It’s not quite an Alabama Getaway, but today marks the beginning of paternity leave for me. This is one area where I certainly appreciate the benefits my employer offers. I’m off for a full nine weeks. Fortunately, I have a number of projects I’d like to complete – a couple of book reviews, an academic paper, and of course, this blog project. So I’ll be keeping busy on top of caring for my son.
I listened to a few different Alabama Getaways before deciding on this one. There was one version that sounded like Casey Jones was in charge of the tempo, if you know what I mean. But this was a song I never thought about much until I played it in a band in Chicago. It’s a lot of fun to play and the A-C riff at the end of the verses gives it a nice little kick too. It’s always fun to hit those hard and make’em pop.
I still don’t know if this song is advocating going to Alabama for a getaway or simply getting away from Alabama. Or was it a veiled message to Donna Jean to getaway? (She hails from Alabama.) That last one is probably a bit of a stretch, as I doubt Hunter was the vindictive type, but it still makes you wonder. (Standard caveat that this interpretation is complete conjecture on my part.)
There aren’t a ton of these that have been officially released, but if you have other favorites definitely let me know in the comments.
Brent is way up in the mix during his solo, the guitars are almost buried. Jerry takes a turn next and dances circles around the fretboard. It’s interesting to listen to Phil here as well. This might be the closest to straight eighths I think I’ve ever heard him play; he usually swings his eighth notes. It sounds like they’re trying to end the song a couple times but repeat the outro, and then Jerry’s not done and steps up with another solo. It’s kind of like bonus jamming. Score! This leads to a seamless segue into Promised Land.
Brent pounds on those cold keys and Jerry snarls into the story of a bad guy. He sings a verse and rips into a cutting solo that peters out, letting Brent take over on the ice-piano. This goes on a bit too long for the song’s good. They ultimately tightened this up in the arrangement. Another verse and chorus pass by and we are back to a trade-off, this time Mydland first then Garcia. Both get in some good licks here and it is so free that it almost works in this form. The ending is that last verse plus a whole bunch of repeat choruses. Jerry rocks the everlovin’ bejesus out of the ending, helped in a big way by both Bob and Brent. This is crazily hot, pushing the song to a long seven minutes and it finally turns, screeching into “Promised Land”.
I love Hunter’s philosophy that once he’s written the lyrics they’re no longer his but the listener’s. That allows us to come up with our own interpretations no matter how far off they may be. We’ll probably never know for sure what he had in mind when he wrote these lyrics and he almost certainly won’t let us know.
In my mind this song is clearly about Keith and Donna. I don’t think Hunter is telling them to leave, he’s just “reporting” what happened. And Alabama just sounds right for the music; Keith was from California but California Getaway doesn’t have the same ring.
23rd psalm is a reference to Donna’s affinity for gospel music. Reserve me a table for three means the singer and Keith and Donna. He wears a big diamond ring refers to Donna’s wedding ring, and that they’re married.
“No need to worry the jury,” a reference to the kangaroo courts the Dead used to have back then, “they’ll probably take care of themselves,” refers to Keith and Donna leaving on their own without being fired (although they probably would have been fired if they hadn’t gone willingly).
As mentioned earlier, I don’t “know” what this song is about, but that’s my take on it. I wish there was more to read about Keith and Donna out there but there is a good interview with Donna by Blair Jackson in Goin’ Down the Road.