Completely Conspicuous 497: Anthem of the Sun

I'm joined by guest Phil Stacey as we discuss the Grateful Dead's second album, 1968's Anthem of the Sun.

Show notes:

- Recorded at CompCon world HQ

- Anthem of the Sun was recorded in 1967, released in '68

- Very experimental, similar to Zappa's song splicing in the '70s

- Studio and live performances mixed together

- An early concept album

- Songs would evolve through the years in performance

- Robert Hunter makes his first appearance as a lyricist on this album

- Producer grew frustrated with the band and left during the recording

- The sound of "thick air"

- Triple kazoo attack

- The Dead must have been a shock to fans of bubblegum pop

- Live, the Dead mixed up their shows every night

- This album sounds more jammy, like you would expect a Dead album to sound

- A lot of covers of bluegrass, country, jug bands, blues

- Pearl Jam adopted the Dead practice of releasing official bootlegs of shows

- The Dead used to do more audience banter, but recent incarnations of the group just play with minimal talking

- Anthem of the Sun was the next step in the evolution of the band's sound

- Next up: Aoxomoxoa

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The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.