Greatful Dead, American Beauty
Grateful DeadAMERICAN BEAUTY.
American Beauty arrived only months after Workingman's Dead and pushed the Grateful Dead even further toward acoustic instruments, vocal harmony and concise songwriting.
Album artwork shown for commentary and historical reference. Image source: Cover Art Archive / MusicBrainz.
SEVEN THINGS
WORTH KNOWING.
Recording stories, personnel, physical details and numbers worth keeping with the record.
American Beauty was released on November 1, 1970 and contains 10 tracks.
It was the Grateful Dead's second studio album released during 1970, following Workingman's Dead.
Major recording took place at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco.
Steve Barncard worked with the band as engineer and co-producer.
The album includes "Box of Rain," "Friend of the Devil," "Sugar Magnolia," "Ripple" and "Truckin'."
Phil Lesh sings lead on the opening track "Box of Rain."
The cover lettering is famous for visually blurring "American Beauty" into a second possible reading, "American Reality."
WHY THIS
ALBUM MATTERS.
American Beauty is the Grateful Dead proving that the band's identity did not depend on long jams, with carefully written songs and vocal harmony carrying as much weight as improvisation.
THE
NUMBERS.
TRACKS
The album contains ten songs.
1970 ALBUMS
It followed Workingman's Dead in the same year.
STUDIO
Wally Heider Studios was a key recording location.
THE
PHYSICAL OBJECT.
The rose, woodcut-like design and ambiguous lettering turned the cover into one of the most recognizable visual objects in the Dead's catalog.
RESEARCH SOURCES
Facts are checked against official artist archives, release databases, recording credits and established archival sources before publication.
KEEP
DIGGING.
More recording stories, strange credits, cover art, chart numbers and details hiding inside the records.