Anthem to Beauty

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Anthem to Beauty

GDAnthemToBeautyDVD.jpg

Anthem to Beauty DVD cover
Directed by Jeremy Marre
Starring Grateful Dead
Edited by Phil McDonald
Distributed by Rhino Home Video
Release date
  • January 27, 1988 (1988-01-27)
Running time
 75 minutes
Language English

Anthem to Beauty is a music documentary about the making of the Grateful Dead albums Anthem of the Sun and American Beauty . It originally aired in a somewhat shortened version in 1997 as part of the television series Classic Albums . It was released on VHS video tape in 1998 and on DVD in 1999, with a running time of 1 hour 15 minutes. [1] [2] [3]

Grateful Dead American rock jam band

The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. Ranging from quintet to septet, the band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, country, bluegrass, blues, gospel, modal jazz, reggae, experimental music, psychedelia, and space rock, for live performances of lengthy instrumental jams, and for their devoted fan base, known as "Deadheads". "Their music", writes Lenny Kaye, "touches on ground that most other groups don't even know exists". These various influences were distilled into a diverse and psychedelic whole that made the Grateful Dead "the pioneering Godfathers of the jam band world". The band was ranked 57th by Rolling Stone magazine in its The Greatest Artists of All Time issue. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and a recording of their May 8, 1977, performance at Cornell University's Barton Hall was added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2012. The Grateful Dead have sold more than 35 million albums worldwide.

<i>Anthem of the Sun</i> 1968 studio album / Live album by Grateful Dead

Anthem of the Sun is the second album by rock band the Grateful Dead. Released in 1968, it is the first album to feature second drummer Mickey Hart, who joined the band in September 1967. Currently ranked number 288 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

<i>American Beauty</i> (album) 1970 studio album by Grateful Dead

American Beauty is the fifth studio album by rock band the Grateful Dead. Released November 1, 1970, by Warner Bros. Records, the album continued the folk rock and country music style of their previous album Workingman's Dead, issued earlier in the year. Though the Americana approach is still evident in the songwriting, comparatively the sound focused more on folk harmonies and major-key melodies, showing influence from Bob Dylan and Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young.

Contents

Synopsis

The video combines footage from the early years of the Grateful Dead with 1997 interviews of former band members and associates. Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, Bob Weir, Robert Hunter, and David Grisman, among others, discuss the creation of 1968's experimental, psychedelic Anthem of the Sun and 1970's folk-rock classic American Beauty. They also listen to and analyze the original master recordings for the albums, and talk about being in (or working with) the Grateful Dead at that time. Recording engineer Stephen Barncard rolls the original master tape and solos tracks, recalling the recording sessions and highlighting specific moments. [4] [5]

Phil Lesh American musician

Philip Chapman Lesh is a musician and a founding member of the Grateful Dead, with whom he played bass guitar throughout their 30-year career.

Mickey Hart American musician

Mickey Hart is an American percussionist and musicologist. He is best known as one of the two drummers of the rock band Grateful Dead. He was a member of the Grateful Dead from September 1967 until the group disbanded in August 1995. He and fellow Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann earned the nickname "the rhythm devils".

Bob Weir American musician, member of the Grateful Dead

Robert Hall Weir is an American musician and songwriter best known as a founding member of the rock band Grateful Dead. After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead. Weir also founded and played in several other bands during and after his career with the Grateful Dead, including Kingfish, the Bob Weir Band, Bobby and the Midnites, Scaring the Children, RatDog, and Furthur which he co-led with former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh. In 2015, Weir, along with former Grateful Dead members Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, joined with Grammy-winning singer/guitarist John Mayer to form the band Dead & Company. The band remains active.

Keyboardist Tom Constanten discusses the artificiality of appearing on Hugh Hefner's show Playboy After Dark . David Grisman plays his full version of the mandolin part for Ripple, as he had intended.

Tom Constanten is an American keyboardist, best known for playing with Grateful Dead from 1968 to 1970.

Hugh Hefner American businessman and magazine publisher

Hugh Marston Hefner was an American magazine publisher and life-stylist. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine, a publication with revealing glamour photographs and sensational articles that provoked charges of obscenity. The first issue of Playboy, published in 1953, featured Marilyn Monroe in a nude calendar shoot and sold over 50,000 copies.

<i>Playboy After Dark</i> television series

Playboy After Dark is an American television show hosted by Hugh Hefner. It aired in syndication through Screen Gems from 1969 to 1970 and was taped at CBS Television City in Los Angeles.

Track listing

The track listing for the DVD release is: [6]

  1. Introduction
  2. "Truckin'" (Garcia, Hunter, Lesh, Weir)
  3. "Candyman" (Garcia, Hunter)
  4. Celebration
  5. American Beauty Album Cover Creation
  6. 1965 — Beginnings
  7. Neal Cassady
  8. A Record Contract on Their Own Terms
  9. "The Other One" (Kreutzmann, Weir)
  10. Tom Constanten
  11. Anthem of the Sun Album Cover Creation
  12. "Born Cross-Eyed" (Weir)
  13. David Crosby
  14. "Mountains of the Moon" (Garcia, Hunter)
  15. "St. Stephen" (Garcia, Hunter, Lesh)
  16. "China Cat Sunflower" (Garcia, Hunter)
  17. "Attics of My Life" (Garcia, Hunter)
  18. "Friend of the Devil" (Garcia, Dawson, Hunter)
  19. "Ripple" (Garcia, Hunter)
  20. "Sugar Magnolia" (Weir, Hunter)
  21. "Box of Rain" (Lesh, Hunter)
  22. "Brokedown Palace" (Garcia, Hunter)
  23. End credits

Credits

Jeremy Marre is a television director, writer and producer who founded Harcourt Films and has worked extensively around the world. Many of his films are on musical subjects. His reputation was made with the Beats of the Heart series, which introduced elements of what is now called world music, and its performers, to the Western world. The New York Times said of the series: "It can make your jaw drop regularly with astonishment." He has run director courses for the National Film and Television School, sat on the advisory boards for the British Library Sound Archive and the Arts Council of England, has broadcast widely on BBC radio, has written for The Times,New York Post and The Independent.

David Gans (musician) American musician and journalist

David Gans is an American musician, songwriter, and music journalist. He is a guitarist, and is known for incisive, literate songwriting. He is also noted for his music loop work, often creating spontaneous compositions in performance. He is the co-author of the book Playing in the Band: An Oral and Visual Portrait of the Grateful Dead, and the host of the weekly syndicated radio show The Grateful Dead Hour. He currently co-hosts a radio show with Gary Lambert on Sirius XM's The Grateful Dead Channel called Tales from the Golden Road, a call-in show about the Grateful Dead.

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References

  1. ↑ Anthem to Beauty at the Grateful Dead Family Discography
  2. ↑ Scott, John W; Dolgushkin, Mike; Nixon, Stu. DeadBase XI: The Complete Guide to Grateful Dead Song Lists, 1999, DeadBase, ISBN   1-877657-22-0, p. 122
  3. ↑ Anthem to Beauty on IMDb
  4. ↑ Anthem to Beauty at Rotten Tomatoes
  5. ↑ Anthem to Beauty at AllMovie
  6. ↑ Anthem to Beauty at AllMusic
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