Bob Weir [This is the fourth post this week on Marty Robbinsâs âEl Paso.â Â You can find the first one here, the second here, and the third here.]Iâve found over the course of doing my weeks at the blog that … Continue reading →
(photo by K. Bigger) This is our second post on the ballad âBold William Taylor.â Â To read the first post, click here.When is a murder ballad not a murder ballad?The performance that brought âWilliam Taylorâ back to my attention (acknowledging … Continue reading →
As we found out in the introductory post this week, âCold Rain and Snowâ, which most folks know as a staple in the Grateful Deadâs repertoire, is an American ballad written by an unknown author after a man murdered his … Continue reading →
I first heard our subject ballad for the week from the same source Iâm sure the majority of people who know it today did â the Grateful Dead. Â It had been part of their repertoire since their start in 1965, … Continue reading →
As I mentioned in my first post, thereâs no small controversy over what, exactly, âPowderfingerâ is about. Aided by the abundance of specific details in the lyrics, especially about that boat, almost all interpretations nod to Youngâs political sensibilities in … Continue reading →
Big Brother and the Holding Company and the Grateful Dead â by Irving Penn, 1967 Janis Joplin â James Gurley â Ron McKernan â Jerry Garcia (This weekâs first set.)   (This weekâs second set.) When I look at portraits from the … Continue reading →
Concert Poster, Oakland Coliseum â Peter Barsotti, 12/31/91 I recently wrote about âJack Strawâ as the Grateful Deadâs only true murder ballad. That effort spurred me to begin this week with a broader look at the act of murder in the Deadâs … Continue reading →
âListening for the secret, searching for the soundâŚâ I am one of those people who early in life, somewhere around age four, started grappling with the existential âproblemâ of death.  I donât know why. Maybe it was because my grandmother … Continue reading →
âNone recover, they are just replaced.â  â Robert Hunter, 1995 Note: This is Part 3 of a three part series.  See also Part 1 and Part 2. Introduction At the free concert at Altamont Speedway on December 6, 1969, an eighteen … Continue reading →
Note: this is Part 1 of a three part series. Â See also Part 2, and Part 3. Introduction âWe can share the women, we can share the wine. We can share what we got of yours, âcos we done shared … Continue reading →
