My mini tour of May 1977 continues today with Jack-A-Roe. If memory serves correctly, Jack-A-Roe is an old traditional song, I want to say out of England, that the Dead arranged for their own purposes. It was actually introduced during the May 1977 tour, and this evening was the 5th time the band ever played it (out of a total 118 times). The arrangement changed a bit over the years but this is how the song started out. Three of the first 5 versions of the song are on the May 1977 box set, but this version from Dick’s Picks, Vol. 29 is the first one where Bobby seems to have figured out the rhythm riff he wants to use on the song. (I haven’t heard 5/18/77 so maybe he figured it out that night!) Needless to say, that’s one of the things that I like the most about this arrangement and I was disappointed that it disappeared later.
Jerry’s solo dances around the main melody the first pass through and begins to take more liberties during the second pass through the progression. The vibe to this song is very laid back, especially compared to later versions which tended toward a more brisk execution, if my memory serves correctly. The next solo section Jerry picks up where he left off and the pace quickens a bit and Keith really exerts himself. It seems that he’s laying low here, so it’s nice to get some keys front and center. Jerry works his way through the final verse and the standard ending applies. It seems that part of the arrangement was pretty consistent.
Complete Setlist 5/21/77
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I agree lunchbox that these earlier versions of jack are probably better than later ones. Something that was not usually the case with Dead song evolutions. Of course every song they ever played was in a state of evolution, being the nature of a band that lived for creating something new out of something before.
There was truly something magic going on this year with Jerry’s guitar sound and possibly this tour. The sound is crisp, crunchy and thick, not sure he was ever able to recreate that tone and that might be why he was so obsessive with his search for the perfect guitar. His sound after that year was ever penetrating and hypnotic, but never at the level of greatness from that tour, in my mind. Jerry also started to head in the wrong direction health wise, soon, so maybe the mojo of finding the perfect sound was left to others from that point. Just speculating.
Joe – Was it something about that Travis Bean? Tiger just had so many options and tones available that it’s kind of hard to argue against it. Plus that was his main axe for a decade so clearly there was something he liked about it, but there IS something special about the ’77 sound. I think it’s the whole band too though, not just Jerry. (http://dozin.com/jers/guitar/history.htm)
Lunchbox, great question about the Travis Bean. My guess was that it just seemed to fit the bands sound perfectly that year. Tiger was obviously a better guitar and a wonderful one at that, but the 77 sound was just a little different and as you mention the entire band was great as well. What is not surprising is how artists know and hear things with their instruments at a lot more refined level than most and Tiger was obviously something that Jerry loved. We had a chance to see Tiger in action last summer with Warren Haynes doing the Garcia tribute with the Boston Sympony O. Know Warren is doing some shows again this year, if it’s in your area I’m sure you would love it.
The intro to this is pretty foreign, given that the song never made it onto a proper album. Besides that, the pervasive bounce-beat renders it a distant cousin of other, more folky versions. Somehow, I always thought of this as a sister song to “Peggy-O”, and the fact that both are included in this collection reinforces that thought. Both are old folk ballads that employ struggles of self over system. Clearly, Garcia loved this kind of thing. His playing is fluid and his singing impassioned. Give him his moment, people. He certainly deserves it.
Steve, I tend to pair Jack-A-Roe and Peggy-O too, although I think that association ossified for me with the expanded Go To Heaven because studio outtakes of both songs were included with that release. For the record, I like both outtakes very much and the Jack-A-Roe there has the same rhythm figure that Bobby does here, but more developed. That’s hands down my favorite part of this arrangement and I wish they had kept it longer.