Rolling Thunder (album)

Last updated
Rolling Thunder
RollingThunderCD.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedSeptember 1972
StudioMickey's Barn, Marin County, California
Genre Rock
Length39:06
Label Warner Bros.
Mickey Hart chronology
Rolling Thunder
(1972)
Diga
(1976)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [1]
Christgau's Record Guide C+ [2]

Rolling Thunder is the first solo album by Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart.

Contents

Although Hart had temporarily left the Grateful Dead at the time he made Rolling Thunder, members of the Dead play on the album, along with a number of other well-known musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area music scene. Also featured are classical tabla players Zakir Hussain and his father Alla Rakha. The album contains early versions of two songs co-written by Bob Weir that later became Grateful Dead concert staples – "Playing in the Band", and "Greatest Story Ever Told" (called "Pump Song" on this album).

The cover art for Rolling Thunder was created by Alton Kelly and Stanley Mouse's Kelly/Mouse Studios.

The album was named after the Shoshone medicine man, shaman, teacher, and activist Rolling Thunder, [3] who was a friend of Mickey Hart and the Grateful Dead and whose voice is heard on the first track.

In 1986, Relix Records re-released the album on vinyl, using the original masters and color separations. In 1989, the album was released on CD on the Grateful Dead label. It was subsequently re-released by Relix. [4]

Track listing

Side One

  1. "Rolling Thunder/Shoshone Invocation" (Rolling Thunder) – 0:46
  2. "The Main Ten (Playing in the Band)" (Hart, Weir, Hunter) – 7:04
  3. "Fletcher Carnaby" (Hart, Hunter) – 4:14
  4. "The Chase (Progress)" (Hart) – 4:04
  5. "Blind John" (C.J. Stetson, Peter Monk) – 3:48

Side Two

  1. "Young Man" (Hart, Monk) – 2:41
  2. "Deep, Wide, and Frequent" (Hart) – 5:33
  3. "Pump Song" (Weir, Hart, Hunter) – 4:42
  4. "Granma's Cookies" (Hart) – 3:00
  5. "Hangin' On" (Stetson, Monk; arranged by Mickey Hart) – 3:17

Personnel

By track

Production

Notes

  1. Allmusic review
  2. Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: H". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies . Ticknor & Fields. ISBN   089919026X . Retrieved February 26, 2019 via robertchristgau.com.
  3. "The PlowBoy Interview: Rolling Thunder", Mother Earth News, July/August 1981
  4. Rolling Thunder on deaddisc.com

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References