Anthem of the Sun
1968 studio album / Live album by Grateful Dead / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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-garde instrumental and studio techniques influenced by composers John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
| Anthem of the Sun | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album / Live album by | ||||
| Released | July 18, 1968 (1968-07-18) | |||
| Recorded | September 1967 – March 31, 1968 (see Locations for more on these dates) | |||
| Studio | Various | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 38:57 | |||
| Label | Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, Rhino Records | |||
| Producer |
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| Grateful Dead chronology | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [6] |
| Rolling Stone | positive [7] |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [8] |
The album was assembled through a collage-like editing approach helmed by members Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh (along with soundman Dan Healy), in which disparate studio and live performance tapes were spliced together to create new hybrid recordings. The band also supplemented their performances with instruments such as prepared piano, kazoo, harpsichord, timpani, trumpet, and güiro. The result is an experimental amalgam that is neither a studio album nor a live album, but both at the same time.
In 1972, a more commercial alternate mix of the album was officially released to capitalize on the band's recent success. A 2018 reissue on Rhino Records collects both the 1968 and 1972 mixes. The album was ranked number 288 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, in both the 2003 and 2012 iterations of the list.[9][10] It was voted number 376 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums.[11]