Aoxomoxoa
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''Aoxomoxoa'' is the third studio album by the Grateful Dead. One of the first rock albums to be recorded using
16-track Multitrack recording (MTR), also known as multitracking or tracking, is a method of sound recording developed in 1955 that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources or of sound sources recorded at different times to create a ...
technology, fans and critics alike consider this era to be the band's experimental apex. The title is a meaningless palindrome, usually pronounced . ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'', upon reviewing the album, mentioned that "no other music sustains a lifestyle so delicate and loving and lifelike".''Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip'' by Jake Woodward, et al. Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2003, pg. 99. The album was
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gold by the RIAA on May 13, 1997. In 1991 ''Rolling Stone'' selected ''Aoxomoxoa'' as having the eighth best album cover of all time. It was voted number 674 in the third edition of
Colin Larkin Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British writer and entrepreneur. He founded, and was the editor-in-chief of, the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged". Along wit ...
's ''
All Time Top 1000 Albums ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'' is a book by Colin Larkin, creator and editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. The book was first published by Guinness Publishing in 1994. The list presented is the result of over 200,000 votes cast by th ...
'' (2000).


Background and development

The album was a series of firsts for the band. It is the first album the band recorded entirely in or near their original hometown of
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
(at Pacific Recording Studio in nearby San Mateo, and at the similarly named Pacific High Recording Studio in San Francisco proper). It is the only studio release to include pianist
Tom Constanten Tom Constanten (born March 19, 1944) is an American keyboardist, best known for playing with Grateful Dead from 1968 to 1970, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Biography Early career Born in Long Branch, N ...
as an official member (he had contributed to the previous album and played live with the band from November 1968 to January 1970). It was also the first to have lyricist Robert Hunter as a full-time contributor to the band, thus cementing the Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter songwriting partnership that endured for the rest of the band's existence. It was also the first time the band would showcase acoustic arrangements (as on "Mountains of the Moon", "Rosemary", and "Dupree's Diamond Blues"), which would become the focus of the next two studio albums. Some of the songs on ''Aoxomoxoa'' were played live briefly and then dropped. Only "China Cat Sunflower" became a set staple through the band's career, with "Dupree's Diamond Blues" somewhat less so. "St. Stephen" was played until 1971, revived in 1976 and 1977 and played a handful of times after that. Likewise, "Cosmic Charlie" was played a few times again in 1976.


Recording

The album was recorded twice. The initial version, with the working title ''Earthquake Country'' (a Bay Area
reference Reference is a relationship between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object. The first object in this relation is said to ''refer to'' the second object. It is called a '' name'' ...
), was abandoned when
Ampex Ampex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name AMPEX is a portmanteau, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence.AbramsoThe History ...
manufactured and released the first 16-track multitrack recording machine (model number MM-1000). Offering 16 discrete tracks for recording and playback, it doubled the number of tracks that had been available when they recorded ''
Anthem of the Sun ''Anthem of the Sun'' is the second album by rock band the Grateful Dead, released in 1968 on Warner Bros/Seven Arts. It is the first album to feature second drummer Mickey Hart. The band was also joined by Tom Constanten, who contributed avant ...
'', the previous year. Consequently, the band spent eight months in the studio, off-and-on, not only recording the album but getting used to — and experimenting with — the new technology. Garcia commented, "it was our first adventure with sixteen-track and we tended to put too much on everything...A lot of the music was just lost in the mix, a lot of what was really there".''Garcia: An American Life'' by Blair Jackson, Penguin Books, 1999. pg. 162 Drummer Bill Kreutzmann states, "sixteen-track technology came along only after we did our initial recording using an eight-track at the end of 1968. But when the studio procured one of the first sixteen-track recorders in the world (the same one we used for ''
Live/Dead ''Live/Dead'' is the first official live album released by the rock band Grateful Dead. Recorded over a series of concerts in early 1969 and released later the same year, it was the first live rock album to use 16-track recording. In 2005 the tr ...
''), the decision was made to toss everything we had already done and record it all again. From scratch. This time we could go deeper and experiment with things no other band had done yet. Being able to utilize twice as many tracks essentially doubled the possibilities of what we could do with each song. The end result was dense and cumbersome in places, and all that studio time cost us a fortune, but we were experimenting on the sonic frontier, exploiting cutting-edge technology." Indeed, the lengthy sessions for the album would put the band deeper into debt with Warner Bros. Records — specifically, a total cost of $180,000 (US$ in dollars) for ''Aoxomoxoa''. It was their most ambitious and costly venture to date and the last time the band would ever run up such high studio bills. Kreutzmann later commented, "Sometime in 1969, when we realized the colossal debt we got ourselves into with the decidedly indulgent making of ''Aoxomoxoa'', we realized that we needed to get a handle on our finances. We were a group of altruistic troubadours, a traveling psychedelic circus." Along with help from guest musicians such as John "Marmaduke" Dawson and David Nelson, Lesh played acoustic bass for the first time. He later commented, "the fun part of that was trying to play in tune with no frets to guide my fingers, just like a violin."''Phil Lesh: Searching for the Sound'' by Phil Lesh, Little, Brown and Company, 2005, pg. 138. Unlike the band's other studio albums, Garcia sang lead on every track.


Title and cover art

The title of the album is a palindrome created by cover artist
Rick Griffin Richard Alden "Rick" Griffin (June 18, 1944 – August 18, 1991) was an American artist and one of the leading designers of psychedelic posters in the 1960s. As a contributor to the underground comix movement, his work appeared regularly in ...
and lyricist Robert Hunter. According to ''Living with the Dead'', the audio memoir of band manager
Rock Scully Rock Robert Scully (August 1, 1941 – December 16, 2014) was one of the managers of the rock band the Grateful Dead from 1965 to 1985. Living in Haight-Ashbury as a graduate student prior to the Summer of Love, Scully first saw the Grateful Dead ...
, the title is pronounced "ox-oh-mox-oh-ah". One fan legend considers the words "Grateful Dead" on the front of the album, written in large, flowing capital letters, to be an
ambigram An ambigram is a calligraphic design that has several interpretations as written. The term was coined by Douglas Hofstadter in 1983. Most often, ambigrams appear as visually symmetrical words. When flipped, they remain unchanged, or they mutate ...
that can also be read "we ate the acid". Kreutzmann states, "Aoxomoxoa...doesn’t mean anything — it’s just a cool palindrome. People have surmised over the years that you could read the ''Grateful Dead'' lettering on the front cover as ''We Ate the Acid'' which, I suppose, is true enough, if you look at it just right." The artwork is adapted from a painting that was originally created as a concert poster for the band. The bottom portion depicts death, rebirth and the cycle of life, with fertility symbols and Egyptian-based imagery. The top depicts a sun which doubles as an egg being fertilized. Both sides feature stylized
censer A censer, incense burner, perfume burner or pastille burner is a vessel made for burning incense or perfume in some solid form. They vary greatly in size, form, and material of construction, and have been in use since ancient times throughout t ...
s.
Courtney Love Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, her career has spanned four decades. She rose to prominence as ...
has claimed to be featured among those photographed on the album's back cover. Love's father, Hank Harrison, had close ties to the band at the time, and had briefly worked for them in some capacity. Love's claim was corroborated by
David Gans David Gans ( he, דָּוִד בֶּן שְׁלֹמֹה גנז; ‎1541–1613), also known as Rabbi Dovid Solomon Ganz, was a Jewish chronicler, mathematician, historian, astronomer and astrologer. He is the author of "Tzemach David" (1592 ...
in 2011, but further research has proved her incorrect; the girl often identified as Love was actually
Bill Kreutzmann William Kreutzmann Jr. ( ; born May 7, 1946) is an American drummer and founding member of the rock band Grateful Dead. He played with the band for its entire thirty-year career, usually alongside fellow drummer Mickey Hart, and has continued to ...
's daughter Stacy, who was the same age as Love at the time the photo was taken. Kreutzmann has stated, "...despite rumors, that’s not a five-year-old Courtney Love on the back cover in the group photo. That’s my daughter, Stacy." The man sitting on a horse in the back cover photograph is jazz pianist
Vince Guaraldi Vincent Anthony Guaraldi (; né Dellaglio, July 17, 1928 – February 6, 1976) was an American jazz pianist best known for composing music for animated television adaptations of the ''Peanuts'' comic strip. His compositions for this series includ ...
, a friend of the band.


Critical reception

Reviewing ''Aoxomoxoa'' in 1969, ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' magazine's Adele Novelli called it "the work of the magical band. Can you hear this music and not see them before your eyes? The music is so much the reality of their physical and spiritual bodies that seeing them is the wonder of seeing music." In ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
'', Robert Christgau found the album "fantastic", with the exception of the "one experimental" song. He expanded on his praise in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' later that year: Years later,
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
's Fred Thomas said "the Grateful Dead reached their true peak of psychedelia" with the album, embellishing "the exploratory jamming and rough-edged blues-rock of their live shows" with "overdubbed choirs, electronic sound effects, and layers of processed vocal harmonies." According to Adam Bouyamourn of '' The National'', the album's "iconoclastic acid rock … combined free jazz, improvisation and psychedelia".


Remix

Second-guessing the end results, Garcia and Lesh went back in the studio in 1971 to remix the album, removing many parts present on the original release, including a choir singing on "Mountains of the Moon", many difficult-to-identify sounds on "What's Become of the Baby", and an a cappella ending for "Doin' that Rag," dropped for an earlier fadeout. The remix also uses different vocal takes on some songs, most noticeably "Dupree's Diamond Blues." The result, with the same catalog number (WS1790) and perhaps brighter sound, but with much of the original's experimental character removed, can be identified by the "Remixed September, 1971" legend on the back cover. Mistakenly, the song timings on the first (1987) CD release refer to the original mix, not the remix (varying most significantly on "Doin' that Rag," which was edited from 5:15 to 4:41, and "China Cat Sunflower," edited from 4:15 to 3:40). The original mix was later planned for CD release, but the original master tapes could not be located. When the masters were finally found, years later, they were used for '' The Warner Bros. Studio Albums'' vinyl box set, marking the first time the 1969 mix has been available since the 1971 remix replaced it, in 1972. The 2013 high definition remastering for download uses the remixed version – even though promotion related to this release declared "produced from the original analog master tapes in 2013, using the original album mixes". An edit of the track "Doin' that Rag" was released on the
Warner/Reprise Loss Leaders The Warner/Reprise Loss Leaders were a series of promotional sampler compilation albums released by Warner Bros. Records throughout the 1970s. Each album (usually a 2-record set) contained a wide variety of tracks by artists under contract to Wa ...
compilation ''The 1969 Warner/Reprise Record Show''. Since this set stayed in print through the late 1970s, it provided a sample of the original mix for some years after the full album was only available in the remixed version. The 2003 reissue (originally part of the 2001 box set '' The Golden Road'') includes three studio jams (including an early version of "The Eleven") from the original aborted eight-track sessions for the album, and a live version of "Cosmic Charlie" recorded early in 1969. On June 7, 2019
Rhino Records A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species ...
released the "50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition" of ''Aoxomoxoa''. Disc one contains both mixes of the album – the one from 1969 and the one from 1971. Disc two contains previously unreleased live tracks from the
Avalon Ballroom The Avalon Ballroom was a music venue in the Polk Gulch neighborhood of San Francisco, California, at 1244 Sutter Street (or 1268 Sutter, depending on the entrance). The space is known as the location of many concerts of the counterculture move ...
in San Francisco, recorded on January 24–26, 1969.


Track listing

50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition – disc two Notes * Tracks 9–11 recorded live in the studio at Pacific Recording Studio, San Mateo, California, on August 13, 1968 * Track 12 recorded at the Avalon Ballroom on January 25, 1969 * Track 1 on disc two of the Deluxe Edition, recorded on January 24, 1969 * Tracks 2–7 on disc two of the Deluxe Edition, recorded on January 25, 1969 * Tracks 8–9 on disc two of the Deluxe Edition, recorded on January 26, 1969


Personnel

Grateful Dead * Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals * Bob Weir – guitar, vocals *
Ron "Pigpen" McKernan Ronald Charles McKernan (September 8, 1945 – March 8, 1973), known as Pigpen, was an American musician. He was a founding member of the San Francisco band the Grateful Dead and played in the group from 1965 to 1972. McKernan grew up he ...
– organ, percussion *
Tom Constanten Tom Constanten (born March 19, 1944) is an American keyboardist, best known for playing with Grateful Dead from 1968 to 1970, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Biography Early career Born in Long Branch, N ...
– keyboards * Phil Lesh – bass, vocals *
Bill Kreutzmann William Kreutzmann Jr. ( ; born May 7, 1946) is an American drummer and founding member of the rock band Grateful Dead. He played with the band for its entire thirty-year career, usually alongside fellow drummer Mickey Hart, and has continued to ...
– drums, percussion * Mickey Hart – drums, percussion Additional musicians * John "Marmaduke" Dawson * David Nelson *Peter Grant *Wendy *Debbie *Mouse Technical personnel * Betty Cantor –
engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...
* Dan Healy – consulting engineer * Bob Matthews – executive engineer *
Owsley Stanley Augustus Owsley Stanley III (January 19, 1935 – March 12, 2011) was an American-Australian audio engineer and clandestine chemist. He was a key figure in the San Francisco Bay Area hippie movement during the 1960s and played a pivotal role ...
 – consulting engineer (''credited as "Owsley"'') * Ron Wickersham – consulting engineer Reissue personnel * James Austin – production * Joe Gastwirt – mastering, production consultation * Michael Wesley Johnson – associate production, research coordination * Cassidy Law – project coordination, Grateful Dead Archives * Eileen Law – archival research, Grateful Dead Archives * David Lemieux – production * Peter McQuaid – executive production, Grateful Dead Productions * Jeffrey Norman – additional mixing on bonus tracks


References

{{Authority control 1969 albums Albums with cover art by Rick Griffin Experimental rock albums by American artists Grateful Dead albums Warner Records albums Music of the San Francisco Bay Area