Playing In The Band. Truckin' > Nobody's Fault But Mine > Eyes of the World > China Doll 17 May 1974- PNE, Vancouver
I am starting to get all the 6/22/73 cheer leading. A few days back I listened to it straight through. I revisited the first set last night. It simply gets better on the second listen. and I know that cause I could no longer concentrate on the US Open Federer match which I had been watching (muted of course) while I was listening. 2nd set on tap for tonight
Others’ mileage may vary but the three versions of Money Money you get in this box are, ironically perhaps, more clunkers than gold. But hey, it’s The Complete Money Money Box.
They half ass some songs from this era, I often feel like Loose Lucy suffers the same treatment...at least vocally...
I agree. I wonder why Weir didn’t recycle the music with new lyrics... I think it’s a decent rock song, just pretty awful words.
He was trying to avoid setting a precedent. Imagine how much time and effort Bob would have to expend if he had to rework all of his misogynistic lyrics?
"The Music Never Stopped" was originally a dull (although not misogynistic) Weir/Hunter song called "Hollywood Cantata" that is on the Blues For Allah remaster.
I always thought the words were humorous, I mean if it was a short story with some unselfaware a**hole narrator no one would blink...I don't think it should be different with a song, however keeping in mind that the fella that wrote the lyrics may actually be an unselfaware a**hole (although I don't think that's the case)
I’ll try to listen with fresh ears with that in mind next time, but the supposedly tongue in cheek but ultimately still troglodyte lyrics are hard to get past. Still kinda interesting to hear how it sounded in its thankfully few live outings, though.
Loose Lucy’s lyrics are at least a bit wittier, and at least the chorus reciprocated the feelings between the band and audience, so it worked for me as overall a fun song, although a lesser one in the Garcia/Hunter catalog. The ‘90s revival was welcome.
There was a time in 1990 when it was one of my favorites (despite, or maybe partly because of, it never standing out for me before then). I'm not sure they ever executed it quite to the level it could have reached--there's an ideal version in my mind where the intro chords are crushingly heavy, and Garcia remembers all the words. Partly this is a result of the first time I saw it (at Nassau, 1990-03-28)--I had no idea what it was before he sang, and I had never heard a slow version before (I think it was slow before it was fast?). The intro was that generic blues riff and the band was really loud and heavy in the venue that night. In fact I should listen to that, maybe it is good....I think when I listened to that set it let me down compared to how it sounded at the venue, I remember Cold Rain and Snow was massive too but maybe those numbers were so massive that the tape had to let me down...
Yes, songs like Money, Money and Loose Lucy are misogynistic and derogatory. Yet we should make note of the fact that some of the male characters in the GD universe are not such high-minded, moral characters either. Casey Jones is a train-wrecking coke freak. The dude in Wharf Rat is a down and out bum who made some seriously poor choices in life. The fellow singing Easy Wind is a jail bird "chipping up rocks for the Great Highway." Jack Jones from Brown Eyed Women was a bootlegger and previously an alcoholic. Jack Straw is a murderer. In one cover tune the protagonist fights the law and loses, badly. There's an entire song whose main character is a complete Loser. The sorry-ass SOB in Looks Like Rain has been lamenting the loss of his girlfriend since 1972. One acid-casualty is remembered as a Lost Sailor, though in fairness he finds redemption later in the set. Sweet William-O threatens to pillage and burn multiple cities in Peggy-O. Shall I go on? PS- Oh, and lest we forget, the sweet lass in Jack A Roe would happily see 10,000 people fall in battle.
March 14, 1990 – Capital Centre, Landover, Maryland just immediately sprang to mind I was listening to the Spring 1990 box in my car yesterday, while I waited for my kid to emerge from her school.
Oh fer christ-sakes, they're all songs depicting less than virtuous fictional characters. This nonsense about changing lyrics or excluding songs to accommodate delicate and fragile PC climate is ridiculous, imo of course. And I include the band's decision to back in the day remove Money Money from their setlist in my criticism.
No way man, August West did time for a crime he did not commit. It's ridiculously hard for people who have served their time to get honest, gainful employment. And hell, the Kennedys were bootleggers. I feel like you're taking an overly pro-law enforcement position with some of these characters. Now, Dupree, on the other hand ... And maybe I need to read the lyrics of Lost Sailor, but I never knew it to be an acid casualty tale. OK, your comment about the LLR guy is probably a joke.
I don’t think Loose Lucy is really a misogynist lyric. She has an insatiable sex drive, but the narrator doesn’t judge her for it, doesn’t call her a nympho or a slut. He loves her for it. One night he gets jumped in an alley, and she hits him when he gets home because she thinks he must have been cheating her, but he takes it with good humor, says he still loves her but maybe they’re not a great match. That’s it. Money Money might pass as a weak rewrite of Dupree’s Diamond Blues, but I think the last verse crosses a line. It’s just a misogynistic statement, and ultimately not a good song, anyway. I’m glad they dropped it.