The Grateful Dead has announced a 50th anniversary reissue of their 1969 album, Aoxomoxoa, due out on June 7th via Rhino.
The forthcoming reissue, coming almost 50 years to the day of Aoxomoxoa‘s original release, includes a newly remastered version of the original LP and a remastered version of the band-produced mix the Grateful Dead released in 1971. Additionally, the second disc includes previously unreleased live recordings from the Dead’s January 1969 run at San Francisco’s Avalon Ballroom.
“In 1969, for their third album, the Grateful Dead eschewed outside producers and created Aoxomoxoa themselves, beginning a run of self-produced albums that would continue until 1977,” said Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux in a statement. “Scrapping the first sessions, which were recorded to eight-track tape, the Dead now had 16 tracks with which to experiment their psychedelic sound, with an album that included entirely Robert Hunter-penned lyrics for the first time.”
The bonus disc of previously unreleased live material includes early gems “Durpee’s Diamond Blues” and “Doin’ That Rag,” as well as the the Dead’s final live performance of “Clementine,” a tune the band began first unveiled in 1968 but never released on a studio album. The Grateful Dead lineup at the time of the 1969 Avalon Ballroom shows was Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Phil Lesh, Tom Constanten, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann.
The 50th anniversary version of Aoxomoxoa is available to pre-order and will be released as a two-disc CD set and a limited edition vinyl picture disc.