Tag: grateful dead

Random Shuffle – June 02, 2006

the wild thornberrys

Originally posted on May 29, 2006.

“Father and Daughter” – Paul Simon
from the soundtrack to The Wild Thornberrys

A lovely latter-day Paul Simon pop ditty. It has a wonderful cascading guitar part and a nice bouncy rhythm. Simon is still a master of the pop craft. He can write a brilliant buoyant melody coupled with his artful, poetic lyrics.

It plays like an update to “St. Judy’s Comet” Both are simple, lovely songs that won’t win any literary awards for lyrics, but will surely be sung by countless parents to their countless children.

wilco being there “Outta Mind (Outta Sight)” – Wilco
from Being There

Being There is the first Wilco album I ever bought. I was a member of BMG’s music club at the time. You know how it goes, you get 8 free CDs at first and have to buy several more over the next year. They ran a blurb about how great Wilco was so I got the album and then didn’t know what to do with it.

At first listen the songs sounded too weird, the melodies were off and I couldn’t really sing along to the lyrics. I dug the more countrified songs like “Forget the Flowers” but the distortion and loud guitar noise turned me way off.

Still, periodically I would pull it out and give it another listen. In time I always found the song craft to be really interesting. I’d listen to a disk, think I had misjudged the album, vow to listen to it more, and promptly put it aside and forget about it for months.

Eventually, I got a copy of Yankee Foxtrot Hotel and fell in love with it. Revisiting the Wilco back catalog, of course, brought me back to Being There which I now elevate quite a bit higher than ever.

This is one of my favorite songs from the album, and of the band, truth be told. The album is a two-disk set and contains this song twice. In this version it is more acoustic and has a little country twang, on the other disk it becomes more electric, more rock. I’ve always preferred this one, but the other will do in a pinch.

And though I originally thought there were no lyrics to sing along to, this one is full of new favorites worthy of road trip shout-outs.

paul simon graceland
“You Can Call Me Al” – Paul Simon
from Graceland

Another Simon tune, this time one of his best, with one of the all-time classic videos to go along with it. Funny, I grew up watching MTV where my wife never had cable growing up. So I spend my days asking her if she remembers this video or that and her having absolutely no clue.

This one was so simple, just Simon and Chevy Chase sitting in chairs. But Chase is singing the lead vocal with Simon doing the bass line in the chorus. It is so simple, but brilliant in its deadpan delivery.

It doesn’t hurt that it’s backed by a great freaking song. My favorite off of the South Africa-inspired Graceland album.

the cure wish
“Friday I’m in Love” – The Cure
from Wish

Ah, remember when the Cure tried to be happy? It never really worked, but this one song is pure joy. It is a song that doesn’t remind me of a specific time or place, but more of a season of my life.

I was a teenager, thinking I had discovered something new, exciting, and different. I had recently discovered “alternative” music and with it, the Cure. This was post Nirvana’s onslaught on the world, where I and about a billion other depressed teenagers found the “alternative” and thought ourselves unique.

Still, much of the music I found was really rather good, and can still move me to this day. This one shakes your booty, bobs your head in nostalgic happiness.

the rolling stones let it bleed

“Let it Bleed” – The Rolling Stones
from Let it Bleed

If the music wasn’t so danged good, I’d be disgusted by the lyrics. Changing the lyrics from lean to bleed to cream to cum all over me gives the listener that ‘did he just say what I think he said’ feel.

No matter, the rhythmic country honk of the music washes over any disgust in the lyrics.

steve forbert evergreen boy

“Something’s Got A Hold On Me” – Steve Forbert
from Evergreen Boy

I first heard this song listening to the fabulous East Tennessee radio station WDVX while tooling down the road twixt the rolling mountains. There is a lyric that goes

“Oklahoma looks all right, when I’m in Montreal”

The rest of the song is all about being on the road, and the sense of longing one gets when not in the place you really want to be. This particular lyric hit me pretty hard because the girl I was dating at the time, who did become my wife, was spending the winter in Montreal and I’m originally from Oklahoma. It was as if Forbert was speaking directly to me.

Actually, I’m getting my history a little wrong. I wasn’t actually dating her at the time. We had discussed it quite a bit because initially, she was going to go to graduate school in Tennessee instead of Indiana, where she wound up. The lyrics gained new meaning for me because I wondered if I wasn’t something more to her because I was away.

I feared the idea of this dream guy who was hundreds of miles away might not be stronger than the reality of me when we finally were in real physical space together.

It all turned out all right, and this song is still a beauty.

tori amos - strange little girls “Heart of Gold” – Tori Amos
from Strange Little Girls

Where I had the Cure to speak to my teenage insecurities, it seems every girl my age had Tori Amos. Her first album Little Earthquakes is still a masterpiece of angst, loneliness, and being misunderstood. I pretty much tuned out after that, but she still has legions of fans.

This is from her album where she covers very masculine songs, like Eminem’s tribute to murdering his wife. Most of it is pretty awful, and this song is no exception. I only have it because my wife is still a periodic Tori fan, and she wanted this album to be added to her collection.

This sounds nothing like the original Neil Young song. It is all dark synthesizer and squelching from Tori. Where is your piano Tori?

“Lean On Me” by Rockapella From an Unknown Album

This mp3 says this is Rockapella, but after some internet searching they don’t seem to have ever released a version of this song. My guess is another similar acapella outfit covered it, and some Gnutella kid labeled it Rockapella not knowing any other group it could be.

At any rate, it is a decent, upbeat version of the classic soul ballad. Nobody can beat Bill Withers, but these kids do a decent job. The soul is taken out of the song, but there is a nice dance rhythm that the kids might like.

stone temple pilots - core “Plush” – Stone Temple Pilots
from Core

Nobody mimics Eddie Vedder like Scott Weiland. In the wake of Nirvana’s flood, it seems everybody was trying to be grunge. Stone Temple Pilots are one of the better bands that stole the sound trying to grab a piece of the alternative pie.

There were a lot of Pearl Jam comparisons to STP, and this song certainly shows you why. It sounds like something cut out of Ten, and Weiland does his best Vedder impersonation, even mimicking the earnest facial expressions in the video.

All jokes aside, this song is still a butt-kicking rocker. All loud guitars and dense baritone.

grateful dead - dicks picks 7

“Jack Straw” – Grateful Dead
from Dicks Picks 7

The primary Grateful Dead lyricist, Robert Hunter, took much of his inspiration from the myth of the Old West. Many of his songs sound as if they were lifted right out of the tumbleweed. This is one of his best.

It is a story song about two outlaws running from the law. The lyrics tell a concise story in just a few verses. Yet Hunter allows the listener to draw his own conclusions. As the song draws to a close the singer laments

Jack Straw from Wichita cut his buddy down Dug for him a shallow grave and laid his body down

Are we to assume Jack Straw killed his friend and took the money for himself? Or has he cut him down from the gallows and given him a final resting place? This is the beauty of Hunter’s lyrics. In a sense, we make of the story what we like.

The show is from the late 1980s and it certainly isn’t the Dead’s finest musical moment. It is performed aptly, with Jerry and Bob Weir trading verses on lead vocals. They don’t expand upon it musically, and thus it clocks in at a paltry 5 minutes and 19 seconds. It is a song worth tracking down in other versions, though. Personally, I’d try to find something from 1972.

Random Shuffle (04/17/06): The White Stripes, Ryan Adams, John Prine, Pearl Jam, & The Grateful Dead

get behind me satan “I’m Lonely (But I Aint That Lonely Yet) – The White Stripes
from Get Behind Me Satan

There was a period of about 3 years where my live music lust pretty much blocked everything else out. I had no interest in new music. The stuff I periodically heard on the radio was trash. Boy bands and Britney Spears, my life can totally live without that.

The thing was, live music moved me in ways that the typical studio album didn’t. Plus it was a lot cheaper to buy a blank CDR at about ten cents a pop than spend $18 for a studio album I wasn’t even sure was any good.

Slowly, I began coming out of my hibernation and came around to the idea that there was some good music out there that wasn’t live, that was produced in a studio, and that was worth my $18.

It is during this reemergence that my sister’s husband, Brian asked me if I had heard the new White Stripes album. I replied I hadn’t and he said I should check it out, that I would like it. I’m always a little annoyed when people tell me I’ll like something – whether it’s a song, or a movie or a book – most people have no idea what I really like, and to presume I’ll like something based on whatever is annoying. But Brian is usually pretty spot on with his recommendations (well except for talking me into seeing Shallow Hal, for which he will never be forgiven).

So, I got a copy of Get Behind Me Satan and freaking loved it. I had been hearing about the White Stripes for a while, about how they were the saviors of garage rock, but had pretty much ignored them. The album was so much more than garage rock, or punk, or just loud guitars. These were well-thought-out tunes, with insight into melody and song craft. The band could use a little filling out from their trick 2-person lineup. The songs need little more than guitar/drum, piano/drum, and solo piano. Would it kill Jack White to hire a bass player, and maybe a rhythm guitarist?

“I’m Lonely (But I Ain’t That Lonely Yet) is a nice little piano ballad. It is a far cry from the pumped-up boom of “Seven Nation Army.” It’s also one of my least favorites from the album. There just isn’t enough to it. It’s got sad little lyrics, but it’s just pling pling on the piano and mopey singing from Mr. White. This seems to be a trend in ballads these days – write moody, poetic lyrics and a bland, unmelodic bit of music to go with it.

ryan adams rock n roll “So Alive” – Ryan Adams
from Rock N Roll

Ryan Adams came to me in this same musical awakening period as the White Stripes. I forget when I actually started to dig him. I absolutely loved “New York, New York” which got all sorts of airplay just after 9/11 what with the timely lyrics and the video on the bridge overlooking the Manhattan skyline.

But after that song, I looked no further into the Ryan Adams playlist. All the cool people seemed to dig him. I think I couldn’t get past that sloppy hipster hair. But slowly, somewhere I heard another song and another and became a fan.

Adams is the king of the no melody, just pluck on your instrument while singing a super sad lyrics ballad. He drives me crazy with that stuff, especially since he can write a darn fine piece of pop music.

“So Alive” is a rather upbeat, lively piece of tuneage. It’s actually a bit U2ish in its grandiosity, albeit with a Morrissey kind of vocal thing going. The results are interesting. It’s a good song, something that could easily blare out of my car speakers on a warm sunny day. It’s not really what I expect, or want from Ryan Adams though. He has the ability to write a real hook. His best songs keep me singing them for hours after I’ve heard them, this one leaves my head soon after the last note is played.

john prine souvenirs “Hello in There” John Prine
from Souvenirs

God bless John Prine. He’s been writing songs like a mystic sage living on a mountaintop since he was but a young man. His lyrics are some of the most beautiful, moving words sung this side of Bob Dylan. He likes to say that he is an old rock and roller who has made a living writing folk songs. We are better people because of it.

Souvenirs is Prine covering himself. It is a collection of songs he wrote some 20 years before, reworked for a voice that is much more mature, and a man who has lived enough life to live in lyrics written by a man too young to know better.

“Hello In There” is a song written for old people. It’s a sad, beautiful thing that makes you want to call your grandmother after a listen. I have to admit, this new version nails the song in ways the original just couldn’t. Prine’s voice, while never smooth and pretty, has taken a rougher edge, with a maturity that fits the loneliness of old age perfectly.

pearl jam riot act “I Am Mine” – Pearl Jam
from Riot Act

Speaking of Brian turning me onto music, he’s one of the last few die-hard Pearl Jam fans out there. Like a million other teenagers I fell in love with the band with their first release, Ten. The music was straight out of the 70’s hard rock box, with lyrics that spoke of alienation and hard times. It was perfect for a long-haired, mixed-up 17-year-old.

I listened to their second album Vs for several weeks straight, without playing any other album. This was my band.

Then I went to college, met a girl who was too punk for grunge, and Pearl Jam left me behind. Their very different, and ungrunge-like third album Vitalogy didn’t help much. Periodically I heard a new single from the band and had a brief thought that I should get back into them, but never got around to it.

As stated, Brian is one of the last of the die-hards. The boy loves him some Pearl Jam. His enthusiasm for the band always gets me and always makes me want to listen to the band fresh again. So, I buy an album or download a single and dig them for a little while.

“I Am Mine” is fairly typical of what I’ve heard from new Pearl Jam. The hard rock edge is lessened by a better melody. Eddie Vedder’s deep baritone sweeps the song along. The lyrics are mysterious, sounding vaguely political and meaningful yet difficult to decipher and make sense of, yet remaining thematic and full of sing-along ability.

grateful dead dicks picks 4

“Not Fade Away” – Grateful Dead
from Dicks Picks 4

My first time seeing any member of the Grateful Dead was at a Furthur Festival in Atlanta. This was a couple of years after Jerry died, and the surviving members were just starting to play music again. Bob Weir played a set with his band, Ratdog. Mickey Hart played all kinds of worldly drums with his ensemble, Bruce Hornsby had his band, and a few other Dead-like bands were invited along as well.

At the close of the night, all the bands joined together for a jam session. They closed with this Buddy Holly classic and Dead staple. As the song ended the musicians left the stage one by one, while those still onstage kept up the beat. Lastly, there were the drummers, banging out the bop, bop bop-bop backbeat. As they, too, left the stage the entire audience kept rhythm with hand claps and their own voices. I stood there in the hot Georgia night smiling in the knowing feeling that I’d just had the time of my life. Even if the band had played that song a million times, and a thousand other audiences had sung along in the exact same way, I felt special. I felt a part of something. It was magic.

The Grateful Dead did play this song a million times. It was a concert staple from their early years. This version, taken from a show in February 1970 exemplifies the Dead’s ability to take a very simple pop song and elevate it to something far more. It is some 13 minutes in length and never has a misstep or a dull moment. The Dead never takes it to the cosmic heights of say “Dark Star” but it is transcendent just the same.

Meditations on the Grateful Dead circa 10/09/77

1977 is not the greatest year for Grateful Dead concerts. 10/09/77 is not the Dead’s finest night, it is not even their best from 1977 or their best night from October. “The Music Never Stopped” is a good song. It is not a Great Song.

But what the band does to it this night is what the Dead could do to just about any song. They make it Great. It begins no better than any number of versions they played throughout the years. All cylinders are popping right on time. Bob sings with his usual gusto.

The verses and chorus sound good, but it is after the last chorus that things really get going. At 3:24 the music begins to break down. The song’s structure is shed. Garcia plays like two snakes intertwined, dancing through each other. Bob follows his trail, throwing loopy, curved rhythms. Lesh hops along behind on bass like a kid on a pogo stick. The drummers keep their pace. Garcia speeds up the race moving his fingers like a jackrabbit on acid.

The pace quickens, and all melody and structure are thrown away, for a moment there is no longer a song, hardly what anyone would call music, but it is magic. An exciting pulsing beast. Garcia’s snakes eat each other and explode into something new. Phil thump thump thumps into the highest reaches of the atmosphere. Bob is no longer playing anything like rhythm unless it is the rhythm of some cosmic god. This lasts for two or three minutes, then without warning every musician, as if on cue, bangs back into the beat. I, wearing my headset at full volume, tense up as if a bomb has been dropped.

I begin to open my mouth half expecting to sing along with the next verse or the chorus. The boys seem to expect this too, playing the melody outright for a moment before realizing there is nothing left to sing. There are no more verses, the chorus has been sung. Garcia takes that cue to soar to the heavens again. The rest of the band continues to hammer out what remains of the song. The melody is there in the backbeat. Phil has it in his bass, the drummers pound it out on the skins, and even Bob is back into the rhythm. But Garcia, sensing the cosmos around him wants nothing to do with the conventions of song. He skates, dances, and weaves through a new song.

Something the audience, as cosmically charged as Dead audiences get, must understand. It is Garcia taking us along for the ride, headed to outer space and salvation, held back only by the melody and rhythm of that song. No longer dancing, Garcia charges ahead to break free. Faster, faster, louder he plays. Like a rocket flaring to break through the atmosphere, but at last, the gravity of the song still being played pulls him down. The band senses their victory and as if toying with Garcia breaks out of the mold of the song and begins the fast beat of the end. A crescendo of noise followed by the crash of a song ended.

No, 1977 was not the greatest year for live Dead. December was not the greatest month in 1977 and October 9 was not the Dead’s greatest night of October. “The Music Never Stopped” is not the Dead’s finest song. Yet in this year, this night, and on this song the Grateful Dead created magic. Just like they did for 30 years over different years, different months, and different songs.

Top 5 Opening Tracks

Editor’s Note: For a brief period back in 2004 I had a little Facebook group where we would ask each other for our Top Five…whatevers.  I got the idea from the film High Fidelity, and we had a lot of fun with it.  I regularly posted my answers to the question on my blog. 

1. “Box of Rain” by the Grateful Dead from the album American Beauty.

Phil Lesh wrote all of the music, and even scatted the vocal lines before giving it to Robert Hunter to write the lyrics. He wanted a song to sing to his dying father. Hunter is quoted as saying the lyrics nearly wrote themselve coming as fast as the pen could hit the page. It is a beautiful song and opens waht is arguably the best Grateful Dead album ever made.

2. “Where the Streets Have No Name” by U2 from the album The Joshua Tree

The opening track to my all time favorite U2 album. The slow, ethereal feel of the organs drifting is like sitting in a cathedral. Then the quick rhthym of the Edge’s guitar fades followed the thump thump of Adam Clayton’s bass. My head begings to nod, my feet begin to tap and then ‘BAM’ Bono’s vocal “I wanna run. I want to hide” it’s like the lift off of a rocket. Pure joy is followed for the next 4 minutes.

3. “So What” by Miles Davis from the album Kind of Blue

The jazz album for people who don’t own any jazz. This is a Miles Davis album in name only, with a line up like John Coltrane, Julian “Cannonball” Adderley on saxophones, Bill Evans on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums this is an allstar jazz group. And it is this opening tonal song that brings the world to a new kind of jazz. Even the opening notes are some of the finest music to be played on any album.

4. “A Hard Days Night” by the Beatles from the album Hard Days Night.

From the opening chord of George’s guitar you know this is gonna be something exciting. From that startling moment John launches into one of the all time great rock and roll dities. Just one of many lennon/mccartney tunes that sound like they’re having so much fun and you just can’t help but sing a long at the top of your lungs.

5. “Radio Free Europe” by REM from the album Murmur.

A muddy, murky tune that you can’t understand a word to ushers to the world the sound that would be REM (at least for the next decade or so). Alternative college rock had been brewing behind the scenes for awhile and this, to me at least, is one of the defining songs of the whole scene. To this day I have no idea what Michael Stipe is singing about, and I just don’t care.

The Top Ten Cover Songs

Editors Note:  Once again I originally wrote this post many years ago.  I don’t know that I would pick these same songs were I to pick my favorite cover songs now.  But these are all good choices.  I haven’t thought about some of these songs in years, so this was a fun stroll down memory lane.

Top 10 Cover Songs

A few rules. To be a cover song the song could not have been written specifically for that artist. Therefore the Monkees “I’m a Believer” will not work because Neil Diamond wrote it for their TV show. Likewise, Neil Diamond’s version of that song doesn’t count even though many think of it as a cover, because well, he wrote it. To count for my list the cover has to be of an already generally known song. So Jimmy Hendrix’s version of “Hey Joe” doesn’t count. Because there’s a dispute over who actually wrote the song and whoever heard the versions by any of those guys?

1. Satisfaction by Otis Redding.
Original by the Rolling Stones

Many people consider the Devo version to be a much better cover, and I totally dig it too, but Otis just blows it away. He’s got that killer Otis soul, jumping rhythm and even horns! Keith Richards has been quoted as saying the Otis version is how he meant the song to sound.

2. All Along the Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix.
Original by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan himself changed his way of playing this song after he heard Hendrix

3. I Will by Alison Krauss.
Original by the Beatles

We played this song at our wedding. It’s a beautiful McCartney number slowed down, and sung even more beautifully by Ms. Krauss.

4. Sweet Jane by Cowboy Junkies.
Original by the Velvet Underground

I actually prefer Lou Reed’s solo live versions of this song more than the original Velvet Underground’s studio recording. But the Junkies make what is a rowdy, dirty rock and roller into a softer, peaceful lullaby.

5. Not Fade Away by the Grateful Dead.
Original by Buddy Holly

Buddy Holly’s sweet rockabilly tune is turned on its head by the masters of jam. Often the Dead would churn this tune into a grinding 15-minute spectacle.

6. RESPECT by Aretha Franklin
Original by Otis Redding

Aretha gets back at Otis here. Otis does some amazing vocals on his version, but Aretha takes it a step further and nails it on its head.

7. Cold, Cold Heart by Norah Jones
Original by Hank Williams

Norah turns this forlorn country song into a sultry, sexy croon.

8. Stardust by Willie Nelson.
Original by Hoagy Carmichael

Transforming a huge big band tune into its most simplistic melody Willie Nelson makes this song his own.

09. Bizarre Love Triangle by Frente
Original by New Order

The orignal was a big dance hit, but Frente break it down into a beautiful acoustic number.

10. Hurt by Johnny Cash
Original by Nine Inch Nails

The heartbreaking video adds a lot of texture to this version but in the end, it’s Johnny Cash’s voice that brings out more meaning into this song than ever meant by Trent Reznor.

There are certainly many more great covers out there that I thought of and didn’t think of that could have been included. I tried to pick songs that followed my mentioned rules and that broke away from the original. For instance, I think the harmonies on CSN’s version of “Blackbird” elevate it far above the Beatles version, however, they didn’t make it a different song and thus it wasn’t included. Got covers, not on my list? Comment them!