The single was first released in April 1968 by Warner Bros. Records and is a different mix than the version included on the Anthem of the Sun album. The single was re-released in the United Kingdom in 1977 as a promotion distributed with the Dark Star magazine. The single release included lyrics of "Dark Star" on the back cover. While writing the single Weir said he wanted the abrupt, brief breaks in the music to sound like "thick air". The band had lots of strange experimenting during the songwriting process which irritated producer Dave Hassinger so much that he left the studio. David Dodd believes this happened right around 1:32 in the song, just before the lyrics "my how lovely you are, my dear".[5]
