Stream Previously-Unreleased ‘Eyes Of The World’ Demo Recorded By Grateful Dead Guitarist Jerry Garcia

Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia’s “Eyes Of The World” demo is part of the upcoming Wake Of The Flood 50th anniversary deluxe reissue. Rhino will release the updated edition of the Dead’s 1973 album on September 29.

Wake Of The Flood (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) also includes a previously-unreleased demo of “Here Comes Sunshine,” the song from which the album gets its title. Also included is a recording of the last show of Grateful Dead’s short tour immediately following the release of Wake Of The Flood held on November 1, 1973, in Evanston, Illinois at Northwestern University’s McGaw Memorial Hall.

Recorded after the untimely death of Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and during drummer Mickey Hart’s sabbatical from the band, Wake Of The Flood was the first Grateful Dead album featuring keyboardist Keith Godchaux and vocalist Donna Jean Godchaux. The album, which also featured Garcia, guitarist Bob Weir, drummer Bill Kreutzmann and bassist Phil Lesh, was the first released on the band’s new-at-the-time record label, Grateful Dead Records.

Held over just nine days in August 1973, Wake Of The Flood sessions took place at the Record Plant in Sausalito, California. The seven-song LP was made up of “Eyes Of The World” and “Here Comes Sunshine” as well as “Stella Blue,” “Row Jimmy,” “Let Me Sing Your Blues Away,” “Weather Report Suite” and “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo.”

Regarding the demos, the announcement states, “Recorded in early 1973, just before the Grateful Dead performed on February 9th, the demos feature Jerry Garcia singing and playing a pair of new songs he and Robert Hunter had been creating.”

Former UC Santa Cruz Grateful Dead archivist Nicholas G. Meriwether wrote an essay for the Wake Of The Flood (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition). Available in a variety of physical and digital formats, “All pressings of Wake Of The Flood (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) feature Plangent Processes tape restoration and speed correction and are newly mastered by Grammy Award-winning engineer, David Glasser, and produced for release by Grateful Dead Legacy Manager and Audio Archivist, David Lemieux.”

Stream Jerry Garcia’s previously-unreleased “Eyes Of The World” demo below: