Skeletons from the Closet: The Best of Grateful Dead

Skeletons from the Closet:
The Best of Grateful Dead

A line drawing of a skeleton holding a record, a woman holding a rose, and a man holding the woman

Cover art by John Van Hamersveld
Greatest hits album by Grateful Dead
Released February 1974 (1974-02)
Recorded 1967–1972
Genre Acid rock, jam, psychedelic rock, blues rock, country rock, folk rock
Length 44:53
Label Warner Bros.
WS 2764
Producer Stephen Barncard, Betty Cantor, David Hassinger, the Grateful Dead, and Bob Matthews
Grateful Dead chronology
Wake of the Flood
(1973)		 Skeletons from the Closet: The Best of Grateful Dead
(1974)		 From the Mars Hotel
(1974)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [1]
Rolling StoneMixed[2]

Skeletons from the Closet: The Best of Grateful Dead was the first compilation album from the Grateful Dead. It was first released on LP in February 1974. The release was a ploy for Warner Bros. Records to cash in on the escalating popularity of the band (based on the sales of Workingman's Dead and American Beauty).[3]

Four of the tracks were not original Dead album studio recordings. This "Turn On Your Love Light" first appeared on the album The Big Ball, which was a loss leader sampler distributed by Warner Bros.; it had also appeared in longer form on Live/Dead. "One More Saturday Night" was taken from the band's live release Europe '72. And, "Mexicali Blues" was actually a track from guitarist Bob Weir's solo release (but essentially a Dead album) Ace. The version of "St Stephen" on the European release of Skeletons from the Closet is the identical recording from the Live/Dead LP with the long jam in the middle edited out.

Warner Bros. released the album on CD and cassette in 1988 before re-releasing the LP in 1990. The album would be later re-released on by Rhino Records on May 24, 2004 as part of a greatest hits series by various bands. It contains the complete "Love Light" from Live/Dead.

Skeletons from the Closet is the Dead's best-selling album, going triple platinum in the United States.

Album cover art

The artwork for the front and back covers of the album was created by John Van Hamersveld. The back cover depicts three men playing cards, with a globe in the center of the table. The futuristic Dymaxion car designed in 1933 by U.S. inventor and architect Buckminster Fuller is parked outside in the background. The three men appear as Marlon Brando from The Wild One, a long-haired bearded man in a graduation cap and gown and Cesar Romero as The Cisco Kid. The front cover features the Roman goddess of fertility, Venus, from the painting by Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus.

Track listing

Side one

  1. "The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)" (Jerry Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, Bob Weir) – 2:07
  2. "Truckin'" (Garcia, Lesh, Weir, Robert Hunter) – 5:09
  3. "Rosemary" (Garcia, Hunter) – 1:58
  4. "Sugar Magnolia" (Weir, Hunter) – 3:15
    • Originally released on the album American Beauty.
  5. "St. Stephen" (Garcia, Lesh, Hunter) – 4:26
    • Originally released on the album Aoxomoxoa.
  6. "Uncle John's Band" (Garcia, Hunter) – 4:42

Side two

  1. "Casey Jones" (Garcia, Hunter) – 4:24
    • Originally released on the album Workingman's Dead.
  2. "Mexicali Blues" (Weir, John Perry Barlow) – 3:24
    • Originally released on the Bob Weir album Ace.
  3. "Turn On Your Love Light" (Deadric Malone, Joseph Scott) – 6:30 / 15:08 (2004 re-release)
  4. "One More Saturday Night" (Weir) – 4:45
  5. "Friend of the Devil" (Garcia, John Dawson, Hunter) – 3:20
    • Originally released on the album American Beauty.

Personnel

Grateful Dead
Additional performers
Technical personnel

Charts

Billboard

Chart Position
Pop Albums 75

RIAA Certification

Certification Date
Gold[4] March 14, 1980
Platinum[4] December 15, 1986
Double Platinum[4] June 27, 1994
Triple Platinum[4] January 31, 1995

References

  1. ↑ Lankford, Ronnie D., Jr.. Skeletons from the Closet: The Best of Grateful Dead at AllMusic
  2. ↑ Scoppa, Bud (April 25, 1974). Skeletons from the Closet: The Best of Grateful Dead, Rolling Stone
  3. ↑ Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip . Jake Woodward, et al. Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2003, pg. 165.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "RIAA Gold & Platinum database-Skeletons from the Closet". Retrieved February 28, 2009.
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