Grateful Dead - Jack Straw From Wichita (1972)

Back in 2015, the ManRoy Music blog published an article about an early 70's "missing" album from the Grateful Dead, which has prompted this post. He wrote:
Whereas the Grateful Dead's previous four albums from 1967 to 1969 were the very definition of psychedelia, in 1970 they released two albums that redefined their musical careers. On 'Workingman's Dead' and 'American Beauty' the band's sound shifted from electric 'space' music to more acoustic textures and songcraft, while the songs themselves reflected an innovative mix of rock with folk, bluegrass and country music. Jerry Garcia has commented that much of the sound of those albums came both from his pairing with lyricist Robert Hunter, as well as the band's friendship with Crosby, Stills and Nash. Garcia said, "Hearing those guys sing and how nice they sounded together, we thought, We can try that. Let's work on it a little". However, after putting out two remarkable records in one year, the Dead didn't release another studio record until 1973's 'Wake Of The Flood', although they were far from dormant during that time span, with 1971/72 being a period of high artistic achievements. They carried on writing, and spent those two years touring extensively, and so many of the songs that were written in that time frame were never recorded in the studio, but instead were released as part of their two live albums, 'Skull & Roses' (officially titled 'Grateful Dead' after Warner Brothers refused to release it with the name the band wanted: 'Skull Fuck') and 'Europe '72'. The new songs featured on these two live albums extended and further explored the world that we were first shown in 'Workingman's Dead' and 'American Beauty'. 

Dead lyricist Robert Hunter has said that he wished that the songs from this period could have gotten the studio treatment as it would have made a great follow up album to the two 1970 releases, and would have been the final record of the 'American Beauty Trilogy'. This hypothetical studio album would include 'Jack Straw', 'Brown Eyed Women', 'He's Gone', 'Ramble On Rose', 'Tennessee Jed',' Mr. Charlie', 'Bertha', 'Wharf Rat', and 'Playing In The Band'. Additionally, this very strong collection of tunes could have been easily supplemented by other new songs that the Dead were regularly playing live but subsequently appeared on the solo records of Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, in particular, 'Loser' and 'Sugaree' from 'Garcia' and 'Mexicali Blues' from 'Ace' would have worked especially. All of these songs highlight the amazing lyrical talents of Robert Hunter, and the collaboration with Garcia produced a group of amazing songs that told the stories of cowboys, gamblers, outlaws, drifters, and other disreputable characters that took place in an America that seemed to be on the cusp of modernity, but wasn't quite there yet, and wasn't so sure that it wanted to be there either. In fact, the music genre we refer to today as Americana can be traced back to many of these songs, as while being highly evocative of a time and a place, they also exhibit a timelessness that is characteristic of the best of music and art. 

In order to make the album that he wanted to hear, I've selected the most concise versions of the songs, as we don't need 10-minute versions on a "studio" album, and I've removed any crowd noise, but the recordings themselves were so good that I didn't need to do any more work to them. I stuck to the original nine selections, as that resulted in a 52-minute album, which was the perfect length, and so I didn't need to include the tracks from 'Garcia' and 'Ace'. I titled it after the first track, and so was able to use some superb artwork by Luke Martin, which is actually called 'Jack Straw', and was done in the form of a Grateful Dead poster.   

Track listing

01 Jack Straw
02 Brown Eyed Women
03 He's Gone
04 Bertha
05 Mr. Charlie
06 Wharf Rat
07 Ramble On Rose
09 Tennessee Jed
09 Playing In The Band