Phil and I performed the mix as if it were an electronic music composition,” Garcia recalled decades later.
Garcia said the original album’s thick dark sonics were a result of the band leaders knowing little about mixing music for transfer to vinyl.
While the Dead continued to play psychedelic music throughout its career, “Anthem” remains the definitive flashback to the acid-test days.
With their third album, “Aoxomoxoa” (1969), the band began its journey away from the ambiguities of hardcore psychedelic music and toward their great roots-music works “Workingman’s Dead” and “American Beauty.”
The first run of the “Anthem of the Sun” double CD will come with a special lenticular (3D image) of the famous psychedelic cover.
Also on offer for the half-century mark is a picture disc with the remastered 1971 mix. That 12-incher is limited to 10,000 copies.