For The DeadHead In You. Review on Anthem of the Sun - Grateful Dead

I remember how years ago I got a T-shirt printed at Connaught with the DeadHead Skull emblem and the words "Caution. DeadHead Ahead" writ large on the backside. Used to proudly wear it back in my hometown but when too many people started asking me funny questions like "So you a supporter of Stone Cold ?" or "Hey what are the vital stats of DeadHead ?" (LOL), I had to reluctantly give up the idea. But 3 years ago while I was ambling across a Planet M store, I ran into a CD reissue of Anthem of the Sun, Grateful Dead's seminal album. Even though I had the album on both Tape and MP3 format, the prospect of a owning a hifidelity copy was too hard to resist. And I bought it immediately.

Anthem Of the Sun was Grateful Dead's (GD) second studio album and was released in July, 1968, at a time when Psychedelia was on the way out and Classic Rock was fast becoming the flavour of contemporary music. The Band had taken a long time recording the album primarily because (1) they were a live Band and found it difficult to render the same effects in a Studio Album; (2) most of the time they were too stoned to record; (3) they changed 3-4 studios trying to select the right one by which time even their Producer got pissed off with them; (4) they insisted it was their album and they wanted it recorded their way, shutting out even well-meaning suggestions and (5) they'd take their concert tapes to the studio and try intertwining them with the studio tapes to create the desired hallucinatory effect.

But when the album was finally out, you got to understand just why. The album has a run time of 39 mins. and comprises five songs. The songs however, essentially overlap, both in music and lyrics, creating a collage effect. It starts with That's It for the Other One -

"The other day they waited, the sky was dark and faded,

Solemnly they stated, He has to die, you know he has to die.

All the children learnin', from books that they were burnin',

Every leaf was turnin', to watch him die, you know he had to die.

Its about the best intro humming I ever had. GD have this remarkable quality of pacing their music. As if they are saying to the listener - "Whats the big hurry ? We take our instruments along, even when we fly, even when we are high.So dont you worry...". Even the Drumsticks come down with calculated precision.

Next in line is "New Potato Caboose" -

The eyes are blind, blue visions, all a seer can own,

And touching makes the flesh to cry out loud

This ground on which the seed of love is sown,

All graceful instruments are known.

The song has a quality about it that makes you think it was penned by some Sadhu sitting on the Kailash Parvat and later translated into English by Garcia.

"Born Cross Eyed" seems to have an autobiographical touch of Bob Weir but the lyrics are just as compelling "Bout the time the sun rises west, Feelin' groovy, lookin' fine. Think I'll come back here again, Every now and then from time to time."

Alligator is a 15 minute long jam, the highlight of the song being its fantasy inducing lyrics, vivid imagery and a breathtaking collage of Live/Studio music to go with it :-

Sleepy Alligator in the noon day sun,

Lyin' by the river just like he usually done.

Call for his whiskey, he can call for his tea,

Call all he want to, but he can't call for me.

Creepy alligator coming all around the bend,

Shoutin' about the times when we was mutual friends,

I checked my memory and I checked it quick, yes I will.

I checked it runnin' some old kind of trick.

The wonderful journey is brought to an end by Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks) wherein you just get a hint of a comedown but listening to the lyrics you're reassured that its hardly what the Band intends:-

I went down to see this Gypsy woman, you understand,

I told her my story, I told her what was goin' on.

And she told me, man she said, all you need, all you need,

She said all you got to have, oh Lord,

Just a touch of Mojo's hand, oh bring it back on,

And it feels pretty good, yes indeed.

Just to give you an idea of what was on the Band's mind, I'm uploading the video for their concert medley "US Blues/Beat It down the Line". If you need visuals in addition to the songs to fuel your imagination, you can look at the imagery and use of the band's various concert posters and album cover artwork that lend a surreal effect to the cartoon.

Trivia on the Album - The first track That's It For The Other One was deliberately divided into four sub parts just to garner more royalty on the album. Earlier Vinyl versions of the album include the subtitle "The faster we go, the rounder we get".

Forget the tons of wonderful music they have produced, the beauty of GD is that their music doesnt try to pack a punch or convey a message. It just celebrates psychedelia for what it is, no idealism, no comedowns and certainly no mention of after-effects. Also, GD is perhaps the only Band to have survived the Flower Power Decay. Their music stayed the same throughout and no matter how many thousands of concerts they gave, each one was given to (over)Capacity crowds. It was only after Garcia's fell seriously ill during 1986-87 that the Band reduced its concerts drastically. GD showed how psychedelia could be sold to the masses and they sold it solely on their terms.