Millions of words have probably been written about the Grateful Dead, so what I can offer is a drop in a bucket of water. But I feel the urge to write about what my experience of them has been anyway. More than a band, they were a cultural icon and a movement, created to some extent by design, by allowing fans to record their concerts as long as fans didn’t make profits on the sale of tapes, and by reaching out to their fanbase to solicit names and addresses “to keep you informed”. They also played a lot of free concerts. I never saw a Dead concert, but from the beginning I was intrigued by music that covered so many genres with a sound that was unique to them, and I collected albums one by one until their later music stopped living up to what I first heard. My introduction to them was at a friend’s apartment in about 1971 when he put Workingman’s Dead on his stereo and out came an upbeat song about a sort of Pied Piper titled “Uncle John’s Band”. The Dead, as they were called, didn’t offer a rosy view of humanity but they celebrated life as it was.
Well, the first days are the hardest days,
Don’t you worry anymore
‘Cause when life looks like Easy Street
There is danger at your door
Think this through with me
Let me know your mind
Whoa-oh, what I want to know,
Is are you kind? . . .
Goddamn, well I declare
Have you seen the like
Their walls are built of cannonballs,
Their motto is Don’t Tread on Me
Come hear Uncle John’s Band
By the riverside
Got some things to talk about
Here beside the rising tide
I live in a silver mine
And I call it Beggar’s Tomb
I got me a violin
And I beg you call the tune
Anybody’s choice
I can hear your voice
Whoa-oh, what I want to know,
How does the song go?
Come hear Uncle John’s Band
Playing to the tide
Come with me or go alone
He’s come to take his children home
Come hear Uncle John’s Band
By the riverside
Come on along or go alone
He’s come to take his children home
These weren’t lyrics like anything I’d ever heard before, not even from Bob Dylan. I learned later almost all their lyrics were written by an invisible member of the band, an old friend of Garcia’s named Robert Hunter who didn’t play or sing with the band, while Jerry Garcia wrote the music. Garcia was a folk and bluegrass musician before the Grateful Dead formed, and he continued to play old folk tunes with the acoustic Jerry Garcia Band while in the Dead. He was considered the leader of the band, but he insisted that the others in the band contributed as much to the music they made as he did. Most of the songs were done in the spirit of 19th and early 20th century rural mountain music and country blues, and they had the feel of that. They didn’t paint a picture of a benevolent world, but they conveyed an attitude of engaging life with an accepting spirit in spite of their frequent critical comment on it.
“Dire Wolf” was a comic if foreboding song about an encounter with the fearsome Pleistocene animal, which knocks on the singer’s door.
In the timbers of Fennario
The wolves are runnin' round
The winter was so hard and cold
Froze ten feet 'neath the ground
Don't murder me, I beg of you
Don't murder me, please, don't murder me
I sat down to my supper
It was a bottle of red whisky
I said my prayers and went to bed
That's the last they saw of me
Don't murder me, I beg of you
Don't murder me, please, don't murder me
When I awoke, the dire wolf
Six hundred pounds of sin
Was grinning at my window
All I said was, "Come on in"
Dire wolves were actually about the size of a large modern gray wolf weighing 135 lbs or so, not 600 lbs, but with much more biting power. “All I said was ‘Come on in” – as if “Where did I go wrong?” It’s a bouncy, almost cheery song capped with the comical plea “I beg of you/Don’t murder me, please don’t murder me”. I get an inward smile every time I hear it.
It’s followed by a bluesy number called “New Speedway Boogie,” a favorite of mine.
Please don’t dominate the rap, Jack
If you got nothin’ new to say
If you please, don’t back up the track
This train got to run today
Now I don’t know but I been told
It’s hard to run with the weight of gold
Other hand I heard it said
It’s just as hard with the weight of lead
Spent a little time on the mountain
Spent a little time on the hill
Things went down we don’t understand
But I think in time we will
Now I don’t know but I been told
In the heat of the sun a man died of cold
Do we keep on comin’ or stand and wait
With the sun so dark and the hour so late?
You can’t overlook the lack, Jack
Of any other highway to ride
It’s got no signs or dividing lines
And very few rules to guide
I don’t know, but I been told
If the horse don’t pull you got to carry the load
I don’t know who’s back’s that strong
Maybe find out before too long
One way or another
One way or another
This darkness got to give
“Black Peter” is a slow and mournful song about a dying old man who’s accepting of his fate and just wants “a little peace to die” with a friend or two with him.
All of my friends come to see me last night
I was laying in my bed and dyin’ . . .
Just wanna have a little peace to die
And a friend or two I love at hand
Fever roll up to a hundred and five
Roll on up, gonna roll back down
One more day I find myself alive
Tomorrow maybe go beneath the ground
See here how everything lead up to this day
And it's just like any other day that's ever been
Sun going up and then the sun going down
Shine through my window and my friends they come around
Jerry Garcia had played bluegrass in the early sixties, and the Hunter-Garcia tune “Cumberland Blues” is a bluegrass tune about a mine in Pennsylvania. Someone who actually worked in the Cumberland Mine once said to Hunter “I wonder what the guy who wrote this song would’ve thought if he’d known that something like the Grateful Dead was gonna do it”, not suspecting that he was actually talking to the songwriter. It sounds like something written around 1870 instead of 1970. It’s lyrics, high-speed pace and banjo make it sound like pure 19th century Appalachian mountain music.
A lotta poor man make a five dollar bill
Keep him happy all the time
Some other fella's makin' nothin' at all
And you can hear him cryin’
"Can I go, buddy, can I go down
Take your shift at the mine?"
Gotta get down to the Cumberland Mine
That's where I mainly spend my time
Make good money, five dollars a day
Make anymore, I might move away
Lotta poor man got the Cumberland Blues
He can't win for losin'
Lotta poor man got to walk the line
Just to pay his union dues
I don’t know now, I just don’t know
If I’m goin’ back again
Workingman’s Dead was followed by the equally fine American Beauty, the first album to use a red rose on the cover as a symbol for the band. It starts off with “Box of Rain”, a song Hunter and Phil Lesh wrote when Phil Lesh’s dying father asked Lesh to write a song to sing to him. It’s a mystical song with ambiguous meaning.
Look out of any window, any morning, any evening, any day
Maybe the sun is shining, birds are winging
No rain is falling from a heavy sky
What do you want me to do, to do for you to see you through?
For this is all a dream we dreamed one afternoon, long ago
Walk out of any doorway, feel your way, feel your way
Like the day before, maybe you'll find direction
Around some corner where it's been waiting to meet you
What do you want me to do, to watch for you while you are sleeping?
Then please don't be surprised when you find me dreaming too . . .
And it's just a box of rain, I don't know who put it there
Believe it if you need it, or leave it if you dare
And it's just a box of rain or a ribbon for your hair
Such a long, long time to be gone and a short time to be there
The classic cut on American Beauty is “Ripple”, a song that became a standard and favorite at Grateful Dead concerts and my personal favorite Grateful Dead song. It’s a mystical acoustic meditation on the ultimate aloneness of existence, but a sweet and compassionate wish for all of us fellow travelers. Accompanied by a simple acoustic guitar and mandolin by stand-in David Grisman, it has a very rhythmic melody that makes you want to sing along, in your head if not out loud.
If my words did glow
with the gold of sunshine
and my tunes were played
on the harp unstrung,
would you hear my voice
come through the music.
Would you hold it near
as it were your own? . . .
Ripple in still water
when there is no pebble tossed
nor wind to blow.
Reach out your hand
if your cup be empty.
If your cup is full
may it be again.
Let it be known
there is a fountain
that was not made
by the hands of men.
There is a road
no simple highway
between the dawn
and the dark of night.
And if you go
no one may follow.
That path is for
your steps alone.
Ripple in still water
when there is no pebble tossed
nor wind to blow.
You who choose,
to lead must follow,
but if you fall
you fall alone.
If you should stand,
then who’s to guide you?
If I knew the way
I would take you home.
Every time I hear this song I feel my heart bathed in compassionate for the unpredictable path I walk. It’s followed by one of two other favorites on this album, “Brokedown Palace”, which feels like a relevant sentiment today. It’s a soothing lullaby with a lovely melody.
Goin to leave this brokedown palace
On my hands and my knees, I will roll, roll, roll
Make myself a bed by the waterside
In my time, in my time, I will roll, roll, roll
In a bed, in a bed,
by the waterside I will lay my head
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
to rock my soul
Goin to leave this brokedown palace
On my hands and my knees, I will roll, roll, roll
Make myself a bed by the waterside
In my time, in my time, I will roll, roll, roll
In a bed, in a bed,
by the waterside I will lay my head
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
to rock my soul
My other favorite song on American Beauty is “Attics of My Life”, another mystical tune. It’s very ambiguous, seeming to address someone the singer loves deeply with a spiritual gratitude. It’s a very slow, dreamy song that for me seems to express something I feel but can’t identify.
I have spent my life
Seeking all that’s still unsung
Bent my ear to hear the tune
And closed my eyes to see
When there were no strings to play
You played to me . . .
In the book of love’s own dream
Where all the print is blood
Where all the pages are my days
And all my lights grow old
When I had no wings to fly
You flew to me
You
Flew
To me
Grateful Dead songs often seem to have a whimsical or even comic attitude about life and death, infidelity, even murder. “Friend of the Devil” is another fast-paced bluegrass tune on American Beauty.
I lit out from Reno, I was trailed by twenty hounds
Didn't get to sleep that night 'til the morning came around
Set out runnin' but I take my time
A friend of the devil is a friend of mine
If I get home before daylight I just might get some sleep tonight
Ran into the devil, babe, he loaned me twenty bills
Spent the night in Utah in a cave up in the hills . . .
I ran down to the levee but the devil caught me there
He took my twenty dollar bill and he vanished in the air
Set out runnin' but I take my time
A friend of the devil is a friend of mine
If I get home before daylight I just might get some sleep tonight
Got two reasons why I cry away each lonely night:
The first one's named sweet Anne Marie, and she's my heart's delight
The second one is prison, babe, sheriff's on my trail
And if he catches up with me, I'll spend my life in jail . . .
An early Dead song on the album Aoxomoxoa, “Dupree’s Diamond Blues”, also epitomizes this. It’s about a man who kills a jeweler to get a diamond ring to marry his fiancé.
Judge said, "Son, this gonna cost you some time."
Dupree said, "Judge, you know that crossed my mind."
Judge said, "Fact it's gonna cost you your life."
Dupree said, "Judge, you know that seems to me to be about right."
While the last line above is darkly comic, there’s a darker truth under the acceptance of his sentence. It’s an attitude that doesn’t take life and death as seriously as we do today with the medical knowledge and technology to wage war on death and disease. 100-150 years ago people frequently died from all kinds of causes at much younger ages. People didn’t have the degree of confidence they would live to an advanced age, especially people on the lower rungs of society. Law enforcement was sketchy on the frontier and in the mountains. Almost everyone had guns and it seems from old songs that violent death was not as novel as it is today, with the exception of drug- and gang-related death in city ghettoes. So many old song talk about violent death, and the Dead drew a lot their inspiration from those old songs.
The Dead frequently worked old folk songs and rock and roll standards into their concerts. Their 1971 live album, simply titled Grateful Dead but often referred to as the “skull and roses” album due to the cover art, includes a fast-tempo and dynamic 9:14 minute combo of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” that segues seamlessly into the traditional “Goin Down the Road Feelin Bad”. The band is totally in sync and it’s exhilarating to listen to. They also played old blues and folk songs like “Deep Elem Blues” and Elizabeth Cotton’s “Oh, Babe It Ain’t No Lie”.
Another example of songs joined together in a smooth transition from their Europe ‘72” live album is “China Cat Sunflower” paired with the traditional blues “I Know You Rider”. The first is impressionistic poetry unlike any other Hunter lyrics I can think of, with a fantastic guitar accompaniment on both songs by Garcia. It’s typical of his jazzy improvisation. One writer described Garcia's guitar style as “playing bluegrass runs on the guitar”.
Look for a while at the China Cat Sunflower
proud-walking jingle in the midnight sun
Copper-dome bodhi drip a silver kimono
like a crazy-quilt star gown
through a dream night wind
Krazy Kat peeking through a lace bandanna
like a one-eyed Cheshire
like a diamond-eye Jack
A leaf of all colors
plays a golden-string fiddle
to a double-e waterfall over my back
Comic book colors on a violin river
crying Leonardo words
from out a silk trombone
I rang a silent bell
beneath a shower of pearls
in the eagle wing palace
of the Queen Chinee
Hunter wrote in his songbook that no one’s ever asked him what the song means because “People seem to know exactly what I’m talking about”. I have no idea, and I love the lyrics and the song anyway.
“I Know You Rider” picks up the pace a lot, with a wonderful cascading piano and non-stop electric guitar lines like a swift mountain stream flowing steeply down its rocky channel as in “Not Fade Away/Goin Down the Road Feelin Bad” on their “skull and roses” live album in a rock and roll tour de force that leaves no doubt they were a great rock and roll band. Ron “Pigpen” McKernan has his best song on this album, a slow and soulful rendition of Elmore James’ “It Hurts Me Too” – “When things go wrong/Wrong with you/It hurts me too”, lamenting how a former lover is treated by another man.
“Brown-Eyed Women” is a gem from their live Europe ’72 album that like a lot of old folk songs tells a tragic tale. It’s a moderately paced rocker with a different-sounding electric guitar than Garcia usually plays, piano and a steady, simple drumbeat.
Gone are the days when the ox fall down
Take up the yoke and plow the fields around
Gone are the days when the ladies said, "Please
Gentle Jack Jones, won't you come to me?" . . .
Delilah Jones was the mother of twins
Two times over and the rest were sins
Raised eight boys, only I turned bad
Didn't get the news that the other ones had
Brown-eyed women and red grenadine
The bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean
Sound of the thunder with the rain pourin' down
And it looks like the old man's gettin' on
Tumble down shack on Big Foot 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
1974's From the Mars Hotel has its own fast-paced rocker in "U S Blues."
Red and white, blue suede shoes
I'm Uncle Sam, how do you do?
Give me five, I'm still alive
Ain't no luck, I learned to duck
Check my pulse, it don't change
Stay seventy-two come shine or rain
Wave the flag, pop the bag
Rock the boat, skin the goat
Wave that flag, wave it wide and high
Summertime done, come and gone, my, oh, my
I'm Uncle Sam, that's who I am
Been hiding out in a rock and roll band
Shake the hand that shook the hand
Of P.T. Barnum and Charlie Chan
Shine your shoes, light your fuse
Can you use them old U.S. Blues?
We're all confused, what's to lose?
You can call this song the United States Blues
Another jazz-inflected song is “Eyes of the World” from their previous studio album, Wake of the Flood.
Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world
The heart has its beaches, its homeland and thoughts of its own
Wake now, discover that you are the song that the morning brings
But the heart has its seasons, its evenings and songs of its own
From the Mars Hotel is their last really good studio album, not quite as good as Workingman’s Dead or American Beauty, but not that far off. Besides “U S Blues”, it has a haunting “China Doll”, a moody song about a child’s reaction to a parent’s murder by their spouse. It’s murky, and hard to understand who’s talking when. But it’s a moving song that gives you a chill as the child is told to pick up the doll she dropped, as if that's the only thing they can think of to try to comfort the child and having it “only fractured” will somehow soothe her. Garcia sings it in a slow and dreamy, melancholic but tender voice.
A pistol shot at 5 o'clock
The bells of heaven ring
Tell me what you done it for
"No I won't tell you a thing
"Yesterday I begged you
before I hit the ground -
all I leave behind me
is only what I found . . .
"I will not condemn you
nor yet would I deny . . ."
I would ask the same of you
but failing will not die
Take up your china doll
it's only fractured –
just a little nervous
from the fall
The best song on From the Mars Hotel is “Ship of Fools”, the closest The Dead get to direct political statement, apparently written during the Watergate hearings, or after.
Went to see the captain, strangest I could find
Laid my proposition down, laid it on the line
I won't slave for beggar's pay, likewise gold and jewels
But I would slave to learn the way to sink your ship of fools
Ship of fools on a cruel sea
Ship of fools sail away from me
It was later than I thought when I first believed you
Now I cannot share your laughter, ship of fools
Saw your first ship sink and drown, from rocking of the boat
And all that could not sink or swim was just left there to float
I won't leave you drifting down but whoa it makes me wild
With thirty years upon my head to have you call me child
Ship of fools on a cruel sea
Ship of fools sail away from me
It was later than I thought when I first believed you
Now I cannot share your laughter, ship of fools
The bottles stand as empty as they were filled before
Time there was and plenty but from that cup no more
Though I could not caution all I still might warn a few
Don't lend your hand to raise no flag atop no ship of fools
The Dead continued to churn out studio albums for years, with 1987’s Built to Last and 1989’s In the Dark capturing some of their earlier energy and form as Garcia curtailed his drug use and addressed health problems like diabetes. In the early 80s Garcia’s performance on stage began to suffer. It resulted in the band doing an intervention, and he sought treatment. In the Dark was their last studio album. In spite of their largely electric instrumentation, the Dead were basically an American “roots music” band that took their inspiration from 19th century blues and country music, partly due to Robert Hunter’s lyrical focus. They were much like The Band in that regard, but a little further out on the edge. They even did an album with Bob Dylan.
In spite of their mixing genres from Motown R&B to bluegrass to blues, country and psychedelic music, as well as playing long improvised jams throughout their career, “in 2024, they broke the record for most Top-40 albums on the Billboard 200 chart." Rolling Stone ranked the Grateful Dead number 57 on its 2011 list of the ‘100 Greatest Artists of All Time’ The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and a recording of their May 8, 1977, performance at Cornell University's Barton Hall was added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2012 for being ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant’ ” (Wikipedia). There have been some bands that took the Dead as their model, but there has never been another band anything like the Dead with their aura and almost mythic status, especially with the vast collection of concert recordings they and even their fans have made and circulated. They were more than a band -- a cultural phenomenon that grew out of Haight-Ashbury and the Summer of Love that lived on creatively for decades after that scene died. They created, simply by who they were and how they made and spread their music, a musical community and a movement that was unique and will almost certainly never be replicated.
Brett Nelson
Paul McCartney Takes Wing – After the Beatles
In 1970 as the Beatles were quietly being dissolved, Paul McCartney came out with his first solo album titled simply McCartney on which he played all instruments, including drums. The album wasn’t remarkable except for one song, “Maybe I’m Amazed”, which later became a favorite at Wings concerts. It’s a tribute to his wife Linda and a humble admission of how much he leaned on her during the lonely separation from the musicians he had made music with for a decade, especially from Lennon. It’s a passionate song driven mostly by piano but including a nice electric guitar solo as well. “Maybe I’m Amazed” is a heartfelt soulful ballad that continues to be a favorite in concerts.
He was a one-man band for that album, but he then formed a band with Denny Laine from the Moody Blues, drummer Denny Seiwell and his wife Linda and went on one of the best runs of pop music of the 70s. It started with Ram, credited to “Paul and Linda McCartney”, which had the delightful hit “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey”. It’s a very complex song with four tempo changes and playful lyrics sung on one verse in a stuffy upper class British accent, with the sound of thunderstorms and birdcalls in the background. Linda McCartney contributes some nice background/harmony vocals that are part of the sound on this album and Wings albums.
We're so sorry, but we haven't heard a thing all day
We're so sorry, Uncle Albert
But if anything should happen
We'll be sure to give a ring
We're so sorry, Uncle Albert
But we haven't done a bloody thing all day
We're so sorry, Uncle Albert
But the kettle's on the boil
And we're so easily called away
Hands across the water (Water)
Heads across the sky
Hands across the water (Water)
Heads across the sky
Admiral Halsey notified me
He had to have a berth or he couldn't get to sea
I had another look and I had a cup of tea
And a butter pie (A butter pie?)
(The butter wouldn't melt, so I put it in the pie, alright?)
Hands across the water (Water)
Heads across the sky
Hands across the water (Water)
Heads across the sky
Live a little, be a gypsy, get around (Get around)
Get your feet up off the ground
Live a little, get around
Live a little, be a gypsy, get around (Get around)
Get your feet up off the ground
Live a little, get around
“Ram On” is the simplest song McCartney ever recorded – a simple melody with one brief verse repeated three times, but it’s probably the summation of his philosophy and way of life. Once he met Linda Eastman, a celebrated rock and roll photographer, his life was settled until she died of cancer. It’s accompanied by his ukelele, piano, even a kazoo toward the end. The cover of Ram shows McCartney dressed like a farmer holding a ram by its horns that have a double curve in them. He bought a farm in Scotland and spent time there to get away from the cities and the music world. It’s hard to say what meanings the words “ram on” had for him.
Ram on
Give your heart to somebody soon
Right away
Right away
McCartney’s music is fun to listen to because he has fun making it, playing with words like a kid, and with all kinds of sounds and vocals and continually taking the listener by surprise. The other standout on Ram is the high energy rocker “Monkberry Moon Delight”. with wonderfully nonsensical lyrics that builds on a driving beat while McCartney screams the lyrics in a rough voice.
So I sat in the attic, a piano up my nose
And the wind played a dreadful cantata (Cantata, cantata)
Sore was I from the crack of an enemy's hose
And the horrible sound of tomato (Tomato, tomato)
Catch up (Catch up)
Soup and puree (Soup and puree)
Don't get left behind (Get left behind)
Catch up (Catch up)
Soup and puree (Soup and puree)
Don't get left behind
(Get left behind, get left behind, get left behind)
When a rattle of rats had awoken
The sinews, the nerves, and the veins
My piano was boldly outspoken
And attempts to repeat his refrain
So I stood with a knot in my stomach
And I gazed at that terrible sight
Of two youngsters concealed in a barrel
Sucking monkberry moon delight
Monkberry moon delight
Monkberry moon delight
Monkberry moon delight
Monkberry moon delight
Well, I know my banana is older than the rest
And my hair is a tangled beretta (Beretta, beretta)
And when I leave my pajamas to Billy Budapest
And I don't get the gist of your letter (Your letter, your letter)
As with many of his songs, though catchy and amusing, the lyrics make no sense. But McCartney isn’t interested in saying something, only in making great music that he loves to play and is a joy to listen to. Most lyrics are enjoyable because they're surprising and interesting. Even the background singing by the band, including Linda McCartney, is interesting and adds to the songs.
After Ram the band became Wings and released Band on the Run, an absolute classic of pop music, but a thinking person’s pop music with great melodies, musicianship and vocals. There’s no pop album I know that is more of a pleasure and stimulating to listen to. The title cut is the highlight of the album, although not by much. McCartney envisions the singer in prison in the first verse in a quiet and slow, dreamy start.
Stuck inside these four walls
Sent inside forever
Never seeing no one nice again
Like you, mama
You, mama
You
If I ever get out of here
Thought of giving it all away
To a registered charity
All I need is a pint a day
If I ever get out of here
(If we ever get out of here)
The second stanza speeds up a bit with a rock beat and electric guitar and organ. Then the song kicks into high gear with horns and acoustic rhythm guitar with a solid drum beat and high energy rock and roll to frame the band as a gang of outlaws on the run from the law.
Well, the rain exploded with a mighty crash
As we fell into the sun
And the first one said to the second one there
"I hope you're having fun."
Band on the run, band on the run
And the jailer man
And sailor Sam
Were searching everyone
For the band on the run, band on the run
For the band on the run, band on the run
Well, the undertaker drew a heavy sigh
Seeing no one else had come
And a bell was ringing in the village square
For the rabbits on the run
Well, the night was falling
As the desert world began to settle down
In the town they're searching for us everywhere
But we never will be found
Band on the run, band on the run
And the county judge, who held a grudge
Will search for ever more
For the band on the run
Band on the run
Band on the run
Band on the run
There’s a theme of “the outlaw” running through music from old folk songs like “Pretty Polly” down through Woody Guthrie – “Pretty Boy Floyd” to Bob Dylan – “John Wesley Harding”, the Eagles – “Doolin-Dalton”, Paul Simon – “Keep the Customer Satisfied” and Happy and Artie Traum – “State Line”. Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson formed a group they called The Highwaymen, a term in England for robbers who waylaid travelers on country roads to rob them. I think there are plenty of more examples. Thinking back to what I wrote about the Eagles, the illusion of adolescence is often that the way to happiness is “breakin all the rules”. But as we grow older and mature, we find out it’s not so simple. James Dean died in a car crash in his sports car on the California coast highway going 100 mph. Breaking some rules, even laws, can be a mark of maturity and courage, like segregation and laws prohibiting homosexuality and interracial marriage. There are also good rules and laws, part of the social contract of civilization that protect us, and others from us.
McCartney plays rock and roll, which is mostly about the beat before rock and roll evolved into the elaborate guitar solos and heavy-handed instrumentation of rock music. There’s a lot of guitar and bass and organ in his music, but they’re mostly short fills driven by strong drums. “Band on the Run” has a steady and infectious drumbeat reminiscent of Ringo.
The mellow “Bluebird” is a love song with a really nice melody. It has a soft, unhurried drumbeat and a short but soulful saxophone solo. It’s a delightful song to listen to.
Late at night when the wind is still
I'll come flying through your door
And you'll know what love is for
I'm a bluebird
I'm a bluebird, I'm a bluebird, I'm a bluebird
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I'm a bluebird, I'm a bluebird, I'm a bluebird
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Touch your lips with a magic kiss
And you'll be a bluebird too
And you'll know what love can do
I'm a bluebird
I'm a bluebird, I'm a bluebird, I'm a bluebird
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I'm a bluebird, I'm a bluebird, I'm a bluebird
Yeah, yeah, yeah. . .
All alone on a desert island
We're living in the trees
And we're flying in the breeze
We're the bluebirds
We're the bluebirds, we're the bluebirds, we're the bluebirds
The album then shifts back to rock and roll with”Jet”, followed by “Mrs Vanderbilt” with the pulsing rhythm driven by McCartney’s very audible bass and a solid drum line. It also has some good saxophone fills, and ends with some cackling witch voices in the background that sound like they’re from The Wizard of Oz.
Down in the jungle, living in a tent
You don't use money, you don't pay rent
You don't even know the time, but you don't mind
Ho, hey ho
Ho, hey ho
Ho, hey ho
Ho, hey ho
When your light is on the blink, you never think of worrying
What's the use of worrying?
When your bus has left the stop, you'd better drop your hurrying
What's the use of hurrying?. . .
Leave me alone, Mrs. Vanderbilt
I've got plenty of time of my own
What's the use of worrying?
What's the use of hurrying?
What's the use of anything?. . .
When your pile is on the wane
You don't complain of robbery (Oh, no)
Run away, don't bother me
What's the use of worrying? (No use)
What's the use of anything?
Leave me alone, Mrs. Washington
I've done plenty of time on my own
“Mamunia” is one of my favorite songs on the album. It’s an acoustic ballad with a world music sound to it and a poetic ecological theme. It’s the closest McCartney comes to any sort of political statement. McCartney’s bass is again prominent and drives the song, except with what sound like tablas or congas on the chorus. “Mamunia” is a diminutive Polish word for “mama”, according to Wiktionary.
The rain comes falling from the sky
To fill the stream that fills the sea
And that's where life began for you and me
So the next time you see rain it ain't bad
Don't complain, it rains for you
The next time you see L.A. rain clouds
Don't complain, it rains for you and me
Mamunia, mamunia, mamunia
Oh oh oh
Mamunia, mamunia
Oh oh oh oh oh
Mamunia, mamunia, mamunia
Oh oh oh
Mamunia, mamunia
Oh oh oh oh oh
It might have been a bright blue day
But rain clouds had to come this way
They're watering everything that they can see
A seed is waiting in the earth
For rain to come and give him birth
It's all he really needs to set him free
So the next time you see L.A. rain clouds
Don't complain, it rains for you
So lay down your umbrellas
Strip off your plastic macs Ooh Ooh
You've never felt the rain my friend
Till you've felt it running down your back
So the next time you see rain, it ain't bad
Don't complain, it rains for you
The next time you see L.A. rain clouds
Don't complain, it rains for you and me
“Helen Wheels” is just straight high-energy rock and roll fun with some blistering guitar work.
Said farewell to my last hotel,
it never was much kind of abode
Glasgow town never brought me down
when I was heading out on the road
Carlisle city never looked so pretty,
and the Kendal freeway's fast
Slow down driver, wanna stay alive,
I wanna make this journey last
Helen (Helen)
Hell on wheels
Ain't nobody else gonna know the way she feels
Helen (Helen)
Hell on wheels
And they're never gonna take her away
“Picasso’s Last Words” is a laid-back imagining of a party with Picasso and friends in which he tells them "Drink to me, drink to my health/You know I can't drink any more" after which he dies during the night. I don’t find any reference to Picasso saying this or being unable to drink, but he apparently entertained friends for dinner, painted until 3:00 AM, and died the next morning. So I think this is McCartney’s poetic license. It’s a languid song with acoustic guitar, then an interlude with clarinet and someone speaking French. The band then slips into a quiet chorus of “Jet”, then sounds of a party in French again, ending on a fadeout with the chorus of Mrs Vanderbilt. It’s an odd but very engaging, catchy song. There’s some brief and restrained use of strings also. It runs through my mind a lot after I hear it.
A grand old painter died last night
His paintings on the wall
Before he went, he bade us well
And said goodnight to us all
"Drink to me, drink to my health
You know I can't drink any more"
"Drink to me, drink to my health
You know I can't drink any more"
3 o'clock in the morning. I'm getting ready for bed
It came without a warning
But I'll be waiting for you baby
I'll be waiting for you there
So drink to me, drink to my health
You know I can't drink any more
Drink to me, drink to my health
You know I can't drink any more
The album ends with “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five”, the most intense rock and roll music on the album. It’s backed with a pounding piano and a heavy drumbeat, a clarinet at the end and an extended climax at the end that builds to a loud rock and roll crescendo.
Oh, my mama said the time would come
When I would find myself in love with you
I didn't think, I never dreamed
That I would be around to see it all come true
Oh, I. . .
Oh, I. . .
Well I just can't get enough
Of that sweet stuff
My little lady gets behind
Oh, no one ever left alive
In nineteen hundred and eighty-five
Will ever do
She may be right, she may be fine
She may get love but she won't get mine
'Cause I got you
Wings followed Band on the Run with the excellent Venus and Mars, which starts with the brief and mellow “Venus and Mars”, followed by the intense “Rock Show” about the experience of a band playing at large arenas.
There's a rock show at the Concertgebouw
They've got long hair at the Madison Square
You've got rock and roll at the Hollywood Bowl
We'll be there, oh yeah
The lights go down, they're back in town, O.K.
Behind the stacks, you glimpse an axe [guitar]
The tension mounts, you score an ounce, olé!
The temperatures rise as you see the whites of their eyes. . .
In my green metal suit, I'm preparing to shoot up the city
And the ring at the end of my nose makes me look rather pretty
It's a pity there's nobody here to witness the end
Save for my dear old friend and confidante, mademoiselle Kitty
It’s a concept album envisioning some future time and describing a guitar used by Jimmy Page as a “relic” and picking up on the outlaw theme – “preparing to shoot up the city”, with an apocalyptic note – “nobody here to witness the end”. It’s followed by a moody “Love in Song” and a Rudy Valee sounding “You Gave Me the Answer” reminiscent of “Honey Pie” from the Beatles’ "White Album", accompanied by cheery horns and clarinet.
Next comes one of the best songs on the album, “Magneto and Titanium Man”. “You were the law” makes no sense after the rest, but the outlaw theme runs from “She Came in through the Bathroom Window” through “Band on the Run” to this song. McCartney’s lyrics aren’t often deep but there’s a playfulness in them that’s always enjoyable. He sounds like he’s having fun writing and playing music, and it’s fun to listen to.
Well I was talking last night
Magneto and Titanium Man
We were talking about you, babe
They said
You was involved in a robbery
That was due to happen at a quarter to three
In the main street
I didn't believe them (I didn't believe them)
Magneto and Titanium Man
But when the Crimson Dynamo
Finally assured me, well, I knew
So we went out
Magneto and Titanium Man
And the Crimson Dynamo
Came along for the ride
We went to town with the library
And we swung all over that long tall bank
In the main street
Well there she were and to my despair
She's a five-star criminal breaking the code
Magneto said, "Now the time has come
To gather our forces and run!"
Oh, no, this can't be so
And then it occurred to me, you couldn't be bad
Magneto was mad, Titanium too!
And the Crimson Dynamo just couldn't cut it no more
You were the law
“Letting Go” is a slow rocker with heavy drum and base lines backed with horns and some nice electric guitar lines. It feels like a tribute to Linda with a minor key sound.
Ah, she tastes like wine
Such a human being so divine
Oh, she feels like sun
Mother Nature, look at what you've done
Oh (Oh), I feel like letting go
Oh (Oh), I feel like letting go
Oh, she looks like snow
I wanna put her in a Broadway show
Ah, she'll dance and dine
Like a Lucifer she'll always shine
“Spirits of Ancient Egypt” is a rocker with a haunting sound to it. I don’t know what spirits of ancient Egypt and shadows of ancient Rome have to do with it, but those lines with the spooky background singing lend the song its aura, accompanied by electric guitar and heavy drums.
You're my baby and I love you
You can take a pound of love and cook it in the stew
And when you've finished doing that, I know what you'll wanna do
'Cause you're my baby and I love you
I'm your baby, do you love me?
I can drive a Cadillac across the Irish Sea
But when I've finished doing that, I know where I'll wanna be
'Cause I'm your baby, and you love me
Spirits of ancient Egypt
Shadows of ancient Rome
Spirits of ancient Egypt
Hung on the telly, hung on the telly
Hung on the telephone
McCartney gets serious with the moody “Medicine Jar”, sounding a warning about prescription drug abuse he saw in those around him. This was before Lennon was shot and Harrison’s death from lung cancer, but there had been a lot of deaths of musicians he knew before that.
What's wrong with you? I wish I knew
You say time will tell, I hope that's true
There's more to life than blues and reds
I say I know how you feel now, your friends are dead
Dead on your feet, you won't get far
If you keep on sticking your hand in the medicine jar
Now don't give up, whatever you do
You say time will tell, I hope that's true
If you go down and lose your head
I say I know how you feel now, your friends are dead
A nice touch on the album is the tender “Treat Her Gently” combined with the sensitive and poignant “Lonely Old People”, reminiscent of John Prine’s “Hello in There”, Steve Goodman's "The Dutchman" and Simon and Garfunkel’s “Old Friends”.
Here we sit, two lonely old people
Eking our lives away
Bit by bit, two lonely old people
Keeping the time of day
Here we sit, out of breath
And nobody asked us to play
Old people's home for the day
Nobody asked us to play
The songs on Venus and Mars and Band on the Run are all good songs, enjoyable tunes that linger and replay in my mind with pleasure after I’ve heard them. McCartney doesn’t write many songs with a lot of depth, but his lyrics are full of enjoyable play with words, lots of musical surprises, interesting and fun to listen to. And I think now I have some understanding of what critics mean when they talk about arrangements. His songs are complex with lots of little instrumental fills, harmony and background voices and use of surprising instruments, including strings that don’t sound like an orchestra, placed in spots that enhance the richness of the music. I bought a few of his subsequent albums but wasn’t much captivated by any of them. Lennon’s “Imagine” and Harrison’s All Things Must Pass notwithstanding, these first post-Beatles McCartney/Wings albums are the best music any of the four ex-Beatles have made. He just came out with a new album in his 80s titled Boys of Dungeon Lane, which has been getting critical praise. But I never get tired of listening to Ram and these two early Wings albums.
Ry Cooder is an unclassifiable musician. He’s explored every genre of North American music there is except for maybe bluegrass and ragtime, and done it with taste and beauty. He started with three albums that seemed intended to capture the sound of old-time recordings consisting of mostly blues and folk music but ranging into a Civil War camp song and the World War II song “Comin in on a Wing and a Prayer.” He’s even delved into Mexican, Hawaiian and Caribbean forms of music and played with some of the top musicians in those genres. Someone in Rolling Stone in the 70s or 80s called him a “musical archivist”.
Ry Cooder, his self-titled first album, starts off with the catchy “Alimony”, a lament before a judge by a man complaining about what a burden his alimony payments to an ex-wife are on his financial situation, with a loosely-strung guitar and “Gloria Jones & Co” singing backup.
Please, have mercy, judge your honor
I'm as poor as I can be
Ain't had money in my pockets
Since way back in fifty three
Can't you cut down all my payment?
Alimony is killing me
Alimony, alimony, alimony is killing me
Alimony, alimony, alimony is killing me
Cooder rarely writes songs himself, except for an occasional instrumental, doing mainly covers of others’ songs, many of which are obscure tunes that he turns into gems. He sings Woody Guthrie’s “Do Re Mi” in a droll voice that’s a frequent style for Cooder, sounding very different than Guthrie.
Hey, if you ain't got the Do Re Mi, boy
If you ain't got the Do Re Mi
Well, you better go back to beautiful Texas
Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee
California is the garden of Eden
It's a paradise to live in or see
But believe it or not
You won't find it so hot
If you ain't got the Do Re Mi
“How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live” is a gem of a Depression-era song by West Virginian folksinger Blind Alfred Reed, expressing an eloquent lament that must have voiced the feelings of many during that difficult time. They’re eloquent words that touched my heart the first time I heard it, a poignant expression of what it felt like to be poor in the Depression.
Well there once was a time when everything was cheap
Now prices nearly puts a man to sleep
Well, when we get our grocery bill
We just feel like making our will
Tell me, how can a poor man stand such times and live
Tell me, how can a poor man stand such times and live
It’s followed by a superb slide guitar instrumental penned by Cooder called “Available Space”, a Huddie Leadbetter (Lead Belly) tune called “Pigmeat”, and a cover of a blues tune called "Police Dog Blues” by Arthur Blake with great acoustic guitar picking.
His second album, Into the Purple Valley, starts with a Depression-era Okie anthem by Agnes Cunningham, “How Can Tou Keep on Movin (Unless You Migrate Too)”, telling of the double bind migrants from the Dust Bowl found themselves in the 30s when they were told to keep moving but blocked from entering the states they were moving to, usually California. It’s played at a lively pace with Cooder’s deft slide electric guitar work.
How can you keep on moving unless you migrate too
They tell ya to keep on moving but migrate, you must not do
The only reason for moving and the reason why I roam
To move to a new location and find myself a home
I can't go back to the homestead, the shack no longer stands
They said I was unneeded, had no claim to the land
They said, "Come on, get moving, it's the only thing for you"
But how can you keep moving unless you migrate too
Now if you pitch your little tent along the broad highway
The Board of Sanitation says, "Sorry, you can't stay"
Come on, come on, get moving it's their everlasting cry
Can't stay, can't go back, can't migrate, so where the hell am I
“FDR in Trinidad” is a Calypso version of another song from a “forgotten period of American history” (liner notes) that expresses local appreciation for the president visiting Trinidad and “keeping Trinidad in America”, with Cooder playing mandolin. It’s followed by a cover of 1959’s R&B tune “Teardrops Will Fall” with a nice rhythm section along with Cooder’s understated electric guitar.
I read your letter and tears filled my eyes
All of your promises fading, was nothing but lies
So I turned your photograph over, face to the wall
And when I dim the lights in my room tonight
Teardrops will fall
Teardrops will fall tonight
Tears I can't hide
Tears that I tried to keep
Deep down inside
Tears fall, a love that's gone
Beyond recall
And when I dim the lights in my room to night
Teardrops will fall
Lead Belly’s “On a Monday” follows, chronicling one of his many incarcerations. The album ends with a terrific and dark cover of Woody Guthrie’s “Vigilante Man”, with Cooder playing a wonderful low-register slide guitar that along with his vocals create a foreboding, haunted sound. While Guthrie wrote “I been hearin’ his name all over the land”, the line has an ominous tone because no name is given except “vigilante man”, implying that the only name the singer hears him called is “vigilante man”. The song echoes the situation with ICE today, except ICE agents wear masks like bandits, and there’s a horde of them, not just one.
Rainy nights down in the engine house
Sleepin' just as still as a mouse
A man came along and he chased us out in the rain
Was that a vigilante man?
Well, I rambled around from town to town
Now, I rambled around from town to town
And they herded us around like a wild herd of cattle
Was that the vigilante man?
Well, why does a vigilante man
Tell me why does a vigilante man
Carry that sawed-off shotgun in his hand?
Would he shoot his brother and sister down?
Have you seen that vigilante man?
Have you seen that vigilante man?
Have you seen that vigilante man?
I've been hearin' his name all over the land
Boomer’s Story was Cooder’s third album. Like his first two, it’s done in vocals and instrumental accompaniment that sound like old recordings made by John and Alan Lomax to document the old-time American music before it was lost to history, with the exception of occasional electric instruments and better sound reproduction. The title song is a droll expression of a man who tried to settle down but couldn’t stay put, with a great electric slide guitar.
Come and gather all around me
Listen to my tale of woe
Got some good advice to give you
Lots of things you oughta know
Take a tip from one who's travelled
And never stopped a-ramblin' 'round
'Cause once you get the roamin' fever
You never want to settle down, boy
You never want to settle down
I met a little gal in Frisco
I asked her to be my wife
Told her I was tired of roamin'
Gonna settle down for life
Then I heard the whistle blowin'
And I knew it was the Red Ball Train
And I left that gal beside the railroad
And I never saw the gal again, boy
I never saw the gal again
Saw the gal again
I never saw the gal again
Left that gal beside the railroad
And I never saw the gal again
It’s followed by a beautiful instrumental cover of a song by bluesman Skip James titled “Cherry Ball Blues”. He also does a gorgeous and delicate instrumental rendition of what sounds like a Mexican tune called “Maria Elena” by someone named Lorenzo Barcelata, with Randy Newman on piano. “Rally Round the Flag, Boys” is a Civil War camp song sung like a tired soldier sitting around a campfire, ("Yes, we'll rally 'round the flag, boys/We'll rally 'round again/Shouting the battle cry of freedom. . .And although he may be poor/Not a man shall be a slave/Shouting the battle cry of freedom"), and “Comin in on a Wing and a Prayer” sounds like a patriotic WW II song about a bomber coming back from a successful run with only one engine.
Cooder sings a blues song by Sleepy John Estes titled “Ax Sweet Mama,” and Estes himself sings “President Kennedy”, a lament about Kennedy’s death. Cooder follows that with “Good Morning, Mr Railroad Man”, a traditional song about a man slyly planning to hop a freight.
Good morning, Mr. Railroad Man
What time do your trains roll by?
At 9:16 and 2:44 and 25 minutes till 5
Well it’s 9:16 and 2:44 and 25 minutes till 5
Thank you, Mr. Railroad Man
I want to watch your trains go by. . .
Standing on a platform, smoking a cheap cigar
And waiting for an old freight train that carries an empty car
Well, I pulled my hat down over my eyes
And I walked across the tracks
I caught me the end of an old freight train
And I never did come back
With Paradise and Lunch Cooder stuck with the blues and folk phrasing and singing style of his first three albums but polished the accompaniment and production to issue a beautiful but still down home album with great song selections. It starts off with one of my favorites on the album, “Tamp Em Up Solid”. I don’t know what that means, though it seems I read somewhere that it had to do with spiking down new railroad track, but in any case the song is paying homage to a good-paying railroad job. It’s accompanied by lovely, restrained acoustic guitar and some soulful background singing, with voices like a distant train whistle at the end. His singing is always in his own voice but, like John Fogerty, sounds like he’s channeled the old-timey blues and folk voices that are his reference points.
Baby, when you marry a railroad man
Every day'll be pay day, dollar bill in your hand
Baby, in your hand, baby, in your hand
Baby, in your hand, baby, in your hand
Mary and the baby laying in the bed
Thinking about the money that I ain't made
So tamp 'em up solid so they won't come down
Tamp 'em up solid, buddy, so they won't come down
Captain called the water boy and the water boy laughed
Captain kicked the water boy and it’s "Yes, yes, yes"
So tamp 'em up solid, so they won't come down
Tamp 'em up solid, buddy, so they won't come down
And you can do it, and you can do it, and you can do it
So they won't come down
It’s followed by “Tattler”, my favorite Ry Cooder song of all, a song by bluesman Washington Phillips. It’s accompanied by a tasty bass line and perhaps his most beautiful and sensitive electric guitar playing, “like ringing a bell”, culminating in a nice, gentle guitar fadeout.
Whenever you find a man that loves every woman he sees
There's always some kind of woman that's a-puttin' him up a tree
Now that kind of man, he ain't got as much sense as a mule
You know everyone don't love you, they're just a-playin' you for a fool
Mmmm, oh, no
It's not hard for you to understand
True love can be such a sweet harmony
If you do the best that you can
If you marry the wrong kind of woman and you get where you can't agree
Well, you just as well forget your hand and let that woman be
But a man oughta make a good husband and quit tryin' to lead a fast life
Goin' about dressin' up other women, won't put clothes on his own wife
Well, there's lots of good women who wants to marry, and they wants to live well at home
But they're 'fraid they'll might get hold of a rowdy man, can't let other women alone
And there's lots of good men wants to marry, and they wants to live well at home
But every time they turn their back, there's a man there askin', "Darlin', is he gone?"
Mmmm, oh, no
It's not hard for you to understand
True love can be such a sweet harmony
If you do the best that you can
Next comes the jaundiced cynicism of “Married Man’s a Fool” by bluesman Blind Willie McTell warning men to not expect most wives to be any more faithful than men as a gender usually get, or don’t get, credit for. It’s accompanied by a droll slide guitar and male harmony singers on the chorus. The women in his songs come off less favorably than the men.
Had a friend, Louie Brown, he was a deacon
Just as wise as he could be
Now you realize he could read the Good Book
Back from Revelation down to Genessee
You know last Sunday morning we was over to the church
My buddy wants to take him a stand
And he looks out upon that whole congregation
The Good Book in his hand
Now he cast his eye about, and then he looks over inyo Amen Corner
All the sisters commenced to shout (WHAT’D HE SAY?!!)
He said a married man's a fool
to think that his wife love nobody else but him
She stick by you all your life, the chances is mighty slim
Now you read the Good Book, chapter twenty-one
Every married woman got to have a little fun. . .
Now you read on over twenty-fifth page
Married woman's role is hard to engage
Read kinda careful, chapter twenty-six
Back door slamming, you got to run and get it fixed
Read on out, chapter twenty-eight
Who's that back slidin' out through your back gate?
I believe I'll close on chapter twenty-nine
Woman get tired of the same man all the time (sung in a deep, resonant voice by Bobby King)
'Cause a man's a fool to think that his wife love nobody else but him
I mean love nobody else but him
He delves into R&B with the infectious Latin beat of “It’s All Over Now”, then revives an old Burt Bacharach/Bob Hilliard tune, the beautiful, touching “Mexican Divorce”.
Down below El Paso lies Juarez
Mexico is different, like the travel folder says
Cross the Rio Grande and you will find
An old adobe house
Where you leave your past behind
One day married, next day free
Broken hearts for you and me
Takes no time for you to get
A Mexican divorce
I came into this lonely house last night
I looked out all my windows but I couldn't find one light
I found you on that road to Mexico
And now, my love, I beg
Please, oh, please, don't go. . .
Finding love takes so long
Walking out, well must be wrong
It's a sin for you to get a Mexican divorce
One day married, next day free
Broken hearts for you and me
It's a sin for you to get a Mexican divorce
It’s a Mexican-flavored song with an up-tempo, almost Calypso rhythm, accompanied by what sounds like vibes or marimba, horns, nice harmony singing and Cooder’s tasty guitar. The album ends with “Ditty Wah Ditty”, a tongue-in-cheek song by Arthur Blake about a thick-headed man trying to find out what “ditty wah ditty means”. Blake is spoofing us, and it’s not clear whether Mr Ditty Wah Ditty is also feigning the puzzlement he voices, since he calls his hat “ditty wah ditty”.
There's a great big mystery
And it sure is worrying me
It's a ditty wah ditty
Mister ditty wah ditty
I wished somebody would tell me what ditty wah ditty means. . .
Now, I went to church, put my hat on the seat
A lady sat on it and said, "Daddy you sho' is sweet"
Mister ditty wah ditty
Mister ditty wah ditty
I wished somebody would tell me what ditty wah ditty means
I said, "Sister, I'll soon be gone
Just give me that thing that you're sitting on"
My ditty wah ditty
Mister ditty wah ditty
I wished somebody would tell me what ditty wah ditty means
Then I got put outta church
'Cause I talked about ditty wah ditty too much
Mister ditty wah ditty
Mister ditty wah ditty
I wished somebody would tell me what ditty wah ditty means
His acoustic guitar-playing on the song is accompanied wonderfully on piano by famed jazz musician Earl Fatha Hines – according to Ken Burns’ Jazz "one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz". It’s a delight to hear them weave around each other and take little solo runs, both with a light-fingered touch. It’s irresistible enjoyment to listen to the song.
Paradise and Lunch was followed by Chicken Skin Music, implying perhaps that it was music to give you what we call goose bumps. It begins with the Lead Belly tune “Bourgeois Blues” with Cooder’s old-timey acoustic “bottleneck” guitar playing, accordion and bajo sexto, a Tex-Mex /Mexican guitar with twelve paired strings.
Me and my wife went all over town
And everywhere we went people turned us down
Lord, in the bourgeois town
It's a bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around
Home of the brave, land of the free
I don't wanna be mistreated by no bourgeoisie
Lord, in a bourgeois town
Uhm, the bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around
Well, me and my wife we were standing upstairs
When I heard the white man say
"I don't want no niggers up there"
Lord, in a bourgeois town
Uhm, bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around. . .
I tell all the colored folks to listen to me
Don't try to find you no home in Washington, DC
'Cause it's a bourgeois town
Uhm, the bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around
Next comes the comic “I Got Mine”, a traditional song in which the meaning of “I got mine” does an about-face. Cooder’s electric guitar and mandolin are accompanied by experienced session players Jim Keltner on drums and Chris Etheridge on a prominent bass line, plus a horn section that makes the song sound like it’s being played by a Salvation Army band.
Now I went down to the big crap game
Certainly was against my will
I lost every doggone nickel I had
But a greenback dollar bill
Forty dollar bet laid on the floor
My buddy's point was nine
Well, the police they come
And they caught all of 'em
But I got mine
I got mine, let me tell ya
I got mine
I grabbed that money
Out the back door I went flying
Well, ever since the big crap game
I've been livin' on chicken and wine
I'm the leader of society
Since I got mine. . .
I went down to my best girl's house
The hour was just about nine
I wasn't dressed up like Henry Ford
But I was feeling just as fine
I caught her sitting on another man's knee
And I didn't like that sign
Well, I told em what I thought about it, boys
And I got mine
I got mine, I got mine
I grabbed my hat and through the window
I went flying
I ran as fast as I could run
But I didn't get there in time
Because the rascal grabbed a shotgun, Lord
And I got mine. . .
I just didn’t run fast enough. . .
He follows that with a beautiful and tender Hawaiian steel and “slack-key” guitar version of another song by folksinger Blind Alfred Reed, “Always Lift Him Up”, with beautiful harmony vocals by Bobby King, Terry Evans and Herman Johnson. It’s combined with a gorgeous instrumental, “Kanaka Wai Wai” with famed Hawaiian musicians Gabby Pahinui on Hawaiian steel guitar and Atta Isaacs playing something called slack-key guitar. Cooder plays an electric guitar that’s as beautiful as that on “Tattler”. He sometimes plays an electric guitar that rivals a harp in beauty of tone.
When a fellow has the blues and feels discouraged
And there's nothing else but trouble all his life. . .
If he cannot pay his debts and feels disgusted
If he's blue and doesn't have a word to say
Let him know you are his friend who can be trusted
It would cheer this lonely fellow on his way
If he finds it hard for him to keep his family
Let a kind word greet his ear when he's around
Don't say anything at all to make against him
Always lift him up and never knock him down
If he has no friends and everyone's against him
If he's failed at everything that he has tried
Try to lift his load, to help to bear his burden
Let him know that you are walking by his side
And if he feels that all is lost, and he is falling
Try to place that poor man's feet on solid ground
Just remember he's a mother's precious darling
Always lift him up and never knock him down
Always lift him up and never knock him down
Perhaps the highlight of the album is Cooder’s cover of the Ben E King/Lieber/Stoller rock and roll hit “Stand By Me”, done with a Mexican flavor with Tex-Mex star Flaco Jimenez on accordion. He’s also accompanied by Jim Keltner, Chris Etheridge of Flying Burrito Brothers fame and Milt Holland on percussion, as he is on many of the songs on the album. It’s a simple song, but sung with great feeling by Cooder.
When the night is come and the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we'll see
I won't be afraid, I won't be afraid
Just as long as you stand by me
Stand by me, stand by me, stand by me
Won't you stand by me
Woh oh woh oh, stand by me, stand by me. . .
He then shifts to country and western with a slow Hank Snow ballad, “Yellow Roses” which he also sings with tender emotion.
I just received, sweetheart, your yellow roses
You tell me that they mean we're all through
You tell me that tonight your heart is broken
But you should know I was never untrue
I'll place them near your photograph and as the petals fall
They'll hide from you my lonely tears that shouldn't fall at all
Then they will slowly fade away and die
But I’ll still love you though yellow roses say goodbye
It’s followed by a lovely Gus Kahn Great American Songbook instrumental, “Chloe”. Both of these songs are played Hawaiian style with Gabby Pahinui on steel guitar and Atta Isaacs on slack-key guitar, an old style of guitar playing traditional in Hawaii. The album then ends with Lead Belly’s “Goodnight Irene”, with lyrics not heard in the cleaned up 50s version by The Weavers. It’s a wonderful version played with Cooder on a different electric guitar than on “Tattler” and “Always Lift Him Up”, and a Tex-Mex band including Flaco Jimenez on accordion that stays with you long after you’ve listened to it.
I asked your mother for you
She told me that you was too young
I wish dear Lord I never have seen your face
And I'm sorry that you ever been born
Irene goodnight, Irene goodnight
Goodnight Irene, goodnight Irene
I'll get you in my dreams
Sometimes I lives in the country
And sometimes I lives in town
Sometimes I have a great notion
To jump into the river and drown. . .
I loves Irene, God knows I do
Loves her till the sea runs dry
If Irene turns her back on me
I'm gonna take morphine and die
Stop ramblin' and stop gamblin'
Quit staying out late at night
Come home to your wife and your family
Sit down by the fireside bright
Irene goodnight, Irene goodnight
Goodnight Irene, goodnight Irene
I'll get you in my dreams
Cooder runs the gamut of 20th century American music – the blues of Lead Belly, Blind Willie McTell and Sleepy John Estes; folk songs of Woody Guthrie, Agnes Cunningham and Blind Alfred Reed; calypso; Hawaiian slack-key and steel guitar music; Tex-Mex (Norteno) music; rhythm and blues; rock and roll; Great American Songbook tunes; country and western; jazz with Earl Fatha Hines and an album titled Jazz with Bix Beiderbecke tunes; plus a couple soldier tunes from the Civil War and WW II. He’s played with Vishwa Mohan Bhatt from India and other World Music musicians from Africa and the Middle East, Gordon Lightfoot, Taj Mahlal, Linda Ronstadt, Van Morrison, The Chieftains, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, the Rolling Stones and John Lee Hooker. He also made a CD and a euphoric worldwide hit movie, titled Buena Vista Social Club, with Cuban musicians in Cuba ending up at Carnegie Hall, directed by Wim Wenders and available on DVD. Rolling Stone rated him 8th on their 2003 list of greatest guitarists of all time.
What he does, like John Fogerty with the blues and country and western, is recreate these various genres with what sounds like the vocal styles and speech inflections of the originals, with fantastic guitar work and other instrumental accompaniment enhanced by other superb musicians, while still retaining his own voice. He doesn’t just do that in a technical sense but with a love for the music and an ability to bring out the emotional quality of the songs. Because of that he’s a musician and singer I never get tired of hearing.
