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I haven’t actually thought about it too much but I can’t think of a rock band more associated with having significant numbers of female fans than The Grateful Dead.
Twirlers spinning to the music. Blowing bubbles. Granny glasses. Sundresses.
The fairer sex always seemed to me to be well-represented in media images of the Dead, which were always concert shots — if not parking lot “scene” pictures.
So where are all the tortured love songs?
Sure, there are a paltry few songs named after women, with Stella (Blue), Bertha (Bertha!), Rosemary and (Ramble on) Rose in their titles, but all in all, pickings for the lovelorn are pretty slim.
In my early meanderings through the songbook, Scarlet Begonias stands out to my ears as the tune most obviously and enjoyably consumed as being about a woman.
She had rings on her fingers and
bells on her shoes,
And I knew without askin’ she was
into the blues
Scarlet begonias
tucked into her curls
I knew right away
she was not like other girls–
other girls
I came across a statement from lyricist Robert Hunter that confessed his interest in layering multiple meanings into his songs. Decades after the fact he identified his wife as the subject of the tune.
But I’m not buying it (sorry Mrs. Hunter).
Well there ain’t nothin’ wrong
with the way she moves
Or scarlet begonias or a
touch of the blues
And there’s nothing wrong with
the love that’s in her eye
I had to learn the hard way
to let her pass by–
let her pass by
My curiosity piqued, I went looking for a picture of the poppy flower. Poppies are yellow, right?
As Mick and Keith sang, “and I won’t forget to put roses on your grave.” (from Dead Flowers)
One thing that makes listening to live Grateful Dead different from other bands is the transitions between songs. You know, the “->” stuff, like “China Cat Sunflower -> I Know You Rider”.
For a newbie, it poses a bit of a challenge and complication, because you need to know the songs well enough to be able to enjoy some of the acrobatics of the transitions. Evaluating the grace or improvisational value of a -> is dependent upon having this knowledge.
I can only imagine the time spent by tapers in the CD and FLAC/SHN era agonizing over just when to end the first track and begin the second in the transition. The overlap can be quite extended.
It even requires learning a new skill for the downloader when putting the track names into iTunes, mastering the -> at the end of the first song name, or is it >>?
Seems to me that if the transitions were on the original studio albums, or if they were worked up intricately in rehearsals, they would be, in many cases, no big deal. But it’s the very highwire-act nature of them as unplanned that makes their successful accomplishment something special to hear.
For now, I am generally avoiding not only the transitions from this -> to that ->, I am also avoiding the jam songs. Too much to absorb for now. Once I get the basic catalog down, I will move more directly into intensive listening and evaluation of the transitions (segues) and jams.
So let’s break the rule I just set.
Cornell Barton Hall 1977, Scarlet Begonias -> Fire on the Mountain, aka “Scarlet Fire”.
Wow, that’s a seamless transition that fuses the two tunes into a timeless work of art. No background required to understand that one! Give it a fresh listen if it’s been a while. Something about Jerry’s solo on Scarlet Begonias symbolizes the Grateful Dead and, in particular, his soloing style more than nearly anything else I have heard. There are no pyrotechnics necessarily, just his beautiful embroidery in his unique style. Not sure if I said that before, but it’s worth repeating if I did.
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