Listen: Grateful Dead Preview ‘Steal Your Face (50th Anniversary Remaster)’ with “Black-Throated Wind”
In October of 1974, the Grateful Dead entered uncharted territory. After a nearly ten-year cycle on the scene, the group turned in “The Last One” at the Winterland on October 20 and accepted their fate after feeling the weight of fatigued planning and the financial pressures of their road-fledgling journey while toting the Wall of Sound. As a fresh offering, a newly remastered version of Steal Your Face, the band’s 1976-released, double-live record, draws on their historic five-concert farewell as a marker of the set’s 50th anniversary and is due to arrive on June 26.
Steal Your Face bolsters Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, Keith Godchaux, and Donna Jean Godchaux’s live interplay over four nights, October 17-20, 1974, at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom, and was the fourth and final LP to emerge under their independent label. The set underscores the importance of this period for the ensemble’s live sound and its ability to get loud, thanks to the aforementioned Wall of Sound.
As the initial preview of the remastered collection, “Black-Throated Wind” arrives today. “A staple of the live repertoire 1972-1974, thankfully returning in 1990, ‘Black-Throated Wind’ is widely considered one of Bob Weir’s finest compositions. Never recorded on a Grateful Dead studio album (it appeared on Bobby’s Ace album in 1972), this is the definitive Grateful Dead recording of this gem,” David Lemieux offers.
Recounting the importance of the massive sound reinforcement system, “Wall of Sound revolutionized live audio as essentially the first large-scale ‘line array’ in modern concert history. Designed by Stanley and a team of visionary engineers, the system provided a level of clarity and scale previously unheard in a live setting. While it set a new gold standard for audio, the logistical strain of transporting the 75-ton modular structure (which required four semi-trailers and 21 crew members to haul and set up) proved ultimately unsustainable for a touring band,” the press release notes.
In its impending state, Steal Your Face (50th Anniversary Remaster) reemphasizes a crop of favorites from “Promised Land” to Stella Blue,” “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo,” “It Must Have Been The Roses,” and today’s reinforced preview of “Black-Throated Wind.”
Listen to the song sample. Pre-order here.
Steal Your Face (50th Anniversary Remaster)
2LP Track Listing
Side One
“Promised Land”
“Cold Rain And Snow”
“Around And Around”
“Stella Blue”
Side Two
“Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo”
“Ship Of Fools”
“Beat It On Down The Line”
Side Three
“Big River”
“Black-Throated Wind”
“U.S. Blues”
“El Paso”
Side Four
“Sugaree”
“It Must Have Been The Roses”
“Casey Jones”
