As record companies are wont to do, the Rhino subsidiary of Warner Brothers released deluxe 50th anniversary versions of both albums. Do we really need another copy of American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead? Of course we do! Any Deadhead would tell you that. The sound of the new releases differs little [if at all] from the remasters put out in 2001 [which I also own]. Both albums were well-recorded, for which we can thank Bob Matthews and Betty Cantor-Jackson [Workingman’s Dead] and Stephen Barncard [American Beauty]. I didn’t buy the new releases because of “enhanced sound” because there wasn’t any. The attraction for me was the extra goodies. Each album includes an entire show recorded by the band during their six-show run at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York in February 1971.
The American Beauty re-release includes the show from February 18, 1971. This show was the first live airing of five new songs - Bertha, Loser, Greatest Story Ever Told, Wharf Rat, and Playin' In The Band. Two more new songs [Bird Song, Deal] also made their live debuts during this run of shows. The Workingman’s Dead re-release includes the show from February 21, 1971. It was their third without Mickey Hart. The first show without Mickey [2/19/71] has already been released in its entirety, titled Three From the Vault. This will sound like heresy to the hardcore Deadheads, but I liked the Dead better with only one drummer. I think they sounded better without the clutter [see Europe ‘72]. Anyway, both of these shows make the purchase [or in my case, re-purchase] of the 50th anniversary editions worthwhile.
In addition to the change in musical direction, the Dead were going through some internal changes. In Dead circles the 2/18/71 was an historic show for it was the last drummer Mickey Hart would play with the band until October 1974. Hart’s dad Lenny was the band’s manager. Unbeknownst to the band, he signed the band to a contract extension with Warner Brothers and kept all the advance money for himself. The band didn’t blame Mickey for his dad’s criminal behavior, but that didn’t make Mickey feel any better. He felt shame for his dad fleecing the band and he left. Original front man Ron “Pigpen” McKernan’s role in the band had been had been receding as his heavy drinking started to affect his health [he died of liver failure in 1973].
More goodies from the 50th anniversary releases are included in what the band calls “The Angel’s Share.” The name comes from a term used by whiskey distillers for alcohol lost in the distillation process. As such, the digital-only releases include outtakes and demos that show how the band developed the songs even further after they had been road-tested. According to Rhino, “much like the whiskey-distillation process, there were also ingredients that were vital to the creation of Workingman’s Dead that were lost and did not end up on the final album, the band’s own version of the ‘angel’s share.” There’s 2 ½ hours of “angel’s share” of Workingman’s Dead, while for American Beauty there is an album-length edition with one demo for every song, as well as a 56-track version containing 20 different takes on “Friend of the Devil” alone. These bits are for the hardcore. Perhaps that is why “The Angel’s Share” is for sale separately. Should you decide to go the whole hog, the digital downloads are available in two formats – FLAC [for $29.99], and ALAC [for $12.99]. I went the ALAC route. Those files can play on your iPod without having to be converted [as one needs to do with FLAC files].
No comments:
Post a Comment