The Grateful Dead’s ‘In The Dark’ LP Turns 35 Years Old!

On July 6, 1987, The Grateful Dead returned from a seven-year hiatus from the recording studio to put out In The Dark, the band’s twelfth studio album. Most of us know what happened next, for but anyone that’s new to the band and their lore — they blew up and got wayyyyyy bigger than they expected. And it’s pretty easy to blame “Touch of Grey”, this song was just too damn radio friendly.

“Touch of Grey”

The band shot three videos in total for that record, including the famous skeleton band video for “Touch of Grey” which really was quite a proper intro to the MTV audience. I seem to remember my older brothers having a poor quality VHS quality of all of the videos on a tape, because I had definitely seen the video for “Throwing Stones” a long time ago and remember thinking that it was okay to like the Dead because that song was so catchy.

“Hell in a Bucket”

“Throwing Stones”

The album went on to double platinum status and broke through to #6 on the Billboard charts, the only album of the band’s that actually had that level of sales and success. Arena tours followed and the rest is history!

Despite nods to technology in the form of synthesizers, sound effects and a startling “programming” credit, this sounds more like a Dead record than anything they’ve done in years. [Rolling Stone]

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