#Grateful dead dancing bear tire cover plus

The Grateful Dead’s 'Dancing Bears' first appeared on the back cover of Bear's Choice.Ī large complement of iconography is associated with the Grateful Dead. For this reason and due to title length, fans usually refer to the album simply as 'Bear's Choice'. The parenthetical ' Bear's Choice' of the title prevented confusion with a homonymous, non-contractual album, in retail bins at the time. The second side features the entire electric band on blues covers ' Smokestack Lightning' by Howlin' Wolf, and ' Hard to Handle' by Otis Redding. Side one consists of acoustic performances by McKernan, Jerry Garcia, and Bob Weir on country blues and folk covers, with one original from Workingman's Dead. The official title, History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One, reflects its unofficial intent as a tribute and send-off to Pigpen.' Release The stuff we were doing at the time never got onto any of our records before now.' Drummer Bill Kreutzmann commented, 'To fulfill our contract with Warner Brothers, we let Bear put together a live anthology-hence the nickname Bear’s Choice. us in early 1970, at a time in our existence when we never made a record. It all goes back to that damn vacation of ours. We ended up giving them four discs instead of just two just to be able to go to Europe. Lead guitarist Jerry Garcia explained, 'We give it to them in order to make Europe '72 a triple LP. However, further volumes never came to be as the band were creating their own record label, after which difficulties prevented the release of live archival recordings. Though it was something of a contractual obligation, as the band were trying to finish the terms of their recording contract and end their association with Warner Bros., it was compiled as the first volume of either a two-volume set or a series. They sat down and played acoustic guitars. Immediately following that, Bobby (Weir) and Garcia went out and did the same thing. He went out and played 'Katie Mae' to her. He went out and sat down on the stage-it was Valentine's Day and he had a honey out in the crowd. We'd been pushing him for years to do it and finally he just got loose enough and comfortable enough with the audience there at the Fillmore to go out and do it. He sat down and played the bottleneck guitar. īand manager Rock Scully said 'Pigpen went out on the stage and sat down in a chair. As such, it features three songs on which Pigpen sings lead, including all of side two. He compiled it as a tribute of sorts to Ron 'Pigpen' McKernan, the band's original keyboard player and blues aficionado, who died during the production of the release. The original album was recorded and produced by Owsley 'Bear' Stanley, the Dead's then-soundman, who chose his favorite tracks. Dick's Picks Volume 4, an album released in 1996, offers additional material from these same performances.

The recordings were culled from the February 13 & 14, 1970 late shows (bonus tracks on reissues include contemporaneous recordings from Graham's Fillmore West, in San Francisco). The time at promoter Bill Graham's Fillmore East, the band played both an early show and a late show.

Reflecting this approach (though it was ultimately released three years later), the album has an acoustic side and an electric side.

#Grateful dead dancing bear tire cover plus

The album was recorded during a period when the Grateful Dead were playing concerts consisting of electric sets, plus an acoustic set, revisiting their roots as a folk/ jug band. The album peaked at number 60 on the Billboard 200.

It was originally intended to be the first volume of a series. Often known simply as Bear's Choice, the title references band soundman Owsley 'Bear' Stanley. Records, it offers concert highlights recorded February 13 at the Fillmore East in New York City. It is their fourth live album and their ninth album overall. History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear's Choice) is a live album by the Grateful Dead.