Ugly Rumours...AKA- From The Mars Hotel is 33 Today !!!

Side one
"U.S. Blues" (Hunter, Garcia) – 4:42
"China Doll" (Garcia, Hunter) – 4:10
"Unbroken Chain" (Lesh, Peterson) – 6:46
"Loose Lucy" (Garcia, Hunter) – 3:22

Side two
"Scarlet Begonias" (Garcia, Hunter) – 4:19
"Pride of Cucamonga" (Lesh, Peterson) – 4:17
"Money Money" (Barlow, Weir) – 4:23
"Ship of Fools" (Garcia, Hunter) – 5:27

2004 reissue Bonus Tracks
"Loose Lucy" (alternate take) – 4:43
"Scarlet Begonias" (live) – 9:09
"Money Money" (live) – 4:19
"Wave That Flag" (Garcia, Hunter) (live) – 5:34
"Let It Rock" (Berry) (live) – 3:22
"Pride of Cucamonga" (acoustic demo) – 4:24
"Unbroken Chain" (acoustic demo) – 6:20

This is probably my second favorite Grateful Dead record(American Beauty being the first). I know that the production is kind of....cold, maybe is a good word for it ? But I just love these songs. U.S. Blues, Scarlet Begonias, Ship Of Fools, Unbroken Chain, Pride of Cucamonga are all in my top 20 or 30 Dead songs.

It was also one of the first Dead albums that i sought out on my own and bought. I had heard "Steal your Face" and "Blues For Allah" from my friend John, and my brother had "American Beauty", "Workingman's Dead", "Terrapin Station", "Shakedown Street" and "Aoxomoxoa", so i had heard all of those. But I was in this record store and I saw a cassette copy of "From The Mars Hotel" and bought it. So, I think I had a weird proprietary relationship to it among my friends as well. The original CD version I have of the album has "Scarlet Begonias" misspelled as "Scarlet Begoninas".

The "Ugly Rumours" bit in the title of the post comes from the fact that if you hold the album cover upside down in front of a mirror the two "words" that are under the band name and title of the album read "Ugly Rumours", which is apparently a play on the phrase "ugly roomers", which is a reference to the denizens of the actual Mars Hotel.

Mars Hotel also contains one of the Grateful Dead's most hated songs- Bob Weir and John Barlow's "Money Money". I think this one runs neck in neck with "Keep Your Day Job" for the most hated title. I think it was only played live a handful of times. I don't really hate it that much. I always thought it was supposed to be kind of tongue in cheek, but perhaps I misinterpreted it. I don't know...It's not one of my favorite tunes or anything, but I don't despise it either.

U.S. Blues was a song I always wanted to hear live, but never did. Alas.