Cassidy or Cassady? The former is a song title while the latter was a guru of sorts. An influencer in the Beat scene out of which the Grateful Dead emerged. It’s been suggested recently on Tales From The Golden Road that Jerry Garcia wasn’t really so much a hippie as he was a Beat. I’m not well enough versed in the catalog of American counter-culture movements in the second half of the 20th century to have an opinion on the question. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting one given the Dead’s and Garcia’s status within the hippie movement.
While I am a confessed “Team Jerry” guy in the Jerry/Bobby dichotomy, I’ve been on a Weir kick as of late. Cassidy is an interesting tune because it came out on Weir’s solo record Ace in 1972. The band didn’t play it in concert until 3/23/74, and then didn’t play it again until June of 1976, after which time it remained in the repertoire. I don’t know how many other songs had that type of lag getting into the regular rotation but I’m willing to bet it’s a pretty small number.
You can barely hear someone counting this one off before Phil kicks in. The mix is good here and Phil is up front with a fat, warm bass tone. Both drummers are in the zone as well. You can tell that they’re really working back there and pushing the beast forward. Donna and Bobby duet virtually the entire song and it just works. They’re not perfectly in sync the whole time, but they are enough of the time. Keith’s playing electric piano for a good chunk of the song, but it sounds like he switches over to the grand during Jerry’s solo, unless my ears deceive me. On the whole I think Garcia seems a little retrained. His solo is on the short side but it’s clear that he makes his statement and stops instead of noodling on ad nauseam. Another spin through the lyrics and Jerry gets another turn to weave his magic. One of the percussionists, probably Mickey, is banging away on some percussion instrument during the solo, which I find a little distracting, but not terribly so. Everything comes to an end with Jerry and Keith leading the charge. The crowd cheers their approval as they await the next tune.
Lunchbox, really no need to come clean about being a Jerry guy, virtually everyone is. If you follow the dead at even a minimal level Jerry’s unique guitar style surly is the first aspect of the band that jumps out at you. Sure there are Bobby fans out there, but have to believe even they recognize that without Jerry, Bob might never have had a career. I do like Bob and enjoy a number of his songs. Mostly love his banter on stage and his views on the band and his continuance to keep the music alive. Looking forward to seeing Ratdog in June after seeing Phil and friends 3 times last summer. Explained my views to my daughter that the Phil shows are more Jazz dead while the Ratdog shows are more rock and roll Dead. Not sure if you agree with that, but that’s my perspective.
Cassidy is a wonderful song both lyrically and musically. Jack did have a huge influence on the band and how they approached life and it’s a great tribute song that works well to recognize that. As far as this version, I’d agree with your views. I really enjoy this Pick as a whole a great deal. It’s not the most powerful in many ways, but the band really seems to enjoy themselves and are pretty tight the entire night. The sound quality of this show is one of the best as well, with clear separation of instruments and real pop to it. The Music never Stopped from this night is one of my all time favorites for many reasons. Bobby and Donna have a ball with the lyrics and Jerry fills in the back end with a sweet joyous solo.
Thanks again for the efforts.
Joe – The Music Never Stops from this show is high on my list too. I don’t want to go back to the same well too often, but don’t be surprised to see it pop up at some point during this project!
LunchB,
Maybe this is where I’m feeling the something is missing. Been around the block a few too many times and do get excited when you post a show that I like, but to be honest more often than not your choice of songs from that night consistently, from my view, miss the mark. I realize that all loves are subjective, but from my cheap seat on the east coast, I’ve been surprised more often than not on your choice of songs from a particular show.
Not sure if you have a game plan to ramp it up in the latter days and that’s the game plan, but from my personal preferences many of your choices are secondary highlights. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer, but that’s how I view it. Seeing the momentum hadn’t picked up and you didn’t pick up some GD site folks, but maybe ( what the hell do I know ) my perspective might have some merit. In no way am I trying to step on your toes, as I do admire the effort and love to see what you are up to, but possibly my take might have some merit. Hell, I would have been more excited about your take on werewolves from London in this show! which was not great but unique, than Cassidy.
Apologize for the negs, but love to see a little more push towards songs that make that night a special event than the secondary stuff that have might be more often than not part of the show rather than get your attention pieces.
Just a take
Joe, you’re certainly entitled to your opinion. This IS America afterall! I do appreciate you reading and hope that you will continue to do so and leave feedback.
I can see where you’re coming from. I love the 30 Days of Dead every November over at dead.net, but have to admit that it’s a bit of a bummer when Lost Sailor, or some other song I don’t like pops up. But I give it a spin and see what the next day brings.
Not sure I understand the statement,”Seeing the momentum hadn’t picked up and you didn’t pick up some GD site folks,” though.
One of the points of this exercise is NOT to simply cherry pick the highlights from a given release. Doing that may yield 365 distinct posts, but I think there would be a lot more song repetition than I want. At the end of this experiment there may very well be 5-10 versions of Eyes, for example, but I don’t want to get in the habit of only picking the songs that I like the most. That said, just because I opted for Cassidy this time around does not mean I will ignore DaP7 going forward. Quite the contrary. I’ve got my eyes on the TMNS, Scarlet/Fire, and some other first set songs from this show. The “Stayin’ Alive” tease was kind of neat. I would argue that this is a VERY solid Cassidy. Maybe not best ever, but definitely solid. In fact, Cassidy is not a song I typically like, but this one caught my attention. That is the bigger point here and impetus behind the entire project. I actually got a lot of positive feedback for today’s selection in other places. One man gathers….
So if you want other selections from DaP7 keep a look out. I’m confident there will be more at some point, but I can’t say when. I’m trying to get a good mix before getting into repeats. A lot just depends on what mood I’m in when making a pick. Based on my collection of commercially released Dead (plus solo Jerry, Bobby, cover CDs, etc) I have over 220 albums and 5000+ tracks to choose from, and those numbers grow every year. Just like the Dead, not every selection will be a gem, but there is a reason behind every choice. If you read through some of Steve’s comments on here you’ll see that he has already pointed out several tunes that I picked out that were sub-par in his mind, but for me that’s what jumped out to me that particular day. I hope this helps clarify my mission here. Feel free to disagree, too. I’d love to hear folks’ rationale either way.
Lunchbox,
Thanks for the reply and better explanation of what you are up to. My comment about not picking up GD site folks only relates to the few posters here. I found your site via the responses to DaP 9 and I’m guessing some others have visited.
Truly, I had no expectations and do like stopping by to see what you have selected. One of my loves of the Dead is how often they surprise me. It is mostly the reason I own, and probably big fans like you, own so much of their music. You hear a version of a song with a different emphasis, sometimes tempo or singing or entirely original instrumentation and in some magical way it sets off your imagination. Did the band enjoy this as much as you, where did this come from, was it rehearsed, who started this etc etc ?
That’s where I’m coming from. Why I continue to buy more dead, read about the dead in books, blogs, archive.org. magazines, stories that come with their releases and ended up here. Picked up Relix the book recently which includes a history of GD back stories as well as takes on similar jam bands from the last 30 years, but mostly on the roots of this music. Great book that is not to available but wonderful read.
To be honest, my hopes for this site are that you have more interaction from folks. Maybe that is not your motivation and I apologize for that expectation. I do like your effort and do know how difficult it is to get a blog’s eyes and interaction from my own experience doing a hockey coaching blog. Like you, I’m passionate about the band and their music and that surprise factor, in my mind, is what keeps me purchasing more and more. That and some other issues, I surely have. Maybe, I’m looking for someone having that similar wow from a particular song, that night. Again projecting my views selfishly.
Joe,
I too would love more participation here. At the same time, this project has been going for less than a month so it may take some time. I guess we’ll see where it goes, but at least I’m enjoying the ride! All good things in all good time…
I’ve been enjoying it also, but mainly from a selfish perspective. I have written reviews of every officially-released live version of every song and this is a fun place to post those reviews. Lunchbox is doing this day-by-day and whatever strikes his fancy in the moment is what he writes about. I can certainly dig that. It helps me re-appreciate certain things and re-evaluate others that I didn’t like so much the first time around. And that is the crux of all of this kind of writing. It is intended to shine a light on song versions you may have missed or not focused on before. Sure, I would have picked the wicked jammed out Passenger or Scarlet>Fire from Dave’s 7, but the Cassidy is no slouch. My advice is: Don’t expect Lunchbox to have the same taste you have. Let him try to tell you what HE appreciates about a song version and see if you agree. If not, no skin off his teeth, to mix a metaphor. He’s just telling you what he thinks. If you don’t agree, write your own review. Tell us what you would have liked better and why. I have discovered SO much Grateful Dead music by following this kind of advice, even though sometimes it is a dead end (pun intended). Here’s what I thought about this Cassidy:
This one rocks out of the gate and wavers through its paces with some surprising outbursts from the drummers. They are really going at it for some reason. Donna and Bob sing together well enough. The middle solo is a blur of many instruments at once, with no one coming to the fore until Garcia gets a little louder near the end. Lesh thumps on two notes during the “Fare thee well” coda, then we are off on a big jam. Jer wastes no time getting this to fly and perhaps peaks early as the band wants to draw this out a bit. Oh, there he goes, getting off after all. No one comes to the mic, unexpectedly, and the band just plays through what would normally be the final vocal parts. Nice.
Kudos Steve. Now… I may just have to go give that Passenger a listen… Not a whole lot of those have been released and it’s always a rocker. I kind of wish they had kept that in the repertoire and subbed it some of the Chuck Berry tunes on occasion… Thanks for the suggestion.
Steve and Lunchbox,
Thanks for the input and let me point out that my comments are not criticisms, despite the fact they might come off as them, on lunchbox’s choices that differ from my personal likes. I agree totally that all our tastes are individual and what someone loves can often be something that makes another cringe. One of the great gifts of the dead is the massive amount of music we have access to. So massive that it takes a large effort to wrap your head around the entire career.
I also get the fact that many have strong loves for all kinds of different reasons. For many a first concert usually leaves a lasting impression. For others hearing a song or show at a special event or group of friends etc can be equally impacting. My opinions on particular songs or shows or yours are personal and unique and I agree with the idea that sharing on blogs like this and others are usually what assists all of us discovering or rediscovering a piece we may or may not of over-looked.
Love the idea of Lunchbox’s effort and sure their are others that would love it. Just adding my thoughts on how the interaction might expand beyond us 3. I know, I know! be careful what you ask for.
I say keep up the good work! i like the approach–they are good samplers for future purchases!
Peace!
-Rob
Rob, thanks for your kind words.