Grateful Dead - Ace - 1972

Released six months after the last album Ramble on Rose the Dead again delivered an album packed with great songs. Sessions began prior to a two-month tour of Europe (with a full entourage and a 16 track tape recorder to capture every show). A few more studio sessions after the tour to polish up the album to give to the label and they were off on another tour. Truly, in 1972, the music never stopped.

Side A
01 Deal– 3:09
02 Jack Straw– 4:47
03 Mexicali Blues – 3:33
04 Tennessee Jed– 7:08
05 The Wheel– 4:03

Side B
01 One More Saturday Night– 4:28
02 Brown-Eyed Woman– 4:38
03 Sugaree– 5:52
04 Chinatown Shuffle – 2:38
05 Bird Song– 4:26

Reality Notes

The songs here span from February 1971 to March 1972. While most of the songs come from the same three, core sources as the last album, two songs are from the Complete Europe ’72 box set. I went for the live version of Mexicali Blues to avoid the mariachi brass on the studio version. This has always been the weak spot of the Weir album for me so if I could keep the song but lose the horns, I’m happy. This version emulates the horns nicely without being in your face, so I felt it was a good replacement. Chinatown Shuffle is a Pigpen song that was never released on an album during his lifetime. Always good to have a Pigpen song.

Jack Straw is the reason why I had to rethink this time line in the first place. It was during the European tour when Bob and Jerry started to trade verses. Before that Bob had sung all the verses. It is for this reason that the release date of this album is placed after the tour.

I decided to reuse the Ace title for the album to keep a toe in reality. This is not an alternate Bob Weir album though. Even though the Dead played on all the songs on Bob’s LP, he did write all the songs. Here we have what could have been a band album. Because I was keeping the name I decided to keep the artwork as well, with some modification of course.


Sources
Garcia (Jerry Garcia)
Deal
Sugaree
The Wheel
Bird Song
Ace (Bob Weir)
One More Saturday Night
Europe ‘72
Jack Straw
Tennessee Jed
Brown-Eyed Woman
Complete Europe ‘72
Mexicali Blues
Chinatown Shuffle