Grateful Dead: Aoxomoxoa 12"

In 1969, for their third album, the Grateful Dead eschewed outside producers and created Aoxomoxoa themselves, beginning a run of self-produced albums that would continue until 1977. Scrapping the first sessions, which were recorded to eight-track tape, the Dead now had 16 tracks with which to experiment on their psychedelic sound, with an album that included entirely Robert Hunter-penned lyrics for the first time. An enigmatic classic, Aoxomoxoa is messy and murky, mysterious and majestic - a perfect time capsule that is still stubbornly resplendent over a half-century later. The album introduced Dead favorites like "St. Stephen," "Mountains On The Moon," and "China Cat Sunflower."