We begin our 50th anniversary celebration of 1971’s live album Skull & Roses with co-producer Bob Matthews, lighting director Candace Brightman, tour manager Sam Cutler, David Crosby, & David Freiberg, plus lost sessions, a 6-night false start, dream telepathy, song origins & more.
Skull & Roses 50: Side A supplementary notes
by Jesse Jarnow
The Grateful Dead’s 1971 live album Skull and Roses, featuring recordings made in the spring of that year, has a surprisingly tangled backstory. In this season’s Deadcast, we are delighted to use some of the audio behind the book, Garcia: A Signpost to New Space, a pair of interviews with Jerry Garcia conducted by Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner and Yale Law professor Charles Reich, available wherever books are sold from Hachette/Da Capo Press.
In 2002, Guernsey’s auctioned a draft of lyrics to “Playing in the Band” and reproduced very small images in their catalogue. Alex Allan has made a valiant attempt to transcribe them.
With encouragement and suggestions from Jerry Garcia, Dr. Stanley Krippner designed and executed a 6-night pilot study in dream telepathy at the Grateful Dead’s Capitol Theater shows in February 1971. To do a proper study, Krippner would have needed at least 8 nights, though the Grateful Dead rarely played 8 nights in the same venue, even at their most popular.
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Bob Matthews
Interesting to hear his insights from meeting George Harrison. Also hearing an excerpt from George’s album All Things Must Pass.
Interesting to hear his insights from meeting George Harrison. Also hearing an excerpt from George’s album All Things Must Pass.