Aoxomoxoa [Bonus Tracks] [Remaster]

Performer: Grateful Dead
Engineer: Bob Matthews; Dan Healy; Betty Cantor
Producer: Michael Wesley Johnson; Grateful Dead; David Lemieux (Reissue); James Austin (Reissue)
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: The Grateful Dead: Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir (vocals, guitar); Phil Lesh (vocals, bass); Tom Constanten (keyboards); Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann (percussion); Ron "Pig Pen" McKernan. Additional personnel: John "Marma-Duke" Dawson, David Nelson, Peter Grant, Wendy, Debbie, Mouse. Recorded at Pacific Recorders, San Mateo, California in 1969. Includes liner notes by Gary Lambert. The Dead's first attempt at sixteen-track recording, AOXOMOXOA was remixed at Alembic Studios in San Francisco in 1971 by original engineers Bob Matthews and Betty Cantor. This is the mix used for the CD issue. All tracks have been digitally remastered using HDCD technology. Personnel: Bob Weir (vocals, guitar); Phil Lesh (vocals); Tom Constanten (keyboards); Mickey Hart (percussion). Audio Mixer: Jeffrey Norman. Liner Note Authors: Gary Lambert; Blair Jackson. Recording information: Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA (09/1968-03/1969); Pacific High Recording Studio, San Francisco, CA (09/1968-03/1969); Pacific Recording Studio, San Mateo, CA (09/1968-03/1969). Photographers: Bob Seidemann; Jim Marshall ; Tom Weir. Arranger: Grateful Dead. Named after one of famed San Francisco poster artist Rick Griffin's lysergic palindromes, the Grateful Dead's third album saw the band inject their acid-fueled sting into folk music of various ages. Hunter added a lyrical landscape perfect for the band's blend of exploration and tradition. Portraits of a rebellious mystic ("St. Stephen") and a dandy day-tripper ("Cosmic Charlie"), proper Olde English tales ("Dupree's Diamond Blues"), and hallucinatory excursions to the borders of Hunter's muse ("China Cat Sunflower," "Mountains Of The Moon") are remarkable in that their expansive overview is interwoven with precise detail. The elongated strides of ANTHEM OF THE SUN were replaced with short bursts that hinted at the music's timeless sources. "St. Stephen" is a raw clarion call from Temple Mount. "Dupree's Diamond Blues" sounds like it fell out of the bluegrass tradition into a field of poppies. "Cosmic Charlie" is built on a "Revolution"-like riff, but with a far more subtle thrust and sweetly contrary harmonies. And "What's Become Of The Baby" is a nearly nine-minute excursion into weirdness that clearly mapped out one of the interstellar musical spaces the Grateful Dead had begun visiting. The Grateful Dead's third studio effort was also the first that the band did without any Warner Bros. staff producers or engineers hampering their creative lifestyle and subsequent processes. As they had done with their previous release, Anthem of the Sun, the Dead were actively seeking new forays and pushing envelopes on several fronts simultaneously during Aoxomoxoa (1968) -- which was created under the working title of "Earthquake Country." This was no doubt bolstered by the serendipitous technological revolution which essentially allowed the Dead to re-record the entire contents when given free reign at the appropriately named Pacific High Recording facility. As fate would have it, they gained virtually unlimited access to the newly acquired Ampex MM-1000 -- the very first 16-track tape machines ever produced -- which was absolutely state of the art in late 1968. The band was also experiencing new directions artistically. This was primarily the net result of the budding relationship between primary (by default) melodic contributor Jerry Garcia (guitar/vocals) and Robert Hunter (lyrics), who began his nearly 30-year association with the Grateful Dead in earnest during these sessions. When the LP hit the racks in the early summer of 1969, Deadheads were greeted by some of the freshest and most innovative sounds to develop from the thriving Bay Area music scene. The disc includes seminal psychedelic rockers such as "St. Stephen," "China Cat Sunflower," and "Cosmic Charlie," as well as hints of the acoustic direction their music would take on the Baroque-influenced "Mountains of the Moon" and "Rosemary." The folky "Dupree's Diamond Blues" -- which itself was loosely based on the traditional "Betty & Dupree" -- would likewise foreshadow the sound of their next two studio long-players, Workingman's Dead (1969) and American Beauty (1970). The too-trippy-for-its-own-good "What's Become of the Baby" is buried beneath layers of over-indulgence. This is unfortunate, as Hunter's surreal lyrics and Garcia's understated vocals languish beneath the soupy sonics. In 1972, Aoxomoxoa was overhauled, and the original mix -- which includes several significant differences such as an a cappella vocal tag at the tail end of "Doin' That Rag" -- has yet to be reissued in any form. When the title was reworked for inclusion in the Golden Road (1965-1973) (2001) box set, three previously unreleased and incomplete studio instrumental jams -- respectively titled "Clementine Jam," "Nobody's Spoonful Jam," and "The Eleven Jam" -- as well as a live rendering of "Cosmic Charlie" from a January 1969 performance were added as "bonus material(s)." ~ Lindsay Planer

Rolling Stone (7/12/69, p.36) - "...AOXOMOXOA is the work of the magical band....The gentle choir, the dancing mountain harpsichording, the mystical aura of another consciousness....No other music sustains a lifestyle so delicate, loving and lifelike." Down Beat (1/02, p.74) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...A dense and occasionally arcane studio effort that includes several vintage Dead perfromances....epitomizing [their] late-'60s drug-infested mindset..."

The Grateful Dead were right there at the birth of the 1960s West Coast psychedelic scene, but they handily incorporated simple folk, blues, and country sounds into their swirling, jam-oriented style. With an endless touring schedule and a huge following of devoted fans, the group fueled hippie visions well into the '90s and sparked the jam-band movement that would eventually fill the void left by the dearly departed Grateful Dead after the passing of guitarist Jerry Garcia. Since Garcia's passing, surviving members of the band have participated in various musical projects, including a reunion tour in 2003 under the shortened name of "the Dead."

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