"Something To Make Us All Happy..."

Listening to Brent and Jerry wail away on "Dear Mr. Fantasy" from the Hampton Coliseum, 3/27/88, makes the morning so much better.

I Woke Up....

To find out that I was the eyes of the world...

Ugly Rumours...AKA- From The Mars Hotel is 33 Today !!!

Side one
"U.S. Blues" (Hunter, Garcia) – 4:42
"China Doll" (Garcia, Hunter) – 4:10
"Unbroken Chain" (Lesh, Peterson) – 6:46
"Loose Lucy" (Garcia, Hunter) – 3:22

Side two
"Scarlet Begonias" (Garcia, Hunter) – 4:19
"Pride of Cucamonga" (Lesh, Peterson) – 4:17
"Money Money" (Barlow, Weir) – 4:23
"Ship of Fools" (Garcia, Hunter) – 5:27

2004 reissue Bonus Tracks
"Loose Lucy" (alternate take) – 4:43
"Scarlet Begonias" (live) – 9:09
"Money Money" (live) – 4:19
"Wave That Flag" (Garcia, Hunter) (live) – 5:34
"Let It Rock" (Berry) (live) – 3:22
"Pride of Cucamonga" (acoustic demo) – 4:24
"Unbroken Chain" (acoustic demo) – 6:20

This is probably my second favorite Grateful Dead record(American Beauty being the first). I know that the production is kind of....cold, maybe is a good word for it ? But I just love these songs. U.S. Blues, Scarlet Begonias, Ship Of Fools, Unbroken Chain, Pride of Cucamonga are all in my top 20 or 30 Dead songs.

It was also one of the first Dead albums that i sought out on my own and bought. I had heard "Steal your Face" and "Blues For Allah" from my friend John, and my brother had "American Beauty", "Workingman's Dead", "Terrapin Station", "Shakedown Street" and "Aoxomoxoa", so i had heard all of those. But I was in this record store and I saw a cassette copy of "From The Mars Hotel" and bought it. So, I think I had a weird proprietary relationship to it among my friends as well. The original CD version I have of the album has "Scarlet Begonias" misspelled as "Scarlet Begoninas".

The "Ugly Rumours" bit in the title of the post comes from the fact that if you hold the album cover upside down in front of a mirror the two "words" that are under the band name and title of the album read "Ugly Rumours", which is apparently a play on the phrase "ugly roomers", which is a reference to the denizens of the actual Mars Hotel.

Mars Hotel also contains one of the Grateful Dead's most hated songs- Bob Weir and John Barlow's "Money Money". I think this one runs neck in neck with "Keep Your Day Job" for the most hated title. I think it was only played live a handful of times. I don't really hate it that much. I always thought it was supposed to be kind of tongue in cheek, but perhaps I misinterpreted it. I don't know...It's not one of my favorite tunes or anything, but I don't despise it either.

U.S. Blues was a song I always wanted to hear live, but never did. Alas.

"Steal Your Face ? Ha! Steal Your Money Is More Like It !"

Disc one
"Promised Land" (Berry) – 3:17
"Cold Rain and Snow" (trad., arr. Grateful Dead) – 5:38
"Around and Around" (Berry) – 5:07
"Stella Blue" (Hunter, Garcia) – 8:48
"Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo" (Hunter, Garcia) – 8:04
"Ship of Fools" (Hunter, Garcia) – 7:01
"Beat It On Down the Line" (Fuller) – 3:24

Disc two
"Big River" (Cash) – 4:55
"Black-Throated Wind" (Barlow, Weir) – 6:07
"U.S. Blues" (Hunter, Garcia) – 5:42
"El Paso" (Robbins) – 4:17
"Sugaree" (Hunter, Garcia) – 7:37
"It Must Have Been the Roses" (Hunter) – 6:00
"Casey Jones"(Hunter, Garcia) – 7:04

I have always heard the quote in the title of this post attributed to Lester Bangs, and that seems about right. It sounds like something Lester would have said or written, and I know a lot of people(including most members of The Grateful Dead themselves) agree with him.

I do not. I like "Steal Your Face" quite a bit. Mind you, I know that the sound is terrible, and I know that there no "jams" on the record, but I still love it just the same. I don't know exactly why.

"Steal your Face" turned 31 on Tuesday, and I would like to say that I am glad that it exists.

I said that I don't know exactly why I love it so, but I think I know some of the reasons. First of all, it is one of the first Grateful Dead albums I ever heard. My friend John had it on vinyl. Plus, at the time I heard it, it was out of print, it was somewhat rare, and it had that sort of special-"hey, a lot of people might not have heard this" quality to it. That's stupid, I know, but it is how I felt at the time.

I do actually like a few of the songs on the album a lot. The "Sugaree" is still one of my favorite versions of that tune I have ever heard. Ditto the "Must Have Been the Roses" and "El Paso". And "Promised Land" as well. I looooove that version of "Promised Land".

Beyond those reasons, I don't know what to tell you. As I have said before, I seem to like a lot of things that other Deadheads hate. Perhaps I'm a bit of a contrarian ? I don't know. But.."Like I told you...What I said...Steal your face right off your head"

Happy Birthday, Hunter....

Saturday was Robert Hunter's 66th birthday.

"The Word Man" as he was called...Okay, he was never called that, I just called him that right now, perhaps for the first time ever. But, a word man, he was.

He wrote the lyrics to some(most?) of the Grateful Dead's most famous(and infamous-"Keep Your Day Job" anyone ?) songs.

Ripple

Uncle John's Band

China Cat Sunflower

Row Jimmy

Shakedown Street

Black Muddy River

Friend Of The Devil

Standing On The Moon

And, my favorite- "Box Of Rain".

I won't pretend to be some sort of expert on the man- I love his words. He is a great turner of phrases.

" Tumble down shack in BigFoot county

Snowed so hard that the roof caved in

Delilah Jones went to meet her god,

And the old man never was the same again."

"All the things I planned to do

I only did halfway

Tomorrow will be Sunday

Born of rainy Saturday"

I guess I don't have much else to add.

Happy belated birthday. Mr. Hunter.

Happy Birthday, Aoxomoxoa !!!

All songs written by Garcia and Hunter unless otherwise noted.
"St. Stephen" (Garcia, Hunter, Lesh) – 4:26
"Dupree's Diamond Blues"– 3:32
"Rosemary" – 1:58
"Doin' That Rag" – 4:41
"Mountains of the Moon" – 4:02
"China Cat Sunflower" – 3:40
"What's Become Of The Baby" – 8:12
"Cosmic Charlie" – 5:29

2003 Reissue Bonus Tracks
"Clementine Jam" (Grateful Dead) – 10:46
"Nobody's Spoonful Jam" (Grateful Dead) – 10:04
"The Eleven Jam" (Grateful Dead) – 15:00
"Cosmic Charlie" – 6:47

(track list from Wikipedia)


Aoxomoxoa is 38 years old today !!!


Happy Birthday, you deliciously palindromically titled little album !!


I've always pronounced it ox-ah-mox-ah. I think there's supposed to be an extra "oh" syllable between the mox and the final "ah", but I always leave it out. That's just how I roll, people. Deal.


Anyway, great album. St. Stephen(though the live version released on Live/Dead eclipses it in my heart), Mountains Of the Moon,China Cat Sunflower(na-na-na), Dupree's Diamond Blues, Cosmic Charlie.

I can remember playing this album the first time I ...um..."fell"?...And my friend would NOT let me hear "What's Become Of the Baby?". He said I didn't need to hear that at this particular moment, I think he was right. I have never cared much for that song since then. I don't know if it's coincidence, or if my brain has retained some distrust of hearing it, "falling" or not.

According to Wikipedia, Courtney Love(5 years old at the time) is in the picture on the back cover. I'll have to look at my vinyl copy and see if that's true.

It took me awhile to realize how "fertile" the front cover is.

I don't have much else to add, I guess.

Happy Birthday, Aoxomoxoa !!!

Workingman's Dead is 37 Years Old...

Wow, it's only 3 months older than me. I never thought of that before. But this isn't about me...This is about Workingman's Dead...One of the greatest albums ever.



Let's start with a song list, shall we ?


1. Uncle John's Band
2. High Time
3. Dire Wolf
4. New Speedway Boogie
5. Cumberland Blues
6. Black Peter
7. Easy Wind
8. Casey Jones

Need I say(or type) more ?

Well, I think I will anyway. I love this record. Sure, Casey Jones is a bit overplayed, but that doesn't mean it's not a good song, and the rest of the songs are pure genius. Really some of their best work.

I think it's in the book of Hunter's lyrics "Box Of Rain", where Hunter mentions that he actually wrote "Black Peter" as an uptempo song, but that Garcia put it to the slow music, and changed it completely. And he says that he added "See here how everything..." verse after Garcia changed the tempo of the song. Okay, I went and found my copy of "Box Of Rain", and here is the quote from Hunter(p.18):

"I wrote this as a brisk piece like Kershaw's "Louisiana Man." Garcia took it seriously, though, dressing it in subtle changes and a mournful tempo. the bridge verse-"see here how everything lead up to this day..."- was written after the restructuring of the piece and reflects the additional depth of possibility provided for the song by his treatment."*

I also looked up "Cumberland Blues", and here is his note on that(p.52):"The best compliment I ever had on a lyric was from an old guy who'd worked at the Cumberland mine. He said: "I wonder what the guy who wrote this song would've thought if he'd ever known something like the Grateful Dead was gonna do it" "*

I love the country feel of the record. The vocal harmonies. I just love to put this record on and listen from start to finish.

And the images it provokes are so vivid. You can feel the menace of the Dire Wolf, it feels like you are listening to Uncle John's Band down "by the riverside". And you can see Peter laying in his bed and dying. At least I can.

As much as I love all of their music, this album(along with American Beauty) really cemented it for me. the psychedelic imagery of the first few albums is cool in it's own way, but I think the "real" images depicted in these songs are even more vivid and fascinating.

Happy birthday(last Thursday) Workingman's Dead !!

* from the book "A Box Of Rain: Collected Lyrics Of Robert Hunter" by Viking publishing.

Double U Double U Double U Dot Dead Dot Net Has Had A Makeover !!!!

Give it a peep.

http://www.dead.net/

Groovy...

Just listened to the version of "Jack-A-Roe" from "Fallout from The Phil Zone".
I love it.
Just thought I'd share.
That is all.

In Praise(And Perhaps Defense) Of Brent Mydland

Hi, I'm Paticus , and I'm a Brent Mydland fan.



Phew. I said it.



And you k now what ? I feel better. It's like a great weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.



"I'M A BRENT MYDLAND FAN !!!!!!!!!"



The sky didn't tumble, the seas didn't boil...The disembodied ghosts of PigPen and Keith did not tear me limb from limb.



Okay, I'm being a bit over dramatic, but in some circles, I definitely got the vibe that I was breaking some sort of unspoken rule, Thou shalt not appreciate Brent- for he certainly is no PigPen.

Well of course he's not, nobody is. Pig was a great bluesman, great singer, great keyboard player. But I submit that Brent was a great singer/keyboard player as well. Maybe not better than Pig, but perhaps in the different but equal category ?



I think part of my affinity for Brent is that he was behind the keys when I got into the band. So he was part of the Grateful Dead that I "knew" so to speak. Sure, I heard Pig and Keith and TC, but I got to "see" Brent. It makes a difference.



Of course, I got to see Vince as well, but I never really connected to Vince. and I didn't care for Vince's tunes, either, I hate to say.



I love most of Brent's tunes. Especially "Don't Need Love" and "Gentlemen, Start Your Engines". I know the latter is a song that a lot of Heads don't like. Apparently, it is too dark. It's dark, but I don't see anything wrong with dark. "New Speedway Boogie" is dark, that's a great tune, too. I also just love Barlow's explanation of "Gentlemen", I am paraphrasing, but he essentially talks of that point in a night of drinking, when most people will say"I've had enough, time to go home", but there a some folks who say "gentlemen, start your engines". I guess that is kinda dark.

I can even say that I don't hate "Tons Of Steel". I know that that one ranks up there with "Keep You day Job" and "Money Money" for the most hated Dead tunes of all time.

Okay, I think I have said my piece.