Grateful Dead - Ramble on Rose - 1971

As the follow up to American Beauty, Ramble on Rose had a lot to live up to and succeeded on all counts. Released in November of 1971, six months after the live album Skull and Roses and a year after American Beauty which itself was released only five months after Workingman’s Dead. The Grateful Dead were certainly on a roll with no signs of slowing down.

It’s amazing they had the time to even record with all the touring they were doing. It turns out that several of the songs were recorded live then sweetened in the studio later. The live tracks were recorded on 16 track tape, the first band to do so, which gave them the separation needed to make room for overdubs later. They would employ this method on the next two “studio” albums that would be released in the following year.

Side A
01 Bertha – 5:39
02 Ramble on Rose– 6:00
03 Playing in the Band– 7:36
04 Mr. Charlie– 3:36

Side B
01 Greatest Story Ever Told– 3:40
02 Loser– 4:05
03 Wharf Rat– 8:32
04 To Lay Me Down– 6:18

Reality Notes

No editing done on this one beyond trimming beginnings and endings and some volume matching. We are setting a release date for this album for sometime in November 1971. This allows us to use Ramble on Rose which had its live debut on October 21st the previous month. The oldest song, Playing in the Band, made its live debut two years before as a 10 minute instrumental on November 8th 1969. The sources for these versions are as follows:

Skull and Roses
Bertha
Wharf Rat
Garcia (Jerry Garcia)
Loser
To Lay Me Down
Ace (Bob Weir)
Playing in the Band
Greatest Story Ever Told
Europe ‘72
Ramble on Rose
Mr. Charlie

I had two versions of To Lay Me Down and Playing in the Band to choose from. Both were shorter than those used. To Lay Me Down was an outtake from American Beauty. I really wanted to use it but it just wasn't ready production wise so I went with the Garcia version. Playing in the Band was originally released on Skull and Roses and was just under five minutes but I went with the Ace version. If I did go with the shorter versions I could have slipped another song in.

The cover features a picture from Stanley Mouse. As a follow up to American Beauty I wanted to emulate that cover in some way so I included the wood background.