Althouse: "He took objection to the word 'Styrofoam.' He said, 'This is so uncharacteristic of your work, to put something as time-dated as the word "Styrofoam" into it.'"

August 6, 2020

"He took objection to the word 'Styrofoam.' He said, 'This is so uncharacteristic of your work, to put something as time-dated as the word "Styrofoam" into it.'"

So said Robert Hunter, talking about Jerry Garcia's only problem with "Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo," quoted in "Jerry Garcia’s 50 Greatest Songs" (Rolling Stone).

"Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo" is one of those titles that calls to mind no actual song, but once I start playing it, I know what it is:

#33 by the way. My favorite Jerry Garcia song is ranked at #46, so I'm not really into the numbers. For the record "Uncle John's Band" is #1. The other "uncle" song — "Me and My Uncle" — is not even on the list. [ADDED: It shouldn't be. It was written by John Phillips.]

I like that Jerry cared about the timelessness of the words.

47 comments:

Fernandinande said...: I failed to find the string "bugs", so apparently they omitted his (and Grisman's) best song, "There Ain't No Bugs On Me".; 8/6/20, 1:36 PM
Quayle said...: As you probably know, Me and My Uncle was not written by the Dead; it was written by John Phillips.; 8/6/20, 1:37 PM
Iman said...: Eyes of The World 👀 of the 🌎 ... Scarlet Begonia and Ripple are my top three; 8/6/20, 1:37 PM
Roger Sweeny said...: Before I looked at the article, I thought that Ripple and Brokedown Palace should be number one and two. Uncle John's Band isn't even in the single digits.; 8/6/20, 1:38 PM
Yancey Ward said...: LOL! I also didn't recognize which song it was until I clicked the video open. I also had the same reaction when I saw the title to "Rainy Day Woman" by Bob Dylan at about age 18 or so.; 8/6/20, 1:40 PM
Joe Smith said...: I actually did see these guys at an indoor arena in the mid '80s. A friend's brother followed them everywhere and he was visiting in his VW van, selling beads and marijuana brownies in the parking lot to finance his itinerant lifestyle (when he grew out of that phase he settled down and became a 'farmer') : )

They were an odd band, in that they allowed and even encouraged fans to record everything. There were expensive, professional microphone setups everywhere. If you're a fan you can listen to just about any song they ever played online.

But nobody at that show should have been allowed to drive home. Forget the LSD, the cloud of weed smoke was as thick as London fog. OK, not as potent back in the day, but if you were to be drug tested a week later you'd be unemployed : ); 8/6/20, 1:41 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Other songs for which I had this reaction over the years:

"Have a Cigar" by Pink Floyd
"Baba O'Reilly" by The Who

I am sure there are others, but I would have to think about it a bit more.; 8/6/20, 1:45 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Me and My Uncle" is a great song. It tells a story that you pay attention to and it has a wonderful last line... a quality it shares with "El Paso," another song covered by the dead.; 8/6/20, 1:46 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "They were an odd band, in that they allowed and even encouraged fans to record everything. There were expensive, professional microphone setups everywhere. If you're a fan you can listen to just about any song they ever played online."

If you have XM/Sirius, put on the Grateful Dead channel — they play entire full length concerts. Fantastic for road trips.; 8/6/20, 1:48 PM
Joe Smith said...: @Althouse...

That is probably a mix of their own recordings and those of fans. I think you can go online and hear just about everything.

Such a different philosophy from acts of today. Maybe that's one of the reasons they were so beloved. That and the drugs : ); 8/6/20, 1:53 PM
Temujin said...: No band like them...ever. And I mean for all the greatness and bizarreness. The workinest band in history. Iman- I was having a time coming up with favorites, but I looked at my itunes and just glanced at what gets played most: Ripple, Scarlet Begonias, Eyes of the World. And...Loose Lucy- a most underrated tune off of Mars Hotel.

Wall of Sound; 8/6/20, 2:03 PM
stevew said...: I have a ton of Gerry Garcia music including the Grateful Dead stuff and collaborations he did with others. Lots of bluegrass that I enjoy much more than the Dead stuff, though I like a lot of that very much.

Did you see early on in that video Garcia looks back over his right shoulder and shakes his head, makes a face of disapproval. I've always understood him to be a stickler for detail and high quality in the music.

He died on the occasion of my 15th wedding anniversary. Of course, that was just a coincidence.; 8/6/20, 2:03 PM
Menahem Globus said...: It flows a lot better than 'Expanded Polystyrene'.; 8/6/20, 2:04 PM
Nichevo said...: "Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo" is one of those titles that calls to mind no actual song, but once I start playing it, I know what it is

Nope-nothing. I've never heard it, and if i ever heard it again I'd have forgotten it. Of course, it's instantly recognizable as GD music; was that your point? But all their stuff is.; 8/6/20, 2:05 PM
Deevs said...: Wouldn't the use of electric guitars time date the music, as well?; 8/6/20, 2:21 PM
Iman said...: Temujin... I was never a big fan back in the day, just had an appreciation for the Dead and much respect for Garcia’s talent.

However, I finally got around to watching “Long Strange Trip” on Amazon a couple of weeks ago and I started feeling that I’d given them shortshrift, as I was mesmerized by their jams on clips of the live shows the documentary was airing. It had me pulling up old live shows on YouTube. Much enjoyment... always been a BIG Little Feat fan (Lowell George era) and now have much respect for what this drug-addled family of musicIan’s put out.; 8/6/20, 2:48 PM
Nonapod said...: They were an odd band, in that they allowed and even encouraged fans to record everything. There were expensive, professional microphone setups everywhere. If you're a fan you can listen to just about any song they ever played online."

This brings to mind another odd band.

"Styrofoam" is the name of one of my favorite songs by Fugazi, a band that on the surface may seem like the polar opposite of The Greatful Dead, being high energy angular post-punk. But like the Dead, they were very friendly towards bootlegging. They always kept their ticket prices to their shows very low ($5 in the 1990s). They refused to produce and sell merch. And they lived the whole punk DIY ethic, never signing to a major (despite getting many offers). And they video recorded basically all their concerts going back to their inception in 1989 and they're all available online for free.; 8/6/20, 3:06 PM
eddie willers said...: Wouldn't the use of electric guitars time date the music, as well?

"Guitar groups are on their way out, Mr Epstein."

Dick Rowe, Decca Records; 8/6/20, 3:10 PM
George Leroy Tirebiter said...: Plus “Me And My Uncle” was sung by Bob Weir, as he’s the one who brought it to the Dead after learning it from a Curley Cooke from the obscure SF band A.B. Skhy.; 8/6/20, 3:13 PM
Clyde said...: I loved that video for "Touch of Grey" when it came out back in '87. I've heard a couple of good covers of "Loser," by Cracker and also by a singer named Susan Kane whose music I like.; 8/6/20, 3:24 PM
PubliusFlavius said...: Friend of the Devil para mi

The best Acid came to DC
when the Dead where in town ;); 8/6/20, 3:40 PM
PubliusFlavius said...: http://ajitvadakayil.blogspot.com/2020/06/rajneesh-osho-false-bhagwan-charlatan.html

I tell a tale to the Captain somewhere in here about one experience with blue thunderbolt blotter while working at a NoVa Wendy's.

https://www.jambase.com/article/grateful-dead-issues-r-f-k-stadium-washington-d-c-1989-set; 8/6/20, 3:46 PM
Ice Nine said...: "Me and My Uncle" is a great song. The Dead's version is OK but too rocked up. Judy Collins' rendition, which is truer to the western vibe of the song, is much nicer.

John Phillips, Neil Young, Judy and her boyfriend, Stephen Stills, were lit up on Tequila in their hotel room in Arizona after a concert. Phillips was fooling around in a half stupor, writing impromptu a song about the Old Southwest. They recorded it on a cassette shortly before Phillips, a terrible alcoholic, passed out. The cassette found its way that night to Judy's guitar case and she happened across it a few weeks later, polished it up, and recorded it on her "Concert" album.

Phillips tells the story that he mysteriously started receiving royalty checks for a song he had never heard of and knew nothing about. He got around to asking Judy about it, at which point he became acquainted with his handiwork.; 8/6/20, 3:58 PM
Ice Nine said...: "Uncle John's Band" as number one works for me, since it's the only Grateful Dead song I ever particularly liked - and I really liked it.

So you know the joke about the Deadhead, don't you?

Q: What does a Deadhead say when he runs out of weed?
A: "Damn!...This music *sucks*!; 8/6/20, 4:04 PM
Temujin said...: Iman- I was also a fan of Little Feat. Great band. Forgot all about them. Now I'll have to dig up some Feat.

I listened to so many different types of music in those days- still do. But it amazes me that I still love the Dead. Still play them. And it sounds better to me these days, in some ways, than it did back when. Of course, I'm clearer headed now than I was then. Still feeble-minded, but with a clearer view of those things I can understand.; 8/6/20, 4:05 PM
mikee said...: Styrofoam: the 1960's Bakelight.; 8/6/20, 4:13 PM
John Holland said...: I might object to certain elements in the ordering of this list, but I could put the top 30 on random replay all day and be perfectly content.

Now, if I could rig up a random playlist that would also give me a random concert date too (e.g., you say "Dark Star + Franklin's Tower" and it randomly pulls up Dark Star @RFK '73 followed by Franklin's Tower @Madison Square Gardens '79) then we'd be talking some heavy infinite rotation. I'd never get bored.; 8/6/20, 4:42 PM
Douglas B. Levene said...: My favorite Dead songs are Dark Star, China Cat Sunflower and St. Stephen. I guess you could add Alligator to that list.; 8/6/20, 4:43 PM
Michael said...: I lived in the Bay Area during the 80s and there was a tv show every Saturday devoted to an exegesis of the latest Dead concert. Much discussion about the playlist and guesses on the next concert’s list. Banging on and on about song lengths and solo riffs. It was mesmerizing. I was not then a fan but I watched those shows religiously.; 8/6/20, 5:21 PM
Michael said...: Iman
Saw Little Feat in their tour last year. Deeply disappointing.; 8/6/20, 5:29 PM
The Minnow Wrangler said...: I knew without looking that "Brokedown Palace" would be your favorite. However I kind of agree that "Uncle John's Band" belongs at number 1. The harmonies are breathtaking.; 8/6/20, 6:11 PM
The Minnow Wrangler said...: "Fare you well, fare you well, I love you more than words can tell" is enough to bring me to tears every time I hear it.; 8/6/20, 6:18 PM
Iman said...: Michael... I hear you... without drummer Richie Hayward (and now Paul Barrere, who was a helluva guitarist) it is over. I saw them with Lowell five times between '74 and '77... every one a great show. And eight times after they reformed between '88 and 2005 and they were always good, sometimes very good. But there comes a time...; 8/6/20, 6:29 PM
Iman said...: Temujin @4:05pm... here's a live clip that I listen to at least once a week when I walk...

https://youtu.be/j0KEVFlhBC8; 8/6/20, 6:35 PM
Meade said...: "For the record "Uncle John's Band" is #1."

That should make Ol' Guildy happy.; 8/6/20, 7:40 PM
Josephbleau said...: I value the Grateful Dead only as a pathway to access heterosexual sex.; 8/6/20, 8:34 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: ---"For the record "Uncle John's Band" is #1."

That should make Ol' Guildy happy.---

Well to copy the Coens again, "well, okay then."; 8/6/20, 8:37 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: The concept of "the timelessness of ideas" is interesting to a point, like other concepts erased for lack of interest getting erased is interesting to a point.; 8/6/20, 8:42 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: I LIVE MERE BLOCKS FROM MEADE ST.

I DRIVE BY MEADE ST. EVERYDAY.; 8/6/20, 8:53 PM
Meade said...: Hey, don't tell me that town ain't got no heart.; 8/6/20, 9:06 PM
Wince said...: Black Muddy River is the song that best foretold Jerry in his later years, and thus is the most evocative for me looking back.; 8/6/20, 9:13 PM
Johnathan Birks said...: "Uncle John's Band" is my favorite GD song too. "Box of Rain" a close second.; 8/7/20, 8:22 AM
TML said...: Styrofoam cup at 1:49; 8/7/20, 8:42 AM
Charlie said...: The body of work they created from 1970-1975 was incredible. After that..........not so much.; 8/7/20, 9:37 AM
GRW3 said...: I wanted to check the list out but couldn't because they let Infiniti cars run an add that partially blocks the content, including other adds, that cannot be turned off. To me, maybe not my favorite, Dead cut is the live track of St. Stephen on the What A Long Strange Trip It's Been album. I'm not a complete Deadhead but I know they had several writers. I also wanted to see if the list covered his non-Dead work.; 8/7/20, 10:30 AM
HMuns said...: Outrageous. Rider isn't even on the list.; 8/7/20, 4:27 PM
Unknown said...: Charle- I’d expand those dates out through ‘78- after that, more inconsistent, but’s lotta good shows, and some real gems like ‘Althea’, as well as cool trends like all the Dylan songs in the late 80s.

Temujin- part of it is, that, with so much of their oeuvre now released commercially, one does not have to listen to those scratchy, hiss-filled tapes.

In April 2019 while driving from Amherst to Buffalo (Truckin’, up to Buffalo?) to see my beloved Minutemen play in the Frozen Four, I decided to roll through all the versions of Scarlet Begonias I has on my Ipod classic, all 25 or so, including Sublime, Jimmy Buffett and Dead and Co. A typically stupid Deadhead thing to do. I loved it.; 8/9/20, 9:42 AM