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 Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review! 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.