Skull & Roses 50: Side B

Rich Mahan (0:05)

The Good Ol Grateful Deadcast, the official podcast of the Grateful Dead. I'm Rich Mahan with Jesse Jarnow, exploring the music and legacy of the Grateful Dead for the Committed And The Curious.

Welcome to The Good Ol Grateful Deadcast, ladies and gentlemen. This is the second episode of season three, and we are on to side B in our exploration of the Grateful Dead's 1971 live release, Skull & Roses. You might have noticed we're coming at you with a new episode every other week this season versus weekly, and we hope you enjoy the more leisurely pace. Visit us at our website, dead.net/deadcast, and check out the extras we have waiting for you to explore for each episode. All of our episodes from season one and two are there as well, and you can link from there to any and all of the podcasting platforms available so you can listen where you prefer.

Please help us, subscribe, hit that like button, leave us a review. Thanks very much, it really helps.

Here in season three, we do have another golden anniversary we are celebrating. It's the 50th anniversary of the Dead's Live double album from 1971, Skull & Roses. There is a 50th anniversary expanded edition of Skull & Roses coming on June 25th. It includes more than an hour of unreleased music from the Dead's final Fillmore West show on July 2nd, 1971 Several configurations are available, including a two LP set, a two CD set, and it will of course be available on your favorite streaming platform. Pre-orders are open now at dead.net. Well, we have flipped the record to Side B, so sit back with your favorite bevy and or flavor enhancer and get ready to dive into the headiest jam on Skull & Roses, The Other One. The guest list keeps growing here on the Deadcast and this episode is no exception as we have new guests to introduce you to, including guitar luthier extraordinaire Rick Turner, mythical figure Rosie McGee, and master tie-dier Courtenay Pollack. Ladies and gentlemen, Jesse Jarnow. Thank you for watching.

Jesse Jarnow (2:34)

Going through the Grateful Dead's official albums is a rite of passage for any deadhead, and it was especially so in the days before live tapes were easy to come by. To new listeners, each album still presents new mysteries and each song new layers of lore.

Side two of Skull & Roses contains exactly one song, an 18-minute track labeled The Other One. Our trip today will be a little expanded.

David Lemieux (3:02)

Thank you.

Jesse Jarnow (3:20)

The other one was already a signature jam for co-writer Bob Weir, but the possibilities the Dead found for it on Skull & Roses helped create an improvisational language for generations of bands to come.

But it could also be a little confusing. Grateful Dead archivist and legacy manager, David Lemieux, brought along his copy of the album that he got as a teenager.

David Lemieux (3:39)

My original pressing that I got was 1985, spring of 85, and I paid $30 for it. In 85, yeah, and this is in Canada.

I remember exactly where I got it, and I couldn't believe I was finding it because I'd always wanted this record. There were many songs on this album that I didn't know. This was, I mean, at the very beginning of my tape trading days, which is to say the first 20 tapes I got in 1985, this was around that same time. I had a couple of albums, I had Working Man's Dead, I had Skeletons from the Closet, I had a few others. I was a little confused because I knew that's it for the other one, because I did have Anthem of the Sun at the time, one of the first kind of four or five albums I had, but I didn't know what this other one business was.

Jesse Jarnow (4:20)

David wasn't alone. Gary Lambert, who wrote the notes for the new 50th anniversary Skull & Roses reissue, bought the album on the day it came out, and it threw him for a loop too.

Gary Lambert (4:30)

The other one is intriguing because when the album appeared and I saw that title, The Other One, it may have been the first time I ever saw it detached under that title from the, that's it for the other one suite, on which it had been introduced on Anthem of the Sun. And so I always thought it was the faster we go, the rounder we get, which was the title that they begrudgingly affixed to it because Joe Smith said these tracks need titles.

So that in itself, it being released as a freestanding cut was intriguing to me.