Postcards of the Hanging

Last updated
Postcards of the Hanging
Grateful Dead - Postcards of the Hanging.jpg
Live album by
The Grateful Dead
ReleasedMarch 2002
RecordedJune 10, 1973 – March 24, 1990
Genre Rock
Length75:39
(bonus disc 10:14)
Label Grateful Dead / Arista / Rhino
The Grateful Dead chronology
Dick's Picks Volume 24
(2002)		Postcards of the Hanging
(2002)		 Dick's Picks Volume 25
(2002)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [1]
The Music BoxStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [2]

Postcards of the Hanging is a compilation album by the Grateful Dead. It consists entirely of Bob Dylan covers, performed live in concert, along with a rehearsal performance of "Man of Peace" featuring the Grateful Dead backing Dylan himself. [3] Bob Weir sings lead on five tracks, Jerry Garcia on three, and Phil Lesh on one ("Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues"); Weir and Garcia also alternate on one ("Maggie's Farm"). Another Dylan covers collection, Garcia Plays Dylan , includes several performances by the Grateful Dead, but mostly by the Jerry Garcia Band and other Garcia side projects. An album of live performances containing Dylan and the Grateful Dead performing together was released in 1989 as "Dylan & the Dead."

Contents

The title comes from the opening stanza of Dylan's "Desolation Row": "They're selling postcards of the hanging/ They're painting the passports brown."

Content

Seven of the songs on the album originally appeared on the Dylan albums Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited ; the remaining three represent Blonde on Blonde , John Wesley Harding , and the Leon Russell session that produced "Watching the River Flow" for the Greatest Hits II double-LP. Aside from being from among his most critically revered rock albums, the seven songs date from 1965, the year the long strange trip of the Grateful Dead began. The songs remained in the Dead's live rotation throughout their existence.

Conspicuously absent from the compilation is "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", a song the Dead performed more than 170 times. Conversely, "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" was performed a few times in the early 1990s, and only once in the 1970s – in the version included here, the Dead are accompanied by Dickey Betts and Butch Trucks, of the Allman Brothers Band. Dylan himself leads the band on the final track of the main disc, a rehearsal for the 1987 tour for which the Dead were his backing band. [4]

Track listing

All songs written by Bob Dylan

No.TitleRecording date and venueLength
1."When I Paint My Masterpiece"October 11, 1989 at Meadowlands Arena 6:11
2."She Belongs to Me"September 15, 1985 at Devore Field 7:20
3."Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues [5] "July 12, 1989 at RFK Stadium 4:29
4."Maggie's Farm [6] "October 3, 1987 at Shoreline Amphitheatre 6:13
5."Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again"July 16, 1988 at the Greek Theatre 8:07
6."It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry [7] "June 10, 1973 at RFK Stadium7:35
7."Ballad of a Thin Man [8] "April 1, 1988 at Meadowlands Arena6:40
8."Desolation Row [9] "March 24, 1990 at Knickerbocker Arena 9:55
9."All Along the Watchtower [10] "July 4, 1989 at Rich Stadium 5:44
10."It's All Over Now, Baby Blue"December 3, 1981 at Dane County Coliseum 7:23
11."Man of Peace [11] "June 9, 1987 at Veterans Memorial Auditorium 5:51
First edition bonus CD
No.TitleRecording date and venueLength
1."Queen Jane Approximately"December 29, 1988 at Oakland Arena 6:12
2."Quinn the Eskimo (Mighty Quinn)"December 30, 1985 at Oakland Arena4:02

Personnel

Additional personnel

Production

Charts

Album – Billboard

YearChartPosition
2002The Billboard 200120 [12]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Lankford, Ronnie D. Jr. "Postcards of the Hanging: The Grateful Dead Perform the Songs of Bob Dylan". AllMusic. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
  2. ↑ Metzger, John. Postcards of the Hanging, The Music Box, May 2002
  3. ↑ Postcards of the Hanging at the Grateful Dead Family Discography
  4. ↑ Knockin' on Heaven's Door at the Grateful Dead Family Discography
  5. ↑ Remixed and later released on Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, Washington, D.C., July 12 & 13, 1989
  6. ↑ More songs from this concert on View from the Vault, Volume Three
  7. ↑ Remixed and later released on Here Comes Sunshine 1973 and RFK Stadium, Washington, D.C. 6/10/73
  8. ↑ Complete concert later released on Road Trips Volume 4 Number 2
  9. ↑ More songs from this concert on Without a Net , Dozin' at the Knick and Spring 1990
  10. ↑ Remixed and later released on Truckin' Up to Buffalo
  11. ↑ Dylan & the Dead summer tour Rehearsal
  12. ↑ "Billboard album chart history-Grateful Dead" . Retrieved March 1, 2009.

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