Grateful Dead – Dead in a Deck

Dead in a Deck – these cards were packaged together with a CD to promote the 1989 Built to Last, the Grateful Dead’s final studio album by Arista Records. The deck is replete with Dead iconography. The courts are skeletal versions of the international pattern (ironically, the King of Hearts does not have a sword going through his head; you’d think it’d be a must for a Dead deck).

The Ace of Spades features Bertha, the iconic image of a skull crowned with roses. A similar skull is on the Ace of Hearts while the Ace of Clubs contains Steal Your Face aka Steelie – the skull split by a lightning bolt that’s become the Dead’s primary logo. The Ace of Diamonds and the card backs house a skeletal Uncle Sam, yet another figure in Dead mythos; the Uncle Sam on the back brandishes a sword in the shape of the Washington Monument, a nice touch.

Interestingly, all the hearts have a rose under the suit symbol; the other suits don’t have anything extra.

Grateful Dead – Dead in a Deck [1st vintage deck] packaged together with a CD to promote the 1989 Built to Last, the Grateful Dead’s final studio album by Arista Records, 1989.

Lastly, there are two jokers. One is a pensive skeleton in motley holding a mandolin (or a lute, depending on who you ask), an image by Stanley Mouse, the artist who created much of the Dead artwork. The second joker has a jarringly normal photo of the band with “Arista Records” underneath. Dead in a Deck is one of at least three vintage Grateful Dead decks.