5/16/72 Radio Luxembourg: "The Other One," Pigpen's Foil, and Bourbon

When: Tuesday, May 16, 1972
Where: La Grand Salle Du Grand Theatre, Luxemburg

Setlist: (In order of the released CDs, listen to the show here)

1. Big River^, Sugar Magnolia^, Bertha, Me & My Uncle, Mr. Charlie, Sugaree, Black-Throated Wind, Chinatown Shuffle, China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider, Beat It On Down The Line, Hurts Me Too, Tennessee Jed, Playing In The Band, Promised Land
2. Truckin' > Drums > The Other One, Sing Me Back Home,  Sugar Magnolia, Not Fade Away > Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad > Not Fade Away  E: One More Saturday Night

As always, my personal highlights are bolded.
^ Sound check

Luxembourg's Grand Thatre: a modern, intimate
performance space with studio sound.

I can only imagine what a change of pace this show was for the band and the audience. Instead of one of the concert halls, both classic and modern, the band was performing to an intimate crowd of invitees at a glorified recording studio. In the liner notes, David Gans quotes friend-of-the-blog Philipe Sicard remembering the Dead's "tight and flawless" performance to  about 500 people in a small, superbly acoustical auditorium. It was a wet night, and the snugness of the space and the sound must have been something!

Listening to the sparkling recording of this exceptionally consistent show today gives you an appreciation for what Deadhead Britons must have suffered through listening to harsh, fading audio from a poor radio broadcast. But the broadcast facilities were state-of-the-art if you believe Dennis McNally in Long Strange Trip, featuring "three or four diesel locomotive engines... on standby in case of a power failure."

Signalling the beginning of the concert proper, we're treated to one of my favorite band introductions/tributes to this young and already legendary band and explains the broadcast specs:

Good morning in the theatre hall in the Villa Louvigni in Luxembourg. And for the second time in the history of Radio Luxembourg, a three-hour live broadcast. Tonight with one of the pioneer groups that have changed the whole course of contemporary music over their last 7 years in existence. Originally a jug band in 1964, they are today rated as America’s finest. To all you in the theatre hall, good morning, and to those listening on short wave around the world, on 3 FM stations in Germany, on the French long wave, and on the medium band in Britain, 208 meters. Radio Luxomburg, welcomes the GRATEFUL DEAD!!

The show gets off to a pretty good start with a version of "Bertha" that is flawlessly played, though not excellent. Bobby then dedicates "Me & My Uncle" to "the great state of Mexico" before a decent "Mr. Charlie." The next three songs - "Sugaree," "Black-Throated Wind," and "Chinatown Shuffle" - are like the opener, flawless but not superb. The mid-set "China" > "Rider" is the first the band really brings the heat, and all I can think is that, via Radio Luxembourg, the world is getting treated to some very high-quality Dead! Nothing against the rest of the set, but the set reaches new heights with "Playin'" that features Garcia's guitar whirring and whining towards the front of the jam. Overall, "Playin'" is excellent, showcased by an adventurous jam.

The second set gets another Kid Jensen intro, and they jump right in with an excellent "Truckin'" after we miss out on the first line (I can't tell if Bobby just spaced or if his mic wasn't on). As they leave the lyric for the jam, Pigpen's organ is there to escort us across the threshold (haunting, indeed). Towards the end of this energetic and driving jam we hear the unmistakable rhythm of "The Other One" begin to creep in, and then it's all drums. Billy's solo is nowhere near the version from Amsterdam, and Phil quickly joins him for a huge, rumbling intro into "The Other One." Before long, we're taken to a spacey jam that reeks of "Dark Star," but they jump back to the rhythm for a quick return before turning deeply to space. Jerry and Phil battle send chills and shrills across the hall, and then Jerry dials up that screeching tone and starts running his fingers across the fretboard. For a moment it sounds like we may get "Spanish Jam," the amazing combination of tones, rhythms, and chords reminiscent of various pieces of Miles Davis's Sketches from Spain. Alas, Jerry pulls Phil off the kick, heading back to "The Other One," which surprisingly comes to a cadence instead of venturing into something different.

Ok, ok, this is clearly NOT from Europe (Jerry's playing the Wolf), or even from 1972 (Phil's beard and fuzzy bass strap, plus the phase-cancelling double mics), but it's a cool picture. I wanted to use it, and here it is. So there!
(The camera crew indicates it's from the Winterland in October, 1974, filming the Grateful Dead Movie.)

They quickly remedy the pause with a soulful rendition of "Sing Me Back Home" that may as well have come straight out of "The Other One." This is one of the finer renditions of this song from the tour, in my opinion, and it seems like they may have come to a stop between the two songs just to recharge a bit. The initial pass through "NFA" is a bit subdued, but very well played and not at all noodly. As usual, "GDTRFB" shifts the jam into another gear, especially with he gospel bridge, and the "NFA" roars back with a heavy dose of Pigpen on the organ before closing the set with an explosion. Not the greatest rendition of the medley on the tour, but it's still great to hear!!

The scenic city-state of Luxembourg.

Overall this is a tight, well played show that is not remarkable but for "The Other One." But it's international broadcast in such an historic and picturesque location as Luxembourg seems fitting for a performance that impresses but doesn't overwhelm. I can only guess what you do in the wee hours of a rainy night in Luxembourg after a Dead show in 1972!!*


Worth mentioning:

• The official release includes two songs from the soundcheck. "Big River" is very raw, and you can still hear they are working on their arrangement of this classic Johnny Cash tune, one of my personal favorite cowboy tunes in the Dead's repertoire. The pre-show "Sugar Mags" cuts short.
• I've heard the song a thousand times, but I've never noticed the line from "Bertha" that goes, "Dressed myself in green." Weird.
• What's this at the end of the second set? "Promised Land" replaces "Casey Jones," making a rare appearance on the tour. It's well played up until the end, when it sounds like Bobby ends it a bit ahead of Jerry.
• In the middle of the second set we get your standard, run-of-the-mill 1972 version of "Sugar Magnolia." That is to say, it's energetic, tight, and superbly played from start to finish!
• Same goes for the "Saturday Night" encore!!

Song of the Day: "The Other One"

In 1972, the Grateful Dead were played "The Other One" frequently, but it was only one section of the original four-part composition released in on Anthem Of The Sun in 1968, known in its entirety as "That's It For The Other One." The first section is the wondrously named folky lament "Cryptical Envelopment." This was followed by a drum break ("Quadlibet fo Tenderfeet" on the album) that rolled with thunderous fury from Phil Lesh's bass into "The Other One" played on the 1972 tour, originally known as "The Faster We Go, the Rounder We Get." The final section, composed by itinerant experimental keyboard player Tom Constanten, was called "We Leave the Castle." While "Cryptical" was played as bookends for "The Other One" for much of 1968-1971, and the rare appearance in later years was heralded by Deadheads for its rarity and heartfelt mourning.

"The Other One" is a rollicking tour de force built about a galloping rhythm. This rhythm is powerful and versatile, with the ability to morph into a subtle and quiet groove. But it keeps moving, irresistibly forward. This is the vehicle in which Jerry Garcia's greatness grew into its own, wrapped around spiraling explosions of guitar lines speeding across the soundscape. Phil Lesh and Garcia consistently push each other and the rest of the band around unknown corners and into the outer atmosphere and beyond.

The lyrics were primarily penned by Bob Weir and are steeped in the lore of the band's roots. They first conjure the image of the Spanish Lady, who "lays on me this rose," the first of many times the Dead employed the rose imagery in their history. From there the lyric mirrors the music: "It rainbow spirals round and round / It trembles and explodes." A bit later, "The head come round and busted me / For smiling on a cloudy day." We learn from a David Gans interview with Weir and Lesh that this refers to a day in the Haight when Bobby tossed a water balloon on a police officer. Apparently the cop didn't get the joke.

From there, we find ourselves at a bus stop. This bus, of course, is Furthur, the technicolor dream bus steered by the trusty Neal Casady, ferrying Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters across the country on their LSD adventures. You can read a bit more in a previous post.

The bus came by and I got on
That's when it all began
There was cowboy Neal
At the wheel
Of a bus to never-ever land

Ken Kesey explained (via Tom Wolfe in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test) the significance of being on the bus:

There are going to be times when we can't wait for somebody. now you're either on the bus of off the bus. If you're on the bus, and you get left behind, then you'll find it again. If you're off the bus in the first place - then it won't make a damn.... You're either on the bus or off the bus."

Weir also tells us that the reference to Casady came to him in a dream, the night that Casady died in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. Weir had spend several sleepless nights listening to the mad ravings of Casady when he stayed with the band at 710 Ashbury in San Francisco. Once that line came together, explained Weir, the song was complete.

"The Other One" was a cornerstone of the Dead's repertoire for nearly their entire history due mostly to the song's powerful rhythm and the intense jams it spawned. It is also an oral history of sorts, chronicling the band's roots that blossomed out of the Acid Tests.

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Pigpen's Foil: The Soul Queen of New Orleans

Irma Thomas, the legendary Soul Queen of New Orleans

In addition to these great Dead shows from Europe, I've also been listening to a fair amount of Irma Thomas lately. Later known as the Soul Queen of New Orleans, she began performing at the age of 13, and by 19 she had been twice married and had four children. She was bound by her marriages and by recording/performance contracts for most of her life, and her music tells the story of a strong woman trapped in situations beyond her immediate control. A contemporary of Aretha Franklin and Etta James, she never reached their level of national fame and acclaim, though she is beloved in New Orleans.

In listening to her album The Two Phases of Irma Thomas, I hear the life story of her loves, told with heart-rending emotion and painful triumph, as with the masterpiece "In Between Tears." This story is told in two phases, the first tending closer to straight blues and the other a more modern R&B (even funky) interpretation of the same songs.** As I've listened to the album, I continue to think of the women figures in Pigpen's raps throughout this tour, and I've come to see Irma Thomas's persona on this album as the foil to Pigpen's persona in Europe.*** In a way, I can imagine Pigpen singing about Irma as his "old lady," and - in following from the thrust of an earlier post - attempting to grasp the real-life consequences of the philandering lifestyle Pigpen glorified in his magnificent raps from this tour. To make it interesting, I'm going to pair several of the songs off Irma Thomas's album with classic Pigpen songs, where I could imagine the personas singing their own perspectives of similar situations.

Irma Thomas at the New Orleans Jazz and
Heritage Festival in the late-1970s

• I'm going to start with Irma Thomas's song "These Four Walls," an entirely sympathetic tale of a woman who makes the most of the little her partner is able to provide. She starts by explaining, "My man breaks his back working every day / Working in all kinds of weather," but he tortures himself because he cannot provide the palace his true love deserves, especially considering that he is married with children to another woman. She, however, is happy to make due with what they have because "These four walls are my palace" and "There's love within these walls." In the refrain she proclaims that she is "happy here with you, babe."
  
  To me, this song fits with Pigpen's "Easy Wind," a song about a working man, "chippin' them rocks from dawn till doom." While it's never said that he is married, he has a woman who hides his liquor. Wary of women dressed in red, he is searching for a woman who will be good to him. In the end, he hopes to find that woman and show her, "I'm a stone jack baller and my heart is true / And I give everything that I got to you."
  
• A similar but different take on the story of the woman in love with a married man is "What's So Wrong With You Loving Me." In this story, both lovers are married to another, but she asks her lover, "If I'm not afraid to love you, and I 'm not free / What's so wrong with you loving me?" Ultimately, the crux of her pain is that society cannot accept their love, causing her to wonder more generally, "What's so wrong when two happy, married people / Fall in love?" In the end, however, she comes painfully resigned to their love in the shadows, her lament from the title.
  
  I have to pair this song with Pigpen's rendition of the classic Wilson Picket blues song "Turn On Your Lovelight," a passionate song of a man and a woman reveling in one another's love. Told from the man's perspective, the song extols the physical pleasures of the love while ignoring the consequences. For a rare duet with Janis Joplin, listen to the "Lovelight" from this show.
  
• One of the common threads in Irma Thomas's songs on the album is of a woman trapped in a man who wants to be with another woman, but she won't release him from their marriage because it is the only security that she (and their children) have. In "She'll Never be Your Wife," she captures the anger of the spurned wife whose husband is begging her for:"She can have you, whenever she wants you, but she'll never, never be your wife." She unleashes all her furor in raging finale:

You've made me such a joke to your friends
Now you and this woman are trying to blow my future up in smoke
Well, after all the years you made me suffer
I'm going to hold onto you for dear life
Tell her: 

I'm not signing any papers, and I don't want ya
And I know how much money you make
So you better bring it on home
And take care of these kids. 

Here, Irma Thomas provides a perspective that we never get from Pigpen: the wife and mother dependent on her husband in a society where she realistically cannot hope for the same luxuries enjoyed by a man in her same class. At the end of the day, she is responsible for their children regardless of what he does, and with limited access to work her fate (and that of their children) is tied to his life.

I will draw a connection to Pigpen's song "Caution" (annotations but no lyrics here). Pigpen's persona knows there is "something wrong with me and my baby," so he goes down to the  fortune-telling Gypsy woman for her advice. After telling his story, of course, she tells him what he wants to hear, "All you need, is just a touch of Mojo hand." Salvation is to be found in magic (or in drugs, if you take the alternate definition). Unfortunately, Pigpen's persona is oblivious to the reality of his lady's life, seeking answers from anywhere else.

• The most heart-rending song on Irma Thomas's album (and the one that gave me the idea for this post) is "Won't Be In Your Way Anymore," her side of a collect call to her husband. To summarize, she tells him, "Sorry, but I'm leaving your ass and taking the kids. We're going to be all right, so you can go on with your life." The chorus is delivered with soul-wrenching emotion. She even adds an extra syllable to the end of each line for emphasis.
  

  Me and the kids are gonna be all right-ah
  We'll get a hotel room for the night-ah
  And we'll get a meal at the local drug store
  And we won't be in your way, anymore, no we won't-ah

  The most powerful lyric in the song comes towards the end and provides her undeniable justification for leaving the man:
  
  

  The things you hit me for
  When you came home late at night
  In front of our kids
  Don't you know that was not right

  I don't want to make any notion that Pigpen abused women, and I am not aware that he had any children. Therefore, I'm going to match this song with "Operator" (annotations but no lyrics here) and suggest it as a snapshot of an earlier, more joyous point in the relationship. It may seem like a cop-out, but it is what it is.
  
  
  
• Finally, Irma Thomas has a magnificent medley of her monologue (or rap) "Coming from Behind" and the song "Wish Someone Would Care." In this monologue, she goes on about the common struggles of women, including the assumption that they are subservient: "He thinks anything she does, she has to do it / But it just doesn't go like that, baby.... She gives love, but she expects love in return." She was raised to live by the Golden Rule, "But men don't care / All he think a woman is for / Is whatever he need her, when he needs her, and how he needs her." She flips the script on his philandering, saying that if men go out three-timing, women will do six, "And our back won't be hurting when we're through!" She further insists that women are "born with the most precious jewel in the world," but that doesn't make them angels. "We weren't meant to be angels / We were meant to bring forth angels." In the end, she says she's in love, but it hurts because she "gave him what he wanted / I loved him but he walked out." She finds solace in a smile, explaining, "When you smile, nothing's ever so bad." The song "Wish Someone Would Care" echoes "The Stranger" in tone and message, and she even asks for someone to "come see about me."
  
  This medley reminds me of Pigpen's rant in "Good Lovin'" from 4/14/72 for its length and its substance. Both are extensive, telling the tale of their respective personas in great detail, following eddies in their stream of consciousness, but always with a point. Pigpen chases women on a four-day creep, is chased by a girl's father, the police, and his wife, and comes home to rest, only to find that his partner has her own needs and desires. From Irma's perspective, "All he thinks a woman is for / Is whatever he need her," and in the end she "loved him, but he walked out." The lifestyle that he glorifies in his opus has real-life consequence that go untold (at least in the Dead's music). Irma Thomas 

Irma Thomas performing at Jazz Fest in 2009.

- Morning Brewer

PS (Pairing Suggestion): 

Exploring Irma Thomas so deeply has left me sad and a little bit angry, so our pairing suggestion for today's post is bourbon. I recommend the Bulleit, the Woodford Reserve, or (if you're looking for something inexpensive) Heaven Hill. If necessary pair with water, frozen or liquid. Or pair with another glass of bourbon.


---------------------------------


* In reality, you probably head back to from where you came, but it's nice to ponder!
** I like both phases, each stressing a different emotional thread in the stories told in the songs. However, I prefer the bluesier Phase One, personally.
*** Let me clarify that I am talking about the persona each vocalist assumes in their art. While I believe that each singer channeled their own lives to a certain extent, I don't know enough about either one personally to make a claim of what they either was/is like as a person.

4/29/72 Hamburg: "Chinatown Shuffle," Smoked Ribs, and the Pilsner

When: Saturday, April 29, 1972
Where: Musikhalle, Hamburg, West Germany
Setlist: (In order of the released CDs, stream the audio here.)

1. Playing In The Band, Sugaree, Mr. Charlie, Black-Throated Wind, China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider, Big Boss Man, Jack Straw, Loser, Chinatown Shuffle, Me & My Uncle, Big Railroad Blues, Good Lovin', Casey Jones
2. Greatest Story Ever Told, He's Gone, Next Time You See Me, Dark Star > Sugar Magnolia > Caution (Do Not Stop On The Tracks), One More Saturday Night, Uncle John's Band

As always, my personal highlights are bolded.

The liner notes on for this show come from the iconic Steve Silbermanan, author of Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads.* He borrows images and words from Hunter's introduction to Hundred Year Hall in a stirring turn of phrase:

[Germany] was a land of dream castles shimmering on the Rhine that turned out to be real high-tech towers build upon bombed-out ruins, ghosts of Nazi kommandants sneering in old Pathé newsreels, and the gods in Phil's musical pantheon calling the fire of the muses down from Heaven or up from hell. It seemed Gothic, Romantic, and modern all at once; werewolves howling in Black Forests of the mind as the Bozo and Bolo buses passed through with their weird load.

He also notes Phil was tickled before the show when he learned Johannes Brahms conducted in this hall. No doubt! For those of you who haven't wasted much of your life learning as much as you can about this band (much of the foundational knowledge coming from Silberman's book, to be honest), Phil Lesh didn't come to rock 'n' roll - or even the bass - through the typical route. He grew up playing trumpet but learned music listening to the greats of Western classical music. He had ventured into avant garde composition by the time he met Garcia, who gave him an electric bass guitar, told him how it was tuned, and the rest is history.

It's my strong opinion that Phil's musical contribution to the band is what sets them apart from all other rock bands of their era and the jam bands that came later. For me, his roots in classical and experimental composition allowed him to move the band to new and unparalleled musical spaces. He relied on conventional musical ideas - particularly melody and counterpoint - that transcended the cubbyhole of rock-bass-as-rhythm-instrument, even given the jazz approach the band used in their performances.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again here: picking highlights from these shows is really splitting hairs. The performances are so consistently inspired and error-free, it comes down to personal preference and even your set and setting listening to them. That being said, please take my judgements with a grain of salt. However, any band playing 22 concerts in seven weeks while crossing (at least) nine international borders in the process is entitled to the occasional off-night. In fact, it's miraculous that it's taken this long to find one. Unfortunately, friends, this is one of those nights. I guess when "Me & My Uncle" is the highlight of the entire show, you get the idea.

Musikhalle, Hamburg

The entire first set here is played well, though there aren't any obvious standouts. No surprisingly extensive jams here (even the "Playin'" wraps up under ten minutes), just a series of tight, well-played songs with respectable (for the Dead) harmonies and reliable instrumental performances. Overall, it's quite good, but unremarkable. (Check out the "Worth mentioning" section below for details, if you're interested.)

From the "Greatest Story" opener, the second set tries desperately to shake off the "well-played but unremarkable" description of the first set. It starts ordinarily, but by the time Donna jumps in for some ear-splitting screams (again!), this one is off and running!! Searing leads from Jerry (Silberman describes it as his "'insect fear' guitar doing exuberant loop-de-loops in midair") and tight through the changes, they're clearly trying to turn up the heat here. Between songs, Phil makes some comment to dogs everywhere (the show, restaurants, boats), and Bobby tries to hawk GD wristwatches in the lobby. Jerry justifies the unfamiliar song selection by explaining they're recording an album, and "you can't do the same thing forever" (without going color-blind, according to Bobby).

Jerry delivers on the adolescent rendition of "He's Gone" that follows, but Silberman points out it contains the "chilly wind don't blow" bridge. After an excruciatingly sssssllllllllllooooooooowwwwww version of "Next Time" (more below), the band collectively says, "We love you, Pig, but grab a quick nap, and come back in 35 minutes," before launching into "Dark Star." This version isn't about playing tight, fast, or exploring the mind-melding changes of Frankfurt, it's about SPACE. Lots and lots of space - between notes, between melodies, between rhythms. Before they even get to the first verse, they veer into an exceedingly mellow, even sloppy "Mind Left Body Jam." Contrast this one to Copenhagen 4/14, it's like a different world. They quickly abort mission and head back to the forgiving expanse of space and stay there for a week or two (just like "Truckin'" atop the charts in Turloch, California). Let's just say I wouldn't want to be pulling a Roger Sterling at this show....** Unless you just woke up 23 minutes into the "Dark Star," in which case all is well! All of a sudden, the band tunes in, and away they go! Jerry scorching away, with Phil doing what he does, and Keith stepping to fill in the blanks. Where did this jam come from?!? Even the ensuing space is tighter and more frightening! Bobby tries to pry Jerry out of his pitter-patter corner of despair just to rock a "Sugar Mags" and move on.

Jerry letting it fly!

The "Caution" follows much like the rest of the show: well-played but nothing groundbreaking. Pigpen drops a decent rap, but in light of the performances over the previous two weeks, it pales in comparison. Towards the end, it gets a bit more raucous, with Phil and Billy pounding away at the rhythm. The tour-de-force gives way to a spacey, meandering segment, the highlight of which is Billy rolling across his toms like a prize-fighter training on a speed bag. Unfortunately, the song ends with a whimper, without any real closure, unless you count Phil's belated cadence. The crowd is not dismayed, however, and claps in unison for more. The Dead don't disappoint here, coming back with a surprisingly energetic "Sugar Magnolia." At one point, Bobby's screams are so loud and reckless, I almost expect him to rupture a vocal chord. The ending of the song is remarkably tight, with Jerry's scorching guitar leads matched only by Billy's frantic flurries. The band realizes they need to take it down a notch and come back with the first "Uncle John's Band" of the tour. Unfortunately there is a hiss on the recording as they start the song, but the performance mirrors the rest of the show: well-played, decent harmonies, no outrageous jamming to speak of, but a strong ending.


Worth mentioning:

• Donna's howls are really growing on me. The one towards the beginning of the "Playin'" opener is a whopper!! After the opener, Bobby shows off his Deutsche: "Danke schön."
• "Sugaree" isn't the most incredible rendition, but it's performed without frills, just how it was written - short and sweet.
• Leaving "China Cat" for the transition, Jerry must have a finger on the volume knob to get it to meow like a (very loud) cat. This version of "China" > "Rider" is mellow and smooth as a tasty German beer cheese soup!
• In the liner notes Silberman draws attention to a "New Speedway Boogie" tease around Pigpen's harmonica solo during "Big Boss Man." He also picks "Chinatown Shuffle" as the gem in the part of the first set.
• Spooky version of "Loser" on this one! Love it!!
• Talk about high energy, this "Me & My Uncle" smokes from start to finish! Though it starts off a bit slowly, the same goes for "Big Railroad Blues."
• This version of "Good Lovin'" is a far cry from the maelstrom of energy in Frankfurt a few nights earlier, but like the rest of the set it's well played if a bit subdued towards the middle. Nice change of pace, actually.
• The opening of "He's Gone" is getting closer to the final version, but it's still not quite there. They're not changing any lives with this version, but Jerry delivers the lyrics with longing, totally dialed in.
• This is easily the slowest version of "Next Time" ever. It's like they're playing it in slow motion, and if it wasn't a release I would swear that someone's deck motor needed to be replaced. It sounds like Pigpen wants to just stop the song and try again. They manage to pick up the pace a bit, but WOW!! It sounds like Pigpen needs to get a breath in the middle of some of his harmonica notes.... Or, if you prefer, Silberman has another take: "One of the unheralded gems of this boxed set." To each his own!
• I found these crazy cartoon CD covers, just wanted to share them:

Song of the Day: "Chinatown Shuffle"

The annotations for this song start with the title. A quotation from Bernard P. Wong explains the roots of the American urban Chinatowns:

Active prejudice and harassment stemming from mainstream American racism and fear of economic competition has resulted in the tightening of internal bonds within the minority group and the development of protective associations of one kind or another. The internal cohesiveness thus developed became the distinguishing characteristic of the Chinese American communities in cities like San Francisco and New York.

The shuffle is defined as a southern black dance step, though the rhythm comes from the sh of the snare coupled with the short couple of syllables uf-fle to form uneven triplets typical of swing or boogie-woogie.

Like "The Stranger" the music and lyrics are both Pigpen originals, though this one is far more lively the self-reflective ballad explored in my previous post. The lyrics in "Chinatown Shuffle" express more frustration or boredom than mourning or epiphany.

And I can't handle your problems
So don't try to handle mine
Get yourself a shotgun a pocketful of shells
And we can while away the time

The solution of course is shooting the shotgun for fun. The lyrics are playful on the surface - "Look up at the wall, you know you gotta crawl" - but hide an unexpected depth:

Before you start crawling get ready to fall
And if you fall in my direction
Don't expect no help at all
Get it right, do it nice
And if you make a mistake you're gonna pay for it twice

I interpret this lyric as another window into the unforgiving world of Pigpen's youth. The beginning evokes the what-do-I-care rebelliousness of an ostensibly middle-class young man choosing to live on the outskirts of society and outwardly compose himself as an existential youth out of Rebel Without a Cause. However, life on the skids, particularly when you spend over a decade chasing your next drink, would wear anyone out and leave them with a short supply of empathy.

This message is buried beneath an upbeat veneer of a swinging rhythm and simple, joyful chord progression. The composition sounds like the nearest berth that R&B takes towards old-time rock 'n' roll (pretty close, to be sure!), right in Pigpen's wheelhouse!

*     *     *     *     *

Smoked Pork Spareribs

My alternate topic today is brief and to-the-point: a recipe for smoked pork spare ribs. This recipe was originally for St. Louis style ribs, but I've done them with the whole spare rib before and they turned out delicious. You can do them either way. (You could use a similar approach to baby back ribs, as well, though they cook about 2 hours less than the spareribs. They can also benefit from some direct heat towards the end to give them a crispy, caramelized surface.)

Serves: 4
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Grilling Method: Indirect low heat (225°- 250°F)
Grilling Time: 5-6 hours

5-6 fist-size hardwood chunks, not soaked (mesquite, hickory, apple, etc.)
2 racks pork spareribs

1. First, prepare your smoker for indirect low heat. 
2. Next, we're going to prep the ribs with a nice rub. You can use anything you have handy (or the recipe from the BBQ Pit page of this blog). Or, if you want to mix up something different try this one:



Just on the grill!

• 1.5 tablespoons kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon chile powder
• 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon granulated garlic
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons celery seed
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3. Season the ribs all over with the rub, putting more on the meat side than the bone side of the rack of ribs. Allow the ribs to rest at room temperature while you prepare a zesty mop. Try this simple recipe or use a vinegar-based BBQ sauce.
• .5 cup apple juice
• .25 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
4. Start with two wood chunks on the smoker, and put the seasoned ribs on the grill for indirect heat. Add an additional chunk of wood to the side of the coals every hour or so, and regulate the smoker temperature (target: 225°-250°F) by adjusting the vents.
5. Baste the ribs on both sides with the mop every couple hours. Cook the ribs until the meat has shrunk back from the bone at least a half-inch. Before removing the ribs, brush the ribs again, this time with a sweet, ketchup based sauce. 
• Quick tip: if you don't have sauce handy, just make a bit extra rub and mop. While the ribs are smoking, combine them with a cup or two of ketchup and simmer them for 5-10 minutes.
6. Cook the ribs for an additional 30-60 minutes. Remove the meat, and cut the rack into individual ribs. Serve with BBQ sauce on the side.

If you can keep the temperature down and take your time these ribs will be tender and fall right off the bone. One rack may cook more quickly than the other, so keep an eye on them so they don't dry out from being on the grill too long. 

- Morning Brewer

PS (Pairing Suggestion): 

To me, this show is fresh, if uncontroversial, and the perfect pairing is a Pilsen-style lager, familiarly known as the Pilsner. Please don't get this style confused with the American macrobrews that occasionally call themselves a pilsners (unfit for consideration alongside the capital-P Pilsners here).

Just found this shot, now included in
the post for 4/11/72, Newcastle.
Didn't want anyone to miss it!

The first clear, light-colored lagers were brewed in the Czech town of Pilsen in 1842. The water in that part of the Alps is very soft, meaning there are few dissolved minerals present. That trait allows brewer to use nearly as many hops as an English IPA without the overwhelming bitterness. Instead, the hop finish is peppery and crisp, perfectly matching the dry, light maltiness of the beers. Since the dawn of the style, it has become the most reproduced beer style in the world, particularly as the industrial revolution made cold-conditioning possible in any geographical area, any time of the year.

The brewing method for a lager tends to be more detailed than an ale, and it ferments more slowly at a lower temperature. After primary fermentation has completed, the beer is conditioned at very cool temperatures for several weeks, allowing the yeasts to process some of their chemical byproducts (like sulphur, among others) before dropping out of solution (known as flocculation). The beer drinker is left with a very clean-tasting, malty beverage, as the lower temperatures inhibit the production of fruity esters or spicy phenols. Basically, lagers are the opposite of the Belgian ales.

The style of Czech Pilsners are known as Bohemian Pilsners. They almost exclusively use the palest of lager malts, known as Pilsner malt, and the typical hop of the region, the Saaz. Not nearly as bitter as American hops (and totally lacking the piney, citrusy flavors and aromas), this is a subtle and spicy hop. The overall effect if of a crisp, dry, refreshing beer, about as pale and clear as can be. As the style became widespread, the Germans adopted the same brewing methods and yeast to their local ingredients and water chemistry, creating what is now known as the German Pilsner. As a result, there is some variation from location to location, but they all feature German hops. Often, the water is considerably harder than the water in Pilsen, and as a result there some German examples may have pronounced hop bitterness. In addition, it is not uncommon for German Pilsners to have a pronounced grassy or grainy flavor. Bohemian or German, pilsners are always sparkling clear, as pale as possible

As I noted in my previous post, I think these ribs would pair wonderfully with something big and hoppy like the Deviant Dale's, but most people responding to the poll about what beer people would prefer with their BBQ on the web version said they would prefer something lighter. So here are a few Pilsener suggestions that are pretty widely available.

• Pilsner Urquell - The original of the style from Pilsen, where it's been brewed for most of two centuries, this beer embodies crisp and floral when fresh. 
• Czechvar - This is the name you'll see here in North America, but in the Czech city of Budweis and throughout the EU, this one is called Budweiser Budvar.
• If you can't find this one fresh, try these American craft examples of the style. Not the same, but pretty delicious, nonetheless!
• Noble Pilsner - This Sam Adams offering nails the style, using all German noble hops.
• PILS - Those on the West Coast are likely familiar with this one. Just what the doctor ordered - crisp and refreshing. I can drink a lot of these.
• Mama's Little Yella Pils - Another fantastic offering from Oskar Blues, so of course this one comes in a can. Pack it in, pack it out!
• Warsteiner Pilsner - If you prefer the German interpretation, you can go wrong with this classic. Again, freshness is key, so here are some American interpretations:
• Braumaster Pilsner - This offering from Victory in the Philly area is a remarkable American example of a German Pilsner. It's a special release, but the brewery puts out the fantastic Prima Pils all year round.
• Scrimshaw Pilsner - For those in Northern California, this German Pilsner comes from Lost Coast Brewing in Fort Bragg. Wonderfully refreshing on a hot summer day!!
• American craft brewers have been playing around with the style and coming up with their own sub-styles. For a change of pace, see if you can track down any of these:
• Summerfest - Clean and crisp like a European Pils, but this one packs in the American hops, in the aroma and flavor.
• Hallerthau Imperial Pils - I've only heard tell of this beer, but it's supposed to be fantastic. Sam Adams was one of the first to take the style over the top with extra alcohol and a lot of hops!! If you find this one, please let me know how you like it.
• My Antonia - Dogfish Head's interpretation of the imperial Pilsner is quite interesting, with far more sweetness than would be remotely acceptable in a traditional Pils. (For the sake of comparison, try to find the version of this beer they brewed at Birra del Borgo just outside of Rome.) It's pleasing, though, due to the balance of generous additions of hops and quite a bit of alcohol for a lager (7.5% ABV).

Cheers, everyone, and thanks for reading!!

---------------------------------


* I'll never forget the image of Silberman wandering around on the Market Street sidewalk outside of the Warfield Theatre on 4/17/99 for Phil's special return to the stage (with Phishy friends Trey and Page, and the incomparable Steve Kimmock) after getting his new liver. Silberman didn't have a ticket but was holding an autographed copy of his book above his head in search of his miracle. 
** Best advice ever: "Don't look in the mirror." And while we're at it, we can all learn a lot from Roger.

4/14/72 Copenhagen: Pigpen's Opus, Women in the Music, & Bourbon Barrel Beers

When: Friday, April 14, 1972
Where: Tivoli Concert Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark
Setlist: (In order of the released CDs, stream the AUD here)

1. Bertha, Me & My Uncle, Mr. Charlie, You Win Again, Black-Throated Wind, Chinatown Shuffle, Loser, Me & Bobby McGee, Cumberland Blues, Playing In The Band, Tennesse Jed, El Paso, Big Boss Man, Beat It On Down The Line, Casey Jones
2. Truckin', Hurts Me Too, Brown-Eyed Women^, Looks Like Rain, Dark Star > Sugar Magnolia > Good Lovin' > Caution (Do Not Stop On The Tracks) > Who Do You Love > Caution > Good Lovin', Ramble On Rose, Not Fade Away > Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad > Not Fade Away  E: One More Satuday Night

As always, personal highlights are in bold.
^ Appears on Europe '72

This has long been one of my favorite shows from the tour not the least because of the ruthless jamming in the second set, but the first set is very well played, itself. Overall, it's an exceptional, high-energy show from start-to-finish, and if you haven't heard it before you should definitely check it out. Maybe it was just my mental state (and the volume on the stereo), but for me the "Black-Throated Wind," "Chinatown Shuffle," "Loser" section in the first set is played to perfection. We have Bobby, Pigpen, and Jerry all singing signature songs full of emotion, with tight rhythm and stellar lead play. Crank it up and let it rock, y'all!!

This one's from Copenhagen, but I'm not sure which night.

The rest of the first set and the beginning of the second are solid, but I want to focus on the meat of the second set. Not surprisingly, it starts with a ferocious "Dark Star" that features intense jamming throughout. Jerry kicks it off by throwing soaring, whining licks out there that remind me of Live/Dead. Absolutely dripping with psychedelia, and we're just three minutes in!

The jams on this version of "Dark Star" are special, with each band member on top of his game. It's truly a music-played-the-band improvisation, more melodic than spacey. Case in point: it's Billy on drums who steers this one into the stratosphere. About 20 minutes in, we are treated to a fast, powerful, energetic version of the "Mind Left Body Jam." Again, the tension is built through an exquisite combination of the instruments. While Jerry is in the "lead," you can't exactly say everyone else is following. After the mind has fully left the body, there is nowhere to go but the heart of darkness. The space that follows is frightening. Phil is up and down the fretboard, and Keith and Bobby play with dissonance. It's hard to describe drum contributions to space, but let me say simply that Billy is not just playing ambient cymbals here.

Once the band (and audience) have pieced together their groupmind, Jerry with a screaming effect on his guitar begins the theme from "Sugar Magnolia," and the rest of the band jumps in behind him. He's not ready to let go of that primal scream just yet, though, and his guitar rips the opening to shreds with just enough feedback to make you say, "Hallelujah!!" Needless to say, this "Sugar Mags" has it all!!
Just as you're shaking your head in wonder as you're showered with "Sunshine Daydream," up rises the original R&B intro to "Good Lovin'." You can tell from the first line Pigpen is on his game, howling and hooting his way through the opening verse. LOTS of energy from the band, with extremely competent backup vocals from Bobby. Jerry breaks it down with nasty blues licks, but it doesn't take long for Pigpen to let his presence known. What follows is easily the most raunchy, explicit piece of vocal improvisation in all of Dead-dom.*

Pigpen wants to know: Who do you love?

For those who aren't familiar with Pigpen's 1972 rants, there were a few sections he often repeated in one form or anther, including such classy classics as, "You're my sweet li'l mare, I'm gonna ride you everywhere / I'm gonna jump in the saddle and ride a while" and "If you can't turn your damper down, mama turn your oven around." But on this one, he goes off!! At various points he's being chased by the shotgun-toting father of a seventeen-year-old, a sheriff, and his wife. And the kicker:

All the boys in the neighborhood
Tell 'em that your bakery shop is good.
Let 'em try, some cherry pie
They go droppin' by, my my,
Yes I will, yes I will.

And with that, the band starts pumping the unmistakeable pulse of "Caution." The drums and rhythm pieces kick it into overdrive, while Jerry and Phil, in perfect counterpoint, run circles through the steam-locomotive rhythm. Scorching hot! Out of nowhere in the middle of "Caution" - with the tempo set to Ludicrous Speed - Pigpen steps back up to the mic and spits pure venom:

I walked 47 miles of barbed wire, got a cobra snake for a necktie
Built a new house by the roadside, made out of rattleskin hide
Brand new chimney set on top, made out of human skulls
Ask that woman, "Come on child, tell me who do you love?"

It takes less than a minute, but with those few lines Pigpen caps off his greatest vocal performance: planting a "Who Do You Love?" flag at the peak of a sexualized mountain of "Good Lovin'" > "Caution." Of course, there's still more left in the medley, including some more Pigpen vocal improv, but it's necessary resolution to the opus just laid out - like hiking down the mountain after taking in the expansive view from the summit.

The "NFA" > "GDTFRB" > "NFA" that ends the set is also played at breakneck speed. Before the initial "NFA" gives way, Bobby steers the jam and the entire band into a fully formed "China Cat" jam before the tempo drops and the rolling intro to "Goin' Down The Road" emerges. Needless to say, the set ends with huge fanfare and leaves the crowd in a frenzy.

Worth mentioning:

• The entire show cooks from start to finish. I could say everything I said about the Newcastle show here, as well.
• This is the final "Looks Like Rain" of the tour and, to my knowledge, the last with Jerry on pedal steel. What a sound!! I miss it already....
• There was some hilarious banter on stage during set one:
• After "Mr. Charlie," the crowd is clapping in rhythm, begging for more.
• Phil (the Instigator): "You know what? We're gonna keep on playin', you don't have to clap like that."
• Bobby (Mr. Positive): "But you can if you want to."
• Phil (won't let it go): "I mean, go ahead, get it on. But we won't do one in that tempo, necessarily."
• Jerry (the Peacemaker): "You can if you want to, but you don't have to if you don't want to. You can do whatever you want."
• After "Cumberland:"
• Bobby: "We have an equipment breakdown, and we're going to fix it shortly and be right with you. 
• Guy in the audience: "Bullshit!"
• Phil: "That guy must be from America."
• Jerry (funny beatnik voice): "Hey well if we was to get high between songs, isn't that all right?"
• Guy in audience: "Hell yeah!!"
• Jerry: "Thank ya!"
• Whose idea was it to squeeze "Ramble On Rose" between Pigpen's disgusting diatribe and the magnificent "NFA" sandwich? 

Song of the Day: "Me & My Uncle"

The Grateful Dead first played "Me & My Uncle" (not annotated, but read the lyrics here) in 1966, and it was a regular part of their rotation (and the most-played song in their repertoire) through the next 29 years. (The only years it was not played were 1968 and 1976.) Ostensibly, it's a gambler/cowboy tune about a man and his uncle traveling on horseback from South Colorado to West Texas. They stop in Santa Fe to "wash off some of that dusty dirt." After a while, the uncle's "friendly game" of pitch ("high-low-jacks and the winner take the hand") turns violent when the narrator's uncle is accused of cheating. They make off for Mexico with the gold, but not before the uncle is shot. The narrator, drawing on the lessons passed to him from his uncle, "left his dead ass there by the side of the road."

While the themes of this lyric fit with many of Robert Hunter's favorites, this one is actually a John Phillips original, though he was surprised to learn that fact. This amusing story is from the liner notes to his album Phillips 66 (via David Dodd's The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics, pp 30-1):

John often used to tell the story behind "Me and My Uncle." Years ago he began receiving publishing royalties from a song on a Judy Collins record with which he was unfamiliar. It was titled "Me and My Uncle." He called Judy to let her know of the mistake because he hadn't written any such song. She laughed and told him that about a year before, in Arizona after one of her concerts, they had a "Tequila" night back at the hotel with Stephen Stills, Neil Young, and a few others. They were running a blank cassette and John proceeded to write "Me and My Uncle" on the spot. The next day, John woke up to the tequila sunrise with no recollection of the songwriting incident. Judy kept the cassette from that evening and then, without informing John, recorded the song for her own record. Over the years, the song was recorded by several people, and eventually became a standard of the Grateful Dead. John used to joke that, little by little, with each royalty check, the memory of writing the song would come back to him.

The Dead played this song regularly, and following the Europe tour, it was often coupled with another Weir-sung cowboy tune like "El Paso" or "Mama Tried." However, the versions of "Me & My Uncle" from Europe that appear in the depths of a second-set thriller like "Dark Star" or "The Other One" capture a rare moment in Grateful Dead history where they were able to transform a simple, Americana story-song into an adventurous exploration on the edge of convention.**

*     *     *     *     *

Forbidden Ground: The Role of Women in the Music of the Grateful Dead

When I was in college, I took a great course from Charlene Makely called "The Anthropology of Sex and Gender." Through an anthropological lens, we read about and discussed the role of sex (physical and genetic attributes of male and female) and gender (social constructs of man and woman) in contexts as divergent as impoverished landfill-squatters outside of Mexico City, sex workers in Brazil, transgenderism in the Polynesian family, and masculinity and homoeroticism in American professional wrestling. Sometimes, however, the readings and classroom discussions hit pretty close to home.

I remember meeting with Charlene privately in her office to discuss one of my personal moral crises after a particularly riveting conference discussion. I'm paraphrasing, but she said, "There are some areas of our lives we just can't analyze, or else the self-reflection paralyzes us. For instance, I absolutely love Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings. But I can't analyze his portrayal of women; it would take all the enjoyment out of it." These are wise words I think we can all take to identify with in some area of our own lives, and I've carried the lesson with me ever since.

For me, the un-crossable bridge of self-reflection has been, of course, the Grateful Dead. However, in celebrating Pigpen's unbelievable rap from Copenhagen, it's important that I don't allow the underbelly of sexism and misogyny to go unaddressed. In his rant and many others, Pigpen treats women as alternately as sex objects worthy only of conquest and evil temptresses who use their sexuality to control him. I won't get into the details, but these sexual themes of domination and control (and the associated danger and emotion) essentially sum up the entire opus. These themes also dominate other quintessential Pigpen performances from the Acid Tests to the "Midnight Hour" from the Hollywood Bowl in '71 (see Fallout From The Phil Zone) through all his best versions of "Lovelight," and on and on.

It would be easy to dismiss this as a peculiarity of Pigpen and his musical influences and personal experiences, but he isn't alone in his sexism. The opening line to "Jack Straw" lumps women and wine into the same category: a source of pleasure (or escape) to be shared freely with your comrades. In "Let It Grow" Weir/Barlow celebrate "the love of women / the work of men." Even Brent Mydland in the '80s sang, "Never trust a woman / who wears her pants too tight." I could go on, but you get the point.****

The apologist may claim that the true Pigpen came out when singing, "This is a man's world / but it wouldn't be nothing without a woman or a girl." To me, that's a poor effort even if we give him the benefit of the doubt. Or that the rest of the band paid their penance in the '80s and '90s by asserting,

It ain't me, it's the people that say
The men are leading the women astray
But I say, it's the women today
Smarter than the man in every way.
That's right, the women are smarter.

Of course, Harry Belafante was singing these words a decade before the Grateful Dead even existed, yet the previous two paragraphs happened in the years that followed.*** Again, the most credit I can give for this single song is "too little, too late."

The 1960s are broadly considered today (for good or ill, depending your perspective) to be a time when social movements changed the way mainstream American culture viewed and treated race, American military adventurism, youth power, and identity politics (among others). There were exceptions, of course, but it is well documented that even within the civil rights, student, and anti-Vietnam War movements (and others), women were largely relegated to clerical roles rather than positions of leadership.***** In many ways, it was their struggles within their own movements for peace and justice that spurred politically active women to organize for rights over their bodies, in the workplace, in society, and even in the family. The feminist movement came into its own in the 1970s, and the hard work of dedicated, visionary women created a lasting impact through person-to-person organizing, often in the form of "consciousness raising" meetings of immediate friends and family.

Clearly the Dead weren't alone in their unenlightened treatment of women. Like the movements mentioned above (and countless other examples), they were all products of the larger society from which they grew. I still feel compelled to note the shortcomings of the band lyrically on this score, particularly in light of celebrating Pigpen's lyrical feats at this concert. Of course, in calling the band and Pigpen out for their misogyny, I'm not trying to condemn their music or them as people. In appreciating the things we love we must be honest with ourselves when they don't stand up to the moral standard we hold ourselves (and hopefully others) to in the rest of our lives. I enjoy this show for what it is - an incredible performance at a particular moment in time. But I also use it as a reminder of how far we've come and how far we still have to go to reach the moral standard of equality we individually and collectively hold as a goal.

- Morning Brewer

PS (Pairing Suggestion):

Seeing as this show highlights Pigpen, a lover of whiskey, I submit to you a range of beers aged in whiskey barrels. Belgian and French brewers have long repurposed oaken wine barrels to age some of their beers, typically sour ales. Relatively recently (roughly the past 10-15 years), American brewers have taken to re-using oaken whiskey barrels to impart wood and spirit characteristics into their aged beers, particularly dark and/or strong ales. Bourbon must be aged in fresh oak barrels, which are used only once, so brewers have a ready supply of barrels rolling out of distilleries from Kentucky to the Cascades. The base style can vary, but my favorite examples are based on big, strong beers like an imperial stout, a barleywine, or an American strong ale. The results are varied and interesting, with the wood contributing elements of vanilla and a light char, and the bourbon bringing heat and depth. Everyone's tastes are different, so try them out for what you enjoy!

If you don't like whiskey, you probably won't like these beers. However, I think whiskey-barrel aged beers pair nicely with the bold flavors of BBQ (what doesn't?) or a rich dessert that showcases dark flavors like plums, berries, or chocolate.

• Here in Philly, I haven't had many stunning examples that are locally produced. However, we get plenty of beers from around the country that shouldn't be hard to track down. You can't go wring with the Burton Baton, an imperial IPA base blended with an oak-aged English-style old ale.
• In DC, the Corruption goes with everything (even if it's not barrel-aged), just ask Dan and Sam!
• In the upper Midwest, track down the Kentucky Breakfast Stout, but be careful since this one packs a major punch. At its base, it's an imperial stout with coffee, oats, and maple syrup. After a year in oak barrels, it's so much more.
• Out West, try an oaked version of the ubiquitous Arrogant Bastard Ale. Its huge malt profile is not to be out-done by the generous hop bitterness. Somehow, I find the vanilla flavors from the oak soothing, considering the aggressiveness of the base beer. BONUS: From a request coming in from Fort Bragg, CA, check out the tenth anniversary version of Old Rasputin, a classic Russian imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels. This one's out of production, but it'll be worth tracking down.
• In Alaska, I'm sure you'll be able to track something down, though I'm not familiar with any native examples. Try scoping the annual Great Alaska Beer & Barleywine Festival, usually held in January. I'm sure you'll find plenty of tongue-stripping examples to keep you warm through the dark months!
• If I didn't hit your locale, please let me know where you are and I'll do my best to accommodate. 

---------------------------------


* It's transcribed in its entirety in Deadhead's Taping Compendium, Vol. 1, as well as re-published in one of those Deadhead magazines (Relix, I think) to promote the book's release in 1998. But it's best listened to in context of the instrumental improvisation behind it for a full appreciation.
** A prime example appears in the next show of the tour, 4/16/72 at the Stakladen in Aarhus.
*** This isn't to give Harry Belafante a pass. He was a high-profile civil-rights advocate and fundraiser for the movement, but that movement, like most of the subsequent progressive political movements, struggled to embrace women in roles of leadership.
**** For the purposes of this post, I'm limiting the discussion purely to song lyrics, though it amy be interesting to consider the band's staff and history at some other point.
***** A few examples I am familiar with include Doug McAdam's Freedom Summer, an oral history of SNCC's voter registration drive in Mississippi in 1964, and "Port Huron Statement" author and student/anti-war activist Tom Hayden's memoir Reunion. I'm sure there are plenty more examples from in feminist literature and history, so if you have any suggestions, please share them in the comments section so we can all learn more.

4/11/72 Newcasle: Mr. Charlie & Anglo-American Music & Beer

When: Tuesday, April 11, 1972
Where: City Hall, Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Setlist: (In order of the released CDs, can't find the AUD for a stream. While not as widely distributed as 4/8/72, it's out there. Worst case - one of the top shows of the tour, for sale here)

1. Greatest Story Ever Told, Deal, Mr. Charlie, Black-Throated Wind, Tennessee Jed, Big Boss Man, Beat It On Down The Line, Sugaree, Jack Straw, Chinatown Shuffle, China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider, Playing In The Band, Next Time You See Me, Brown-Eyed Women, Looks Like Rain, Big Railroad Blues, Casey Jones
2. Good Lovin', Ramble On Rose, Truckin' > Drums > The Other One > Comes A Time, Sugar Magnolia  E: Brokedown Palace, One More Saturday Night

As always, personal highlights are in bold.

WOW! Great show. Start-to-finish, one of strongest of the tour, and I could have easily highlighted the entire setlist above. From the liner notes, Rosie McGee describes the venue as "a dour concrete building in the midst of a grim industrial town," with "the warmth of a witch's teat." Truly, "an ostensibly 'hostile' environment." However, she describes a transformation of the crowd from cold and confused to "stunned and bemused" until "the concrete walls somehow turned into green pastures." She also recounts a story of encountering an older local woman trying to get backstage. Eventually she learns this is the mother of Eric Burdon from the Animals, and they take in the rest of the set from the balcony, where Mrs. Burdon notes, "They're very good, you know!"

One of the things I love about this era in Dead history is the on-stage banter. The Dead are strangers in a strange land, but they sure sound loose! For instance, after the "Black-Throated Wind" ends and they're preparing for "Tennessee Jed," we hear this exchange:

Bobby: "We're going to do our best to decide what to do next and then do it."
Jerry plays a lick from "Tennessee Jed"
Bobby: "Back home, that's what's known as telegraphing the next song. By playing a characteristic lick out of it, everyone in the audience knows what we're going to play next. But seeing as you've never heard it before, there's no problem."
Jerry: "Ha, ha! Well, sure."

Then they kick into a forceful "Tennessee Jed." To me, it's an indication of how intimate the venues were at on this tour and in '72 in general. The connection between audience and band - individually and collectively - comes through in the music, and this banter is just another example of how that connection overwhelms foreboding environs.

As I noted, nearly every version of every song is special. The performances in the first set are tight, but they find some room for exploration in "Sugaree" and the "China" > "Rider" transition. I'm not always a fan of "Big Railroad Blues," but this version rocks hard!! It's worth listening to the first set for comparison to the "first set" tunes off the released Europe '72 - they could have called it a wrap and ditched the recording equipment after this show. But then, what would I be listening to right now instead?!?!

The second set scorches from start to finish, with a very good version of "Good Lovin'." It's interesting to see the evolution of Pigpen's vocal improvisations, and this one is a great prelude to the next show (more in my next post). It's tempting to dismiss "Ramble On Rose" as a throw-away before the deep jam, it's not in the least. Loose, lean, and energetic, Jerry delivers the vocals emotional precision.

Tension and release are key components of most (good) instrumental improvisation, regardless of genre and instrumentation. For me it's those two elements - and the way the Dead were able to create tension through melody without simply playing faster and higher - that make the big jam that follows so special. "Truckin'" starts off with a ton of energy. As the jam gets going, Phil and Jerry mingle with melody on the edge of space, conjuring tension without fully exploring it. The drum break is short and sweet, giving way to a drop I can only describe as loping. Keith's rhythm work on "The Other One" drives Jerry harder and faster, as the rest of the band builds the beat behind them. Keith often gets overlooked, but his jazzy rhythm work in the jams on this tour give them that youthful, summery quality that is a big part of why this tour is so special. Well done, Keith!! The rest of the jam is exploratory and explosive. Threads of the "Feelin' Groovy Jam" grow into a stellar performance of this melody (loosely based on Simon and Garfunkle's "59th Street Bridge Song"), building thick tension that is ultimately released to fall like confetti on New Years. Eventually, the mellow jam gives way to deep space, rebuilding the tension even thicker through chaos and feedback.

Of course, the only logical place to go from there is "Comes A Time," an emotional ballad penned by Garcia and Hunter. This will be a featured song of the day in another post, but for those not familiar with it, it's an all-time personal favorite that is dark with a glimmer of hope. Jerry delivers on this version - soulful, touching, pained. But the set has to end sometime, and there's no better way than rocking out a hot "Sugar Magnolia." A testament to how great the band is feeling, they throw out a rare double encore. The "Brokedown Palace" is beyond description. Listening to it after the whole show that precedes it is like a hug from an old friend. Of course, Bobby still has an itch to scream, so they play "Saturday Night" before sending everyone home. A bit of a letdown in retrospect, but we've all been to those shows where we just need one more high energy song to shake our bones to before grabbing our shoes and heading home....

This one isn't from Europe at all, but at least it's from 1972!

Worth mentioning:

• This version of "Greatest" is rockin' and rollicking, pushing hard from start to finish.  
• The "Brown-Eyed Women" is very high-energy, but it sounds like Bobby gets a little too experimental at times, making it sound like he loses the beat. This reminds me of something Garcia said: "The way it is with Weir is that he's continually making discoveries that are like old discoveries for some others of us. But on the other hand, there are ideas that Weir has that I would never have had, that in fact maybe only he has. That's his unique value - he's an extraordinarily original player in a world full of people who sound like each other."* This must have been one of those misses, but I'm glad he kept at it!
• Not the most incredible version of "Looks Like Rain," but it's close. I can't turn down this song on most occasions, and when it's one of the rare versions with Jerry on that pedal steel, it deserves to be sonically bronzed. It must have been a pain for the crew to lug this thing around and get it properly tuned every night. They only played the song three times on the tour, which makes me think they may not have lugged it around for every show.** Enjoy this one, it's a doozy!
• I can't say it enough, but a youthful Jerry singing "Brokedown Palace" is truly one of the most special things you can hope for from the Dead. To get this just a few songs after "Comes A Time" is quite a treat for Jerry-ballad junkies like myself!
• I don't know why, but when I see "Truckin'" on a setlist I mentally shrug and move on. I just have trouble getting excited for it for some reason. But I've gotta say, this is well played through the composed sections, spilling into a fierce jam. Glad I'm warming to it because the Dead played a lot of "Truckin'" on this tour.
• Did I mention this is a GREAT show? If not, just to be sure, this is a GREAT ^FREAKING^ SHOW!!

Song of the Day: "Mr. Charlie"

This Pigpen/Hunter collaboration was a regular but short-lived part of the Dead's rotation from the summer of 1971 through the end of the this tour and the accompanying decline of Pigpen's health. while not his final shows, the Europe tour was Pigpen's last hurrah, and this (along with "Chinatown Shuffle") was his swan song: he sang "Mr. Charlie" every night (and only two shows were missing "Chinatown Shuffle"). I feel obliged to take a close look at this enigmatic song, and doing so requires some explanation of Pigpen's youth and musical influences. (Please bare with the length here; I'll do my best to keep it shorter in the future.)

Pigpen was born Ronald McKernan on September 8, 1945, to a middle class family in San Bruno, California. Growing up, his father Phil was a disc jockey - "Cool Breeze," spinning rhythm and blues on KRE radio - and he passed his love of African American music along to his son. They moved around a fair amount, and he ended up with a brief stint in high school at Palo Alto High School***, before he and the principal "mutually decided" he should leave the school.

By the time he showed up at [the Palo Alto folk club] the Boar's Head at age sixteen, he had left white middle-class life entirely behind.... He had a motorcycle chain permanently bolted to his wrist and wore oily jeans, Brandoesque T-shirts, and greasy hair.... 

What everyone [knew] was that he was the white kid who practically lived in black East Palo Alto, hanging out with a black man named Tanwy Jones, who had a Harley-Davidson motorcycle as well as a bread truck that they called the Seventh Son. It came with a mattress in the back, and their sexual exploits went far beyond the average teen's. It was also useful for their trips to a bootlegger in La Honda, in the mountains above Palo Alto, where they bought whiskey at $1.50 a gallon.****

While Pigpen was mild-mannered in private, apparently
he didn't like having his photo taken with his long-time
girlfriend Veronica "Vee" Barnard at Woodstock, 1969.

By all accounts his salty veneer masked his gentle, obedient nature. He was known in local musical circles for his encyclopedic knowledge of the array of black music that spawned rock 'n' roll. While he played harmonica, piano, organ, and occasionally guitar, his biggest talent was not only in singing the blues and R&B, but also his ability to improvise lyrics (again, see 4/14/72).*****

I have heard several interpretations of "Mr. Charlie," but for me the lyrics evoke race relations in the American South. As many readers surely know, Mr. Charlie has historically been one of the outwardly-polite-yet-secretly-derisive terms used by oppressed African Americans in society and in prison to refer to their white, male oppressors. It's similar to "The Man" but truly less respectful. It also alludes to the 1964 James Baldwin play Blues for Mister Charlie, dedicated to the memory of Medgar Evers, the NAACP field secretary assassinated by a White Citizens Council (and later Ku Klux Klan) member.

The narrator begins by filling a shotgun with powder and salt, intending to spare life and limb, yet "take a little skin" in a primitive delivery of less-than-lethal force. Why? "'Cause Mr. Charlie told me so." The lyric then takes an interesting turn towards voodoo mysticism of the bayou (and by extension Haiti and Africa):

Well, you take a silver dollar
Take a silver dime
Mix 'em both together
In some alligator wine 

I can hear the drums
Voodoo all night long
Mr. Charlie tellin' me
I can't do nothing wrong

One of the alternate interpretations is that Mr. Charlie is Charles Manson. While there is a plausible case to be made on that front, the final line suggests to me the narrator is afraid of the repercussions of doing wrong rather than brainwashed to believe whatever he (or she) does is axiomatically right. In antebellum New Orleans - home to slaves, free blacks, and displaced Haitians - Congo Square was a gathering place for blacks and creoles on Sundays to practice commerce, voodoo, music, and dance. The Manson interpretation doesn't account for this rather direct allusion.

In another novel interpretation, the song is about heroin (powder, silver dollar), cocaine (salt, silver dime), and the syringe (shotgun) used to deliver a "speedball." Through this lens, you could easily find different meaning in the lines "scare you up and shoot you" (shoot up), "give you a little warning / before I let you go" (cautionary note on addiction and overdose), and of course "looking high, looking low" (jonesing). While definitely possible, I am somewhat skeptical because - while an overindulgent drinker - Pigpen never partook in the psychedelics or narcotics that much of the rest of the band famously used. Though the accuracy of his book has been questioned, Rock Scully tells a story of Pigpen walking in on Jerry shooting up when they lived in the Haight. Pigpen freaked out to the point that Jerry agreed to refrain from that particular drug, though we know how that one turned out. (May of '77 came with a price....) You can see from Pigpen's opening quotation from this story of the Dead playing Wembley, he was in it for the music, not the drugs. This, along with Pigpen's early affinity and proximity to African American culture, music, and history, lead me to conclude that the "speedball" interpretation would most likely be a secondary one.

In my reading, "Mr. Charlie" is a singular lyric in the Dead's repertoire for its implicitly African American narrator telling a tale of oppression and race violence. The alternate interpretations (brainwashing and addiction) discussed above are plausible because of the control exerted over the narrator, but due to historical factors - both literary and biographical - I believe the simplest interpretation is mostly likely the best: This story, set in the historical American South, is a tale of racial oppression and black-on-black violence at the behest of a powerful white tormenter. Of course, you can never put a multi-pronged pen past a lyricist of the caliber of Robert Hunter.

*     *     *     *     *

Ping Pong Across The Pond: Mirrored Evolution of Rock 'n' Roll & Ale

Originally I wanted to touch on this topic because the show was in Newcastle, home to one of the world's iconic ales, the Newcastle brown ale (as you can guess from the reviews, there are better examples out there, but more on that in the PS). But Pigpen's biography reminds us that, while the majority of Americans came to the blues through the British Invasion, there were definitely homegrown exceptions. So my caveat is that I'll be painting with a broad brush here, so please excuse me for my (many) omissions on this topic.

It's been well documented that the blues spawned rock 'n' roll. The American racial dynamic in the late-1940s through early-1960s made mainstream exposure and appeal for music rooted deeply in African American culture and society nearly impossible. Before the music's wild sensuality could reach TV audiences, it needed to be neutered. (Okay, those links are anachronistic, but the later recording is actually the original version.) In England, young white musicians gravitated to the music of black America, learned the instruments, and made their own music, albeit liberally borrowing or outright stealing songs from the music's original authors. Once the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Birds, and others hit America, previously marginalized rock 'n' roll music been sufficiently laundered for mainstream audiences that it even allowed for a return to its original raunchiness.

A similar repurposing process has been happening with the Anglo-American evolution of ales over the past few decades. Ale - beer made at higher temperatures with "top fermenting" yeast (as opposed to lagers) - has always dominated the British Isles, and historically ales were a major part of the American brewing tradition. Following the dark days of Prohibition, the brewing industry consolidated around continental-style lagers. It wasn't until the development (primarily at Oregon State University) of new strains of piney, citrusy, and resinous hops like Cascade, Centennial, and Columbus ("the three Cs") that American craft brewers had their own distinctive ingredient. Due to the clean break in brewing tradition, however, American brewers turned to Anglos for lessons in brewing procedures and ingredient quality to make their own amazing ales.

In 1980 Sierra Nevada pioneered a new style of beer, the American pale ale featuring the Cascade hop, which spawned the American craft beer revolution. It must be noted that Fritz Maytag III saved the Anchor Brewing Company from closing by purchasing it in 1965, running it at a loss until the 1980s. But it was Sierra's aggressive approach to bitterness - not Anchor's traditional California common or Steam Beer - that spawned a revolution that created a market for hoppy beers in America. As American craft breweries have grown and explored new styles, they have helped develop a distinctly American beer palate, one that craves bitter beers, often to the "extreme" by conventional English standards.

Today, the reverberations of the American craft beer revolution are making their way across the pond. Breweries like Scotland's BrewDog, Denmark's Mikkeller, and many more are challenging convention while explicitly exploring American-inspired experiments in alpha-acidity and other extreme concoctions. Will this create a mainstream market for hoppy, extreme beers in Britain (and the Continent) similar to the way the British Invasion paved the way for the Grateful Dead? There is no telling, especially since high-quality ales don't travel across the Atlantic as easily (or economically) as records once did, even with American-inspired hopping rates. Nonetheless, I can still hold onto my hope for an extreme beer tour of America by English brewers one day.

- Morning Brewer

PS (Pairing Suggestion):

I'm building this pairing around the brown ale, of course! Either English or American, would be fine. (The Belgians do brown ales, too - regular or sour - but that's a whole 'nother ball of wax!) The difference is that the English versions showcase a nutty, toasty, toffee-like malt flavor and aroma. American version is slightly hoppier (both in aroma and bitterness), typically stronger, and are more likely to showcase caramel and chocolate in the malt profile. But one thing is for sure - they're all brown!!

Oh, yeah! Here it is:
Jerry with a Newcastle!!!

To pair with the first set, we'll start out with the English version. Track down a Newcastle or a Samuel Smith's Nut Brown. (If you're in D.C., you'll have good options at the Queen Vic.) Both are "sessionable" (relatively low alcohol), but for those of you accustomed to drinking hoppy, American brews either of these may seem a bit subdued. Pair your English brown ale with another English classic: fish and chips! And you've gotta use the malt vinegar, no ketchup (when in Rome...).

For the second set, pick up an American brown ale and pair it with some fish (whatever you can get FRESH), blackened and sauteed to a nice crisp on the outside. The heat and spicy nuance of a good blackening seasoning will have you reaching for that brew in no time! Hops and heat are a fine combo, and the substantial malt body will prep your palate for another bite. Try it with some fresh, julienned veggies - lightly steamed and sprinkled with fresh herbs - to give this pairing an American character.

• Gotta go with the Indian Brown Ale here in Philly, right? (We can do the Palo Santo Marron for the encore!!)
• In DC, the Corruption goes with everything (even if it's not a brown ale), just ask Dan and Sam!
• In the midwest, try the Bender.
• Out West, if you can find it, grab a Jewbilation 9 (limited release).If not, I have no doubt you can track down Rogue's Hazelnut Brown Nectar.
• In AK, try a Kodiak Brown, or if you're in Anchorage, stop by the Glacier Brewhouse to see if they've got the Oak-Aged Nut Brown on tap (or cask!). (Sorry, can't vouch for these, but pickin' brews in Alaska is tough!!)
• If I didn't hit your locale, please let me know where you are and I'll do my best to accommodate.

---------------------------------
* This quotation comes from in an interview with Blair Jackson and David Gans on 4/28/81 and appears on pp 39-40 of Conversations With The Dead, edited by David Gans. The conversation started about Bobby's learning to play slide guitar on stage, to which Garcia quipped, "It still embarrasses me, but luckily it doesn't embarrass him." (p 38)
** Then again, Garcia noted in the same interview from above that the pedal steel is "weird" and "a hard instrument to play." (p 37) Maybe he just decided to bag it in favor of his modified Strat.
*** Paly is the alma mater of such contributors to human civilization as Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR); NFL zealot Jim Harbaugh; billionaire Jon Huntsman, Sr.; Erle Stanley Garner (creator of Perry Mason); actors Dave and James Franco; musicians Billy Kreutzman, Joan Baez, Grace Slick, and the Donnas; a Fluffhead (sorta), Zan, the man formerly known as First Federal, one Toad, and of course Linsanity-turned-Linjury.
**** From pp 35-6 of A Long Strange Trip by Dennis McNally, the Grateful Dead's official historian and biographer.
***** Pigpen started getting noticeably sick in 1971, at which point he was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. Europe would be his last tour with the band. His final performance was in June, less than a month after this tour concluded. He died of a gastrointestinal hemorrhage on March 8, 1973. His headstone in Alta Mesa Memorial Park in Palo Alto reads, "Pigpen was and is now forever one of the Grateful Dead."
****** I wanted to make a case for "Mr. Charlie" being a prison guard using one of the black prisoners as his henchman, but the song debuted about five weeks before Attica.