Grateful Dead ★★★★
From The Mars Hotel
RHINO. CD/DL/LP
Band’s 50th anniversary editions roll on with the three-disc deluxe version of a fan fave.
The prize inside Dead reissues is typically an archival live show. Here it’s May 12, 1974, their first time on the road with the gargantuan and ill-fated Wall Of Sound speaker system. The show is a bit slapdash, but you can hear the Dead having fun on such origin stories as Truckin’ and The Other One, knowing they do things their own way. But the bigger charms this time are the Mars Hotel demos for China Doll and U.S. Blues. In front of crowds of thousands, the conversation about suicide in China Doll can be too much. Jerry Garcia’s home demo takes place in the quiet, empathetic space it was meant to be. The questionably-patriotic U.S. Blues is stuffed with lyrics that shifted, changed shape, or were replaced – appropriate given the band’s ongoing adventures into the kaleidoscope of American music.