Rare Tracks on Anniversary of Return from Egypt

By David Lemieux

In September, 1978, musical worlds collided when renowned Egyptian oud player Hamza El Din, along with the Nubian Youth Choir, joined the Grateful Dead onstage during all three concerts they performed at the foot of the Pyramids of Egypt. The collaboration resulted in the hypnotic, polyrhythmic tune “Ollin Arageed,” written by Hamza himself. It was a true meeting of two completely divergent, yet totally complementary, musical styles. After the Egypt concerts, the Dead returned to America as triumphant, world-travelling heroes, and at the final two of their five night return engagement at Winterland, Hamza joined the band onstage to introduce the song to the American masses. Over the next seven years, Hamza would perform “Ollin Arageed” with the Grateful Dead live four more times, with the final collaboration in March, 1985.

Fast forward to 2004. We were searching through the vault for bonus material to feature on the reissue of “Shakedown Street” to be included in the Beyond Description boxed set, when we came across a studio session reel with a remarkable item at the end of it. It was a rehearsal recorded on August 11, 1978 at the Grateful Dead's Front Street studio, featuring Hamza on oud, Mickey Hart on the tar, and Jerry Garcia on acoustic guitar. They were working out the arrangement for Ollin Arageed. In addition to a good, short version of the tune, they also proceeded to play an interesting, Middle Eastern-inspired song. And now, for the first time, those recordings are available to Dead Heads. It is truly our pleasure to be able to share these two studio rehearsal tracks with you in celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the “From Egypt With Love” concerts.

Listen to all the tracks

Track 1

Track 2

Comments

Peace lovae and Sarvastivardins upon th eIndra's Jeweled Net.

On October 23rd, 2008 dolphin_lyonesse said:

one love
one life
one interconnected dream

rare tracks

On October 23rd, 2008 hglynn said:

Thanks to all who keep their lamps trimmed and burnin' so we can continue to enjoy what the Dead have left for us!!

I like, but would have been nice...

On October 23rd, 2008 Day Glo Louisville said:

I wish they would have included this rare beauty on the Egypt release, would have made it alot less disappointing, thanks for posting it.

beautiful

On October 23rd, 2008 aaron said:

Really beautiful. Thank you.

wow!

On October 23rd, 2008 messy13 said:

really, really wonderful! i'd certainly be willing to pay for this if it could be made available.

Great but...

On October 23rd, 2008 ludlow66 said:

Great stuff but it is really hard to carry my computer around with me so I can get into a great space and really enjoy.

"So, we thought we would commemorate the anniversary of the "From Egypt with Love" shows by sharing these rare and unreleased tracks with you, gratis."

Just seems like a little false advertising to me.

Get Real!

On October 23rd, 2008 fred williams said:

I must be missing something. This here is something that was found in the vault and made available for listening for FREE....And yet some of you still feel the need to complain!!!!

Where is all this entitlement coming from? These tracks probably were not usable for a release because of whatever reasons,( Length, legality, quality, room on Cd.. etc) So in an effort to get the music out there, or get the music to the MOST AMOUNT OF PEOPLE POSSIBLE WITHOUT CHARGE, the powers that be offer these tracks here. How the fuck can folks complain?

You know what? Sunsets are beautiful too. I still have to go some place to watch them. They can't all be in the comfort of my living room. I usually have to put in a litttle effort to see good ones. Sometimes there's clouds and you can't see even them. We're lucky to have sunsets at all. Enjoy the ones you can see.

Seeing these complaints make me angry. The tunes could never have seen the light of day. Take them for what they are...a few nice nuggets of music. You can't buy or own everything. Quit your bitching!

Thanks again for the music!

Free Music

On October 24th, 2008 Dermot said:

I honestly think that no money should be charged for Dead music at this stage, especially digital music, apart from the covering of costs, which may be covered by advertising etc. This is from someone who has spent lots of money over 30 years on Dead output. Instead of a memory all I see left is crass commercialism.

Dermot

On October 24th, 2008 Mr. Pid said:

Should Paul, Ringo, Yoko and the Harrison Estate give away Beatles music for free, too? And how about Bob Dylan? And how much of your property should you be required to give away for free?

I think the Dead have been more than generous with us all along. While it may be easy to lose sight of the fact that they have an inherent right to their intellectual property because they have been so generous, I don't think that posture rises to a permanent waiver of their rights.

Conversation is always more interesting than recitation, so speak your mind and not someone else's.

Such a wonderful morning treat!!!!

On October 25th, 2008 southerntam said:

Beautiful, simply beautiful.