Golden Anniversary for The Grateful Dead’s Beauty

It could be strongly asserted that 1970 was The Grateful Dead’s banner year, if for no other reason than their two most revered and enduring albums were released within months of each other – Workingman’s Dead in June of ’70, and American Beauty the following November.

The professional archivists at Rhino Records released a 50th anniversary “Deluxe Edition” of the former this past July, and now they’re prepping to put out a similar expanded package for the latter. Out Oct. 30, the 3-CD edition of American Beauty will include the original ten tracks (among them, “Ripple,” “Sugar Magnolia,” “Truckin’,” “Box of Rain,” “Friend of the Devil” and others that went on to become fan favorites and staples of the Dead’s live repertoire), along with two discs’ worth of a live concert recorded in February 1971 in Port Chester, New York. Curiously, a performance from the same run of shows, recorded three nights later, was appended to the Workingman’s Dead reissue as bonus material.

Vinyl fetishists, don’t fret – there’ll be a limited-edition picture disc of the remastered original album released the same day.