A Dead a la Wake & Bake...

[jon.]

Grateful Dead

June 17, 1991

Giants Stadium - East Rutherford, NJ

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Disc One

Set One

1. Eyes of the World

2. Walkin' Blues

3. Brown Eyed Women

4. Dark Star

5. When I Paint My Masterpiece

6. Loose Lucy

7. Cassidy

8. Might as Well

Disc Two

Set Two

1. Dark Star*

2. St. of Circumstance

3. Ship of Fools

4. Dark Star

5. Truckin'

6. New Speedway Boogie

7. Uncle John's Band

8. Dark Star

9. Drums

Disc Three

Set Two (cont.)

1. Space

2. China Doll

3. Playin' in the Band

4. Sugar Magnolia

6. E) The Weight

they got it now......

What a great show...what a hot morning...seems that i have the day to myself....might as well start it right

[paisley]

jon

finally who understands the paisley this sad and beautiful wednesday morning

come out to pepperjacks friday night

why? why not

[jon.]

nice pais.

have an awesome day man.

turn it up loud...

[Booche]

Pais, you seemed fairly attuned this morning.

Maybe you can offer up an explanation as to the second song choice of the night. Following that majestic Eyes, it was obvious the rules of Dead Engagement could have been forever changed. What happened?

[paisley]

Bobby had some long fingers

but when it came down to business, Jerry has a lot more kids

[Hux]

Following that majestic Eyes, it was obvious the rules of Dead Engagement could have been forever changed.

Who was it "obvious" to, and where exactly are these "rules" written down?

I commend you for implying the direction of the band was solely in Bob's hands, ie. if he had've followed up "Eyes" with a "Playin'" Jerry then would've followed with some other 2nd set tune, and the GD setlists would've been different from that moment forward? pffft - How? You're a hell of a retroactive mind-reader (14 years later). Would they have played all the 1st set tunes in the 2nd set? Or just stopped playing all 1st set songs altogether? So they'd play the 2nd set tunes twice as much?

It was a nice one-off "Eyes" opener for the ABC TV audience, but I think you put a liiiitle too much stock in this as a defining moment bro. By 1991 the GD had their show formula WELL set in stone, and one song was not going to change that.

(It is a sick Walkin' Blues by the way - I love this show)

[paisley]

[AdamH]

Can I just clear something up? Walkin' Blues sucks, especially when sung by California golden boy aristocrat Robert Weir.

I can't be more descriptive than "sucks" right now, but for another reference please see "Little Red Rooster" and listen to the sound of Willie Dixon's tears.

[peipunk]

Oooh, I feel a storm's a-brewin'!

Edited August 10, 2005 by Guest

[Hux]

Well, there are plenty of smokin' versions of those tunes, but you don't need to take my word for it.

and listen to the sound of Willie Dixon's tears

Again, considering Weir actually co-wrote with Willie Dixon and was a friend, I would instruct you to remove your foot from your gaping oral orifice.

Eternity

Composer: Bob Weir / Willie Dixon

Grateful Dead

So Many Roads (1965-1995), Grateful Dead, 1999

So Many Roads Sampler, Grateful Dead, 1999

Others

Weir/Wasserman: Live, Bob Weir / Rob Wasserman, 1998

Notes

Bob Weir spoke about the writing of Eternity, during studio sessions for Rob Wasserman's Trios album, for in an interview for Guitar Player magazine in 1993; I had this chord progression and melody that I wanted to run by Willie to see if he liked it .... he did, so he started dashing off words. He wanted me to run a certain section by him again and stuff like that, and we started working on a bridge. Then he dashes off this sheet of lyrics and hands it to me. Now I'm really stoked to be working with the legendary Willie Dixon and I'm prepared for just about anything.

He hands these lyrics to me and I'm reading through them. And they seem, you know, awfully simplistic. Like there wasn't a whole lot to them....

....Now he wants me to read through it and sing the melody I have and see if they fit. And so I started singing through these simplistic lyrics, and that simplicity takes on a whole other direction.

By the time I had sung through them, it's like my head is suddenly eons wide. I can hear what's happening just sort of echoing around in there and I'm astounded by the simple grace of what he has just presented to me. I'm sitting there with my mouth open literally, and Willie's laughing.

He's just sitting there laughing, saying, 'Now you see it. Now you see it. That's the wisdom of the blues.'

[Booche]

"By 1991 the GD had their show formula WELL set in stone, and one song was not going to change that."

Thanks for proving my point.

[Hux]

I thought your point was that it COULD'VE changed if they had've mixed it up that night and Weir had've followed Jerry's lead instead of playing Walkin' Blues, which prevented "the rules of Dead engagement" to be altered....??

[Booche]

I'm Paisley.

The formula was well set in stone. 2 songs could have changed it. A nice Weather Report Suite in there, or a Festival..........anything that could have given them another chance to stop churning out the 'twas ever thus' setlists.

You take this Bob stuff too seriously man. I asked Paisley a simple question based on my life-long dream of meeting Weir and asking him the same one.

Anyways, I already know what his reply will be:

What fucking show are you talking about? Listen kid, I dont even know what Ratdog played last night. How am I supposed to remember something back when my shorts were still short and my Madonna shirt could fit over my tummy?

Take this stuff back to the Dr Huxtable Community.

[Hux]

I thought you would ask him "Can you sign how about that Phil Lesh on my ass?" at which point his reaction would (rightly so) be similar to Mickey's or he would throw his triple bourbon on the rocks in your beard

[AdamH]

Nice deflection Huxtable. The fact that Willie and Bobby co-wrote a song is interesting and terrifying, and I'm sure he was flattered to have ANYONE play Wang Dang Doodle and Little Red Rooster and probably others I don't know about. Evidently Eternity was such a great song it only made it onto So Many Roads.

I'd argue that a blues musician born poor, who eventually died poor, would've jumped at the chance in life to work with someone playing his songs, paying him royalties and maybe giving him a bit of a boost. It works for the Allmans (Pinetop Perkins) and The Band, and Cream, and all the other cover artists who took the chance.

Telling me they collaborated doesn't answer why Bobby's rendition of Little Red Rooster is as migraine-inducing as Ian and Sylvia's version of CC Rider in Festival Express.

[Booche]

You had better pour yourself a triple bourbon the next time I see you.

[AdamH]

And so this doesn't become too personal, I'm laughing out loud as I read your retorts to mouche ta booche.

[Hux]

Evidently Eternity was such a great song it only made it onto So Many Roads

By that logic so was So Many Roads, and a slew of unrealeased stuff form the Primal era. Bad logic, but A for effort. The final GD studio album was in the works (Eternity, Lazy River Road, So Many Roads, etc.) when someone in the band died in '95 and it never happened.

Oh, and Dixon made peanuts from the GD. How many released live albums had Rooster and Walkin' Blues on it by the time he died in '92? let's see...Dead Set, um....Without a Net - that's about it over the course of 20 years - 2 tunes.

I'm sure he came a little pricier than those minimal royalites, and that's assuming this blues legend only played with Weir because he was fluffing some guy who made him a few bucks....that's a nice way to again retroactively mind-read and characterize the character of a dead American blues legend. Nice.

Telling me they collaborated doesn't answer why Bobby's rendition of Little Red Rooster is as migraine-inducing as Ian and Sylvia's version of CC Rider in Festival Express

While with all Dead tunes, there were good renditions and bad (Grateful Dead 101 - you do get that don't you?) painting a wide brush like that and saying all Roosters blow is just wrong. It was a great showcase for some great straight ahead blues shredding by Garcia on slide and Mydland on keys, and in the opinion of many of us, Weir could shred those vocals when in good voice, check out the Deadset/Dead Ahead versions in '80...

Or, we could ask someone who was actually there, hey Booche, what was the Rooster like at Copps Coliseum, Hamilton ON (3/21/92)??

I'm not all riled up, I love discussing this stuff like I would politics, I'm just glad ahess that you're actually throwing up musical arguments, and not your usual homophobic "you like Weir because you want to suck his dick" crapola....

[Booche]

hey Booche, what was the Rooster like at Copps Coliseum, Hamilton ON (3/21/92)??

[color:purple]Only the most epic song ever performed in the history of music.

When you are 24, have a head full of acid and are at a Dead show, Little Red Rooster rocks. I was one of the howling hounds.

[secondtube]

When you are 24, have a head full of acid and are at a Dead show

... you officially become my hero.

[Booche]

QUICK!

SOMEONE HELP TUBE!!!!!!!

[AdamH]

I wasn't saying the dead made dixon rich, but as a senile old blues dude I'd probably sit up and take notice when the world's largest and most commercially succesful touring act wanted to get in touch. And if Eternity was planned for a release then there was probably more than a musical friendship to willy and bobby's collaborating.

But back to Weir. My beef is primarily his vocals, and his poor musicianship comes second to that. Hence any versioon of little red rooster sucks because bobby sang lead vocals on all of them...garcias guitar and all the other isntrumentation is a non-issue.

As to variations between rendition, holy crap am I ever glad you told me that's how the dead work! I guess I always wondered why one of my hundred+ shows sounded different from the other so thanks again for laying that out.

My bobby bias also comes from a longstanding hatred of cheese whitebread musicians playing blues covers and standards and patting themselves on the back for paying tribute to a real musician. In that light Tony D and Bobby Weir have alot in common, except that Tony D can play guitar.

So we take Weir subtract vocals, subtract guitar talent and we're left with his looks. Praising a handsome male singer who can't sing or play music works well for American Idol, Creed and near all contemporary pop music. And I hate that. And so do you.

Ergo....

Bobby Sucks.

[MarcO]

You lost me at "poor musicianship"......

[ollie]

So we take Weir subtract vocals, subtract guitar talent and we're left with his looks. Praising a handsome male singer who can't sing or play music works well for American Idol, Creed and near all contemporary pop music. And I hate that. And so do you.

Ergo....

Bobby Sucks.

Where does his songwriting fit into that equation?

[Hux]

...yeah, I'm not gonna waste my time on ahess and that level of ignorance towards the Grateful Dead.

Garcia would think you were an idiot.