Born Cross-Eyed

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"Born Cross-Eyed"
GD-DSBCsingle1.jpg
Single by Grateful Dead
from the album Anthem of the Sun
A-side "Dark Star"
ReleasedApril 1968 Flag of the United States.svg
1977 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
Recorded1968
Genre
Length2:54
Label Warner Bros. Flag of the United States.svg
WEA Records Ltd Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
Songwriter(s) Bob Weir
Producer(s) Grateful Dead
David Hassinger
Grateful Dead singles chronology
"'The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)/Cream Puff War'"
(1967)
"Born Cross-Eyed"
(1968)
"'Dupree's Diamond Blues/Cosmic Charlie'"
(1969)

"Born Cross-Eyed" is an original composition by the San Francisco psychedelic rock group Grateful Dead. It was written by rhythm guitarist Bob Weir during the band's sessions creating the album Anthem of the Sun , produced by David Hassinger, in 1968. It was released as a B-side with the single "Dark Star", one of the band's best-known musical excursions. [1] [2] [3] [4]

The single was first released in April 1968 by Warner Bros. Records and is a different mix than the version included on the Anthem of the Sun album. The single was re-released in the United Kingdom in 1977 as a promotion distributed with the Dark Star magazine. The single release included lyrics of "Dark Star" on the back cover. While writing the single Weir said he wanted the abrupt, brief breaks in the music to sound like "thick air". The band had lots of strange experimenting during the songwriting process which irritated producer Dave Hassinger so much that he left the studio. David Dodd believes this happened right around 1:32 in the song, just before the lyrics "my how lovely you are, my dear". [5]

This single version of the song would be later released as part of the compilation album What a Long Strange Trip It's Been by Warner Bros. in 1977, the twelve-CD retrospective box set The Golden Road (1965-1973) in 2001, released by Rhino Records (a subsidiary of Warner Bros.), and the 2003 re-release of Anthem of the Sun by Rhino.

Albums

The alternate cover sleeve of the single that was released in the United Kingdom. GD-DSBCsingle2.jpg
The alternate cover sleeve of the single that was released in the United Kingdom.

The following are the albums on which the song has appeared:

Studio albums
Live albums
Compilation/Box sets

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References

  1. Dodd, David. "Greatest Stories Ever Told: "Born Cross-Eyed"", dead.net. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
  2. Dodd, David. "Born Cross-Eyed", The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
  3. "Born Cross-Eyed", Grateful Dead Family Discography. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
  4. "Born Cross-Eyed", Grateful Dead Lyric and Song Finder. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
  5. "Grateful Dead Greatest Stories Ever Told - "Born Cross-Eyed"".