The Deadcast uncovers the secrets of Steal Your Face, the Dead’s 1976 live album with a checkered reputation, dramatic backstory, & sonic experimentation by Phil Lesh & Owsley Stanley.
Steal Your Face 50, Part 1 supplementary notes
by Jesse Jarnow
The story of Steal Your Face is one of the murkier tales in Grateful Dead history, an album with a checkered reputation and numerous sonic secrets.
Thanks, as always, to David Gans, who spoke with Bobby Weir about Steal Your Face in 1977 (included in Conversations With the Dead) and recovered a lost recording of Jerry Garcia speaking with late BAM writer Adam Block that same year. Block sadly passed away in 2008, but his work can be read in his archive, maintained by Fred Nemo (keeper of numerous archive sites, who himself sadly departed earlier this year). The full published interview can be found at Dead Sources.
Exploring Chuck Berry’s song “The Promised Land,” sung often by Bobby Weir and released officially for the first time on Steal Your Face, I was surprised to learn that its melody is derived from the 19th century song “The Wabash Cannonball” (though seems obvious in retrospect). Versions are included on two Owsley Stanley Foundation releases, performed by Johnny Cash at the Carousel Ballroom in 1968 and Doc and Merle Watson at the Boarding House in 1974.
Comment
Chuck Berry
Imagine Chuck Berry "borrowing" someone elses music!
re: Chuck Berry
I read stories about Chuck Berry; he just changed things around for the electric guitar. I concider him a pioneer of rock and roll and soul music.
Surround Sound
I was lucky enough to see the GD Movie in 1977 when it toured with the 5.1 system. It was an amazing thing to hear then, ahead of it's time. Especially when the music exploded into the concert footage. Yes, saw the movie, then walked across the Asbury Park boardwalk to see the JGB. Have a friend who was lucky enough to see the movie in it's 70mm version.
Steal Your Face
It's not the greatest GD live album; the sound is "weak." But I still love this album. I've long lost the so-called love of the vinyl era, or the vinyl revival. I ordered a vinyl set from dead.net. I wish a CD set would be reissued, too.
I also enjoyed having SYF back in the Day ...
Any Dead was most welcome - and I was only mildly aware of the sound issues
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> Black-Throated Wind is one of my favorites, >> & the version of Stella Blue on SYF is simply gorgeous.
albumn release
I picked this up right when it came out, and still have the "steal your face" baseball T that came with it! I liked it; still do...