Grateful Dead — From the Mars Hotel (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)
Qobuz reissue review, June 2024
The mid-’70s were the best of times and the worst of times for the Grateful Dead. While they were absolutely still a massive concert draw, by 1974 they had nearly completely receded from pop culture consciousness. Their late ’60s psychedelia was, obviously, central to the hippie mythos, and their early ’70s dip into Americana scored them a couple of surprising entries into the Hot 100 with “Truckin’” and “Uncle John’s Band”; but cornerstones of the classic rock era they definitely were not. The Dead’s highly idiosyncratic approach had always best been experienced live, and their wooly, gently expansive, and still-countercultural sound absolutely did not lend itself to being wedged in between the Doobie Brothers and Bachman-Turner Overdrive on FM radio. Having split ways with Warner Bros. — probably to the relief of both parties — the band set up Grateful Dead Records in 1973, releasing Wake of the Flood to a surprisingly strong critical and commercial response; From the Mars Hotel followed eight months later.
Like its predecessor, Mars bears the imprint of Keith Godchaux’s influence, bringing a more soulful, jazz-rock groove to the proceedings, however, Mars is notably more playful and psychedelic. (It is, after all, the home of both the lilting, slightly goofy “Pride of Cucamonga” and the trippy “Unbroken Chain.”) The three studio albums the Dead independently released in the mid-’70s — Flood, Mars, and Blues for Allah — are some of their most rewarding, and of them, Mars is the most consistently incredible. From the groove-oriented opener “U.S. Blues” through the utterly iconic closer “Ship of Fools,” Mars threads the delicate needle of presenting studio versions of concert crowd pleasers in a way that feels both authentic to their genesis and sonically sophisticated. There’s a looseness, confidence, and casual experimentation throughout that makes the album as fun as it is adventurous, and it’s no accident that there are studio versions of three of the Dead’s most legendary live cuts — “Scarlet Begonias,” “China Doll,” and “Ship of Fools.”
Appropriately enough, while the band was working on putting the final studio touches on Mars they were also wrapping up work on the design and construction of their famous “wall of sound” PA system, optimized to deliver sonic bliss to the ever-growing numbers of Deadheads who were making their stadium shows massive events across the U.S. While the financial and logistical strain of these tours and the band’s label independence would lead to them taking a break from touring in late 1974, the shows they did undertake during this era were some of their most legendary, despite the fact that the primary official document is the notably divisive Steal Your Face.
While there have been archival releases over the years that have helped more accurately document these shows, it was a wise move for this 50th anniversary edition to focus less on outtakes or alternate versions (there are just two demos) and instead include an entire excellent — and previously unreleased — live show from Reno that the band played just a few weeks after they wrapped up recording Mars Hotel.
