Grateful 45's is an exciting, new, officially licensed Grateful Dead t-shirt program using as its source and inspiration some of the band's rare output of singles from around the world.
The whole thing started when Jay and Liora Soladay became a GD licensee for their line of hippie clothing, Jayli. Their friend Dave Rosen started bugging them almost immediately to try and add t-shirts to their license so they could collaborate with him and his merchandising company, On The One Merchandising. Dave's background in rock and roll merch and his general obsession with the Dead and rock tees made it seem like a natural fit. Then one day, while driving back from the MAGIC apparel convention in Las Vegas, Jay called Dave with an idea. "How about we do a line of tees based on Grateful Dead songs? Nobody's really done that before."
Good idea, Dave thought. He thought about it and eventually remembered an old buddy from Dead touring days, Eric Schwartz of Dallas and Lone Star Dead fame, who is a huge collector of Dead memorabilia, especially 45 singles. Not having seen Eric since Jerry Garcia's death in 1995, it took a bit to track him down, but once Dave found him and pitched him the idea, Eric offered to let Jayli and On The One Merchandising use his voluminous collection of Dead 45 singles to create their t-shirt line.
Included in the line are singles from Greece, France, Japan, England and the good old US of A. There are test pressings, red vinyl, promotional releases, and even, in the case of the Japanese records, misspellings of the band's name. Foreign label fine print, misspellings, and smudges are all part of the character and historical significance of these musical artifacts from the long, strange trip that was the Grateful Dead.
TGD101
“Dark Star”: UK Release
Released in April 1968, this design is from the UK import made in England, featuring the red Warner Brothers label being used at the time. This version of “Dark Star” was recorded in the studio during sessions for what would become the “Anthem of the Sun” LP, but was only available as a 7” single and only appeared again years later on the compilation “What A Long Strange Trip It’s Been.”
Throughout their career, “Dark Star” was the song most closely associated with the band’s improvisational bent and usually clocked in at 20 minutes or more. For the purposes of the 45 release, this version is less than 3 minutes long, and is also notable for featuring a rare recorded appearance by Dead lyricist Robert Hunter reciting poetry in the closing seconds of the song.
TGD102
“Uncle John’s Band”: French Release
Released in the late spring of 1970, this French pressing is on the olive green Warner Brothers label used at that time. The 45 rpm mix had the words “God damn” removed so that the song could be played on the radio. “Uncle John’s Band” peaked at number 69, and was on the Billboard charts for 7 weeks.
“Ripple”: American Single
Released in 1971 as the B-side of the “Truckin’” single, this much beloved song was written by Robert Hunter in London in 1970 on the same day he also penned the Dead classics “Brokedown Palace” and “To Lay Me Down.” Though a consensus favorite of Deadheads, “Ripple” was rarely played live, appearing fewer than 40 times in the Dead’s career.
“Viola Lee Blues”: Japanese Red Vinyl Test Pressing
Released September 5th, 1967 with a white promotional label on red wax and manufactured by Toshiba Japan under license from Warner Brothers. The disc is credited to the misspelled The Greatful Dead. The album version was so long that the single was split between 2 sides of the single. Hence the (part 1) in the song title.
“The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)”: Greek Pressing
Released March 17 1967 off of the eponymous first Grateful Dead album, this label is from a rare import single manufactured and released in Greece. The flip side marks the only appearance of "Cold Rain and Snow" as a single and is on the stock Warner Brothers orange label of the period. Songwriting credit is given to McGannahan Skjellyfetti, a pseudonym briefly used by Jerry Garcia. On the LP version, songwriting credit is given to each member of the band, which would rarely happen after this period, which predates Jerry's songwriting partnership with Robert Hunter.
“Viola Lee Blues”: Japanese stock retail label
Manufactured in Japan by Toshiba and released with a picture sleeve in September 1967 on black wax with the mistaken spelling from the promo 45 still intact and the band still listed as The Grateful Dead.
“Sugar Magnolia”: White label promotional single.
Released December 27 1972 on the Warner Brothers label and backed with the song "Mr. Charlie," this is an edited version taken from the triple live LP "Europe 72." The single cracked the Billboard Hot 100 chart in February 1973, peaking at number 91. “Sugar Magnolia” is the second most-played song by the Dead in concert, appearing almost 600 times in the course of their 30 year career.
“Sugar Magnolia”: Blown Up
Our own artistic rendering of the white label promo record, “blown up” visually to accentuate the period details that make these labels so unique.
