Grateful Dead ‘Aoxomoxoa’ 50th Anniversary Edition Features Previously Unreleased Live Recordings

The Grateful Dead will continue their studio album reissue series with the release of Aoxomoxoa on June 7 via Rhino. Like other installments of the series, the reissued Aoxomoxoa comes out as a two-disc deluxe edition featuring previously unreleased live tracks and newly remastered sound approximately 50 years to the day the LP was first issued. Plus, the album will be available as a 12-inch picture disc with a limited run of 10,000 copies.

Aoxomoxoa: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition‘s first disc features two versions of the Dead’s 1969 studio album — the original recording and “the definitive” band-produced mix from 1971. Both have been fully remastered. The set’s second disc contains previously unreleased live music from the Dead’s January 24 – 26, 1969 run at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. Jeffrey Norman remastered the live tracks from shows that were among the first recorded to 16-track tape. The vinyl picture disc includes the remastered mix of the album from 1971.

Here’s what Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux had to say about Aoxomoxoa:

“In 1969, for their third album, the Grateful Dead eschewed outside producers and created Aoxomoxoa themselves, beginning a run of self-produced albums that would continue until 1977. Scrapping the first sessions, which were recorded to eight-track tape, the Dead now had 16 tracks with which to experiment their psychedelic sound, with an album that included entirely Robert Hunter-penned lyrics for the first time.”

The bonus disc from the January 1969 Avalon Ballroom contains early renditions of Aoxomoxoa’s “Dupree’s Diamond Blues” and “Doin’ That Rag” as well as the final live version of “Clementine” and more. At the time, the Grateful Dead lineup featured Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Phil Lesh, Tom Constanten, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann.

Aoxomoxoa: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition Tracklist

Disc One: Original 1969 Mix & 1971 Remix

1. St. Stephen
2. Dupree’s Diamond Blues
3. Rosemary
4. Doin’ That Rag
5. Mountains Of The Moon
6. China Cat Sunflower
7. What’s Become Of The Baby
8. Cosmic Charlie
9. St. Stephen
10. Dupree’s Diamond Blues
11. Rosemary
12. Doin’ That Rag
13. Mountains Of The Moon
14. China Cat Sunflower
15. What’s Become Of The Baby
16. Cosmic Charlie

Disc Two: Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco (1/24-26/69)

1. New Potato Caboose
2. Dupree’s Diamond Blues
3. Doin’ That Rag
4. Alligator >
5. Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks) >
6. Feedback >
7. And We Bid You Goodnight
8. Clementine >
9. Death Don’t Have No Mercy