✦ RSD Black Friday · Fri Nov 27, 2026 ✦ First Time on Vinyl ✦ 4-LP Box ✦ Limited to 5,000 Copies ✦ Also on 2-CD ✦

The Grateful Dead Live · Record Store Day

Carousel Ballroom 2/14/68

The Primal Dead’s Valentine’s Day Show Hits Vinyl

The complete Valentine’s Day 1968 concert that helped shape Anthem of the Sun arrives on vinyl for the very first time, an RSD Black Friday exclusive from Rhino.

The Night

Grand Opening on Market Street

On February 14, 1968, the Grateful Dead headlined the “Grand Opening” of San Francisco’s Carousel Ballroom, with Country Joe and the Fish also on the bill. The night launched a bold experiment: the Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service had leased the hall to run it themselves, as a band-run alternative to the Avalon and Bill Graham’s Fillmore. (Graham later took it over as the Fillmore West.)

The band on stage was pure primal Dead: Garcia, Weir, Lesh, Pigpen on organ and vocals, and the newly doubled drum lineup of Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart. Live recordings from this show and others that winter became the raw material for the band’s groundbreaking live-studio hybrid, Anthem of the Sun.

The Music

Eight Sides of Pure Psychedelia

LP 1 · Set One

Side 1: Morning Dew · Good Morning Little School Girl
Side 2: Dark Star > China Cat Sunflower > The Eleven

LP 2

Side 3: Turn On Your Love Light
Side 4: That’s It for the Other One (Cryptical Envelopment > Quadlibet for Tender Feet > The Faster We Go, the Rounder We Get > We Leave the Castle) · New Potato Caboose · Born Cross-Eyed

LP 3 · Set Two

Side 5: Spanish Jam · Alligator (Part 1)
Side 6: Alligator (Conclusion) > Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks)

LP 4

Side 7: Feedback · In the Midnight Hour (encore)
Side 8: Custom etching (no music)

The Package

Inside the Box

4 LPs, 5,000 Copies

A four-LP set on black vinyl, limited to 5,000 copies. A 2-CD edition is also out for RSD.

New Art & Liner Notes

Brand-new cover art by Zazzcorp (Helen Kennedy) and liner notes by Grateful Dead scholar Nicholas G. Meriwether.

Restored & Remastered

Mastered by Jeffrey Norman, with Plangent Processes tape restoration to remove wow, flutter and speed drift from the 1968 reels. Produced by archivist David Lemieux.

FRI · NOV 27, 2026 · RSD BLACK FRIDAY

Where to Get It

An RSD Black Friday exclusive, sold in person at participating independent record stores. Some shops may offer leftover copies online afterward, but with only 5,000 made, your best bet is to be there Friday morning.

RSD Release Page