The Grateful Dead will launch a special album reissue series in January that will include two-disc deluxe editions and limited edition vinyl picture disc versions of every one of the group’s studio and live albums. Each will be timed for release around the individual album’s 50th anniversary. These two-disc deluxe editions, released via Rhino, will include the original album with newly remastered sound, plus a bonus disc of unreleased recordings. The same remastered audio from the original album will also be released as a 12-inch picture disc produced in a limited edition of 10,000 copies.
The series rolls out on January 20 with a reissue of the San Francisco band’s 1967 debut album, The Grateful Dead: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition. The set will be available for $19.98 and includes the original album—newly remastered from the original tapes by David Glasser, and restored by Plangent Processes—along with a bonus disc that features the complete unreleased concert from July 29, 1966, and select cuts from July 30, 1966, at the P.N.E. Garden Auditorium in British Columbia, mastered by Jeffrey Norman. On the same day, the newly remastered version of The Grateful Dead will also be available as a picture disc.
The deluxe edition’s bonus disc unearths unreleased recordings from the band’s performances at the Vancouver Trips Festival in 1966. Pre-order is available here.
Related: What were the top radio hits of November 1967?
The band has also opened subscriptions to the Grateful Dead 7-Inch Singles Collection. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of their first single, the Grateful Dead will launch a special reissue series in 2017 that will bring pressings of the first four of the band’s 27 singles on 7-inch colored vinyl, each limited to 10,000 copies and available exclusively at www.dead.net. The remaining 23 singles will be released over the next few years. Subscriptions will be $44.98, which includes the first four installments in the series, released quarterly across the year.
The first release, arriving March 1, is the band’s debut: “Stealin'” b/w “Don’t Ease Me In.” Scorpio Records released the Grateful Dead’s first single during the summer of 1966.
Related: Want even more Dead? You can download one free track per day throughout November
In other Grateful Dead news, this year’s installment of the Grateful Dead Almanac launched today at www.dead.net. This annual newsletter, dating back to the band’s touring days, keeps fans updated on all things happening in the world of the Grateful Dead. Also launching with the Almanac are subscriptions to Dave’s Picks 2017 series, which features four unreleased live shows released as limited editions each quarter throughout the year. The series, now entering its sixth year, kicks off its 2017 offerings on February 1 with the release of Dave’s Picks Vol. 21, which includes a live show from the Boston Garden from April 2, 1973.
The Grateful Dead: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition CD Track Listing
Disc One: Original Album
“The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)”
“Beat It On Down The Line”
“Good Morning Little School Girl”
“Cold Rain & Snow”
“Sitting On Top Of The World”
“Cream Puff War”
“Morning Dew”
“New, New Minglewood Blues”
“Viola Lee Blues”
Disc Two: P.N.E. Garden Auditorium, Vancouver, BC, Canada,
7/29/66
“Standing On The Corner”
“I Know You Rider”
“Next Time You See Me”
“Sitting On Top of The World”
“You Don’t Have To Ask”
“Big Boss Man”
“Stealin'”
“Cardboard Cowboy”
“Baby Blue”
“Cream Puff Wars”
“Viola Lee Blues”
“Beat It On Down The Line”
“Good Morning Little Schoolgirl”
7/30/66
“Cold, Rain and Snow”
“One Kind Favor”
“Hey Little One”
“New Minglewood Blues”
Watch the Grateful Dead perform at San Francisco’s Human Be-In in January 1967
Don’t miss a post! Sign up for Best Classic Bands‘ Newsletter; form is on every page.
2 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationSo, we only have to wait until 2039 for the Built to Last special edition?
WOO-HOO!
Picture discs?!? These novelty items have notoriously lousy sound. Please tell us that there is a new manufacturing process that makes these sound as good as properly mastered premium vinyl. I have to hope that customers of reissued GD LPs are into it for the richness of the sound, and not just hipster cheeseballs throwing cash at trinkets. PLEASE tell us there will also be an LP edition created for best audio quality!