Dead Songs in Depth

    
Loser
w: Hunter m: Garcia
AGDL: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/lose.html
LASF: http://www.whitegum.com/songfile/LOSER.HTM
  

    
Loser 
Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Jerry Garcia

Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

If I had a gun for every ace that I had drawn
I could arm a town the size of Abilene
Don't you push me baby, 'cause I'm moaning low
And you know I'm only in it for the gold

All that I am asking for is ten gold dollars
And I could pay you back with one good hand
You can look around at the wide world over
But you'll never find another honest man

Last fair deal in the country, sweet Susie
Last fair deal in the town
Put your gold dollars where your love is baby
Before you let my deal go down

Don't you push me baby, 'cause I'm moaning low
Well I know a little something you won't ever know
Don't you touch hard liquor, just a cup of cold coffee
Gonna get up in the morning and go

Everybody's bragging and drinking that wine
I can tell the Queen of Diamonds by the way she shines
Come to daddy on an inside straight
Well I got no chance of losing this time
Well I got no chance of losing this time
  

    
I have always heard it as:

"You could look around about the wide world over"

"Put your gold money where your mouth is, baby" (This seems more
consistent with the lyric being one side of a dialogue between the
gambler and his lover.)

"I know a little something you will never know"

Loser is is a defining song in the Grateful Dead archetype, with
another gambler facing defeat with (misguided) optimism. Eschewing the
Dionysian anarchist credo that "the road of excess leads to the palace
of wisdom", the protagonist counsels sobriety on the one hand and
reckless adventurism on the other (buying to an inside straight is a
losing strategy, as all but the most innocent of poker players know).

In fact, there is a pretty strong sense that this gambler is
protesting too much and that maybe the admonitions about hard liquor
and the disdain for the unruly wine drinkers is born of plenty of
personal mileage on that very road of excess.

Is this that same Wharf Rat earlier in his career? Is there a personal
history (whether imagined or otherwise) embedded in the Grateful Dead
songs?

Happy Trails
  

    
>>>I have always heard it as:

 "You could look around about the wide world over"

      Hunter's book "A Box of Rain" has it as "can look"

>> "Put your gold money where your mouth is, baby" 

         Hunter has it as "love is, baby"


>> "I know a little something you will never know"

       Hunter has it as "won't ever know"
  

    
Thanks, I think that is definitive, should have got my copy out.

Is someone getting the corrections identified in these discussions to
Ice Nine?

Happy Trails
  

    
I will certainly track them for the post-copyright-expiration edition of the
complete GD lyrics! Should be out in a couple hundred years...at the very
latest.
  

    
Yuck, n''yunk... Will Mickey Mouse be sticking the Ice Cream Cone in
his kisser on the front cover of that edition?
  

    
Bezackly.
  

    

Last week a fellow musician heard me sing "Loser" and asked me if I was sure
about "moanin' low."  He was sure that line was

Don't you push me, baby,
Because I'm on a loan
  

    
I always thought it was Because I'm all alone.  I'm so glad he brought this
up to you or I may never have learned that line.  I've only been singing
that song about 30 years.
  

    
I always thought it was "all alone" too, until I saw it in print.
"Moanin' low" is a connection to the old version of Casey Jones, right?
Or something...I'll have to go read that book of annotated lyrics and
try to figger it out. 
  

    
I think it means, "Don't give me any shit just 'cause I'm in a weakened
state."
  

    
And the phrase is also used in "So Many Roads": "Thought I heard that
KC whistle moaning sweet and low / Howlin' wide or moaning low," which
refers in turn to KC Moan: "Well, I thought I had heard that K C when
she moan." FWIW.  
 
  

    
I interpreted the correct text (after all these years) the way David did
when I read it.
  

    
I'm another who sang "all alone" for decades.
  

    

KEVIN FORD asks:


hello, I was wondering if you know the reference moanin' low and any history
of it .. I do know it was a billie holiday song, but I'm trying to find where
the term came from .. thanks
  

    
Put me in the folks who have always heard and sang for decades:
"all alone" and 
"put your money where your love is, baby" and 
"you won't never know"
and one of my all-time favorite songs in the repertory, among many
  

    
Wouldn't "moanin' low" simply be a description of a sound? I
wouldn't think it really has an origin as a term. The fact that it's
a Billie Holiday song (music by Ralph Rainger, words by Howard
Dietz, published in 1929 and recorded by Holiday in 1937) is enough
of a "reference," I think. 
  

    <scribbled by tnf Fri 3 Apr 15 16:48>
  

    

I think of it as one of those classic country-blues phrases, somehow.
  

    
It is not listed in Barrelhouse Words (moan does get a guernsey on
its own). 
  

    
moanin low = low in volume, as in far away?
  

    

Neither. Moanin' low as in "laid low," "feelin' low," that sort of thing.
  

    
ah!
  

    

Posted by Eric Schwartz (host of Lone Star Dead on KNON in Dallas) on the FB
page "Deadhead Life - Grateful Dead to the Core":



I take no credit.... This is a re-post of a re-post. Dead head gold. We all
have own "Sweet Suzys", I think. This is on a grand scale :) :

This comes from Ahopkins on another web page. I love the work and Good Job!

"When I was in high school, there was a girl who would always ask me if I had
acquired any new Losers of the “sweet Suzy” variety. And so whenever I
received a new batch of tapes from some remote part of the country, I’d
note any Losers with the “sweet Suzy” verse and then surprise her with
one at the next gathering of our mutual group of friends. These gatherings
were almost always centrally concerned with new tape acquisitions or new
knowledge regarding the Dead. We were a group obsessed with the band and
everything swimming through the vast universe of the band, including
apparently any Losers with the “sweet Suzy” line.

My memory is foggy when it comes to my findings of the “sweet Suzy”
Losers, except one distinct time in which I can remember telling her, “Hey,
Shannon, I found a ‘sweet Suzy’ for you.” I don’t know which show it
was , but I’m pretty certain it was a 1971 Loser. What lives in my memory
is precisely where we were and me saying those exact words to her. It
must’ve been a revelatory moment for me regarding the rarity of the
“sweet Suzy” Losers, for I have never forgotten that moment after 20+
years.

Fast forward to a few months ago, in June of 2017, when I found myself
thinking of those great tape-trading days of high school, the discoveries,
the euphoria of acquiring a new batch of tapes. And for some reason my mind
turned to the “sweet Suzy” versions of Loser, and how I would search out
copies of this song without a handy Deadbase at my fingertips, nor a more
convenient “etree mobile” app which allowed me to effortlessly flip
through shows and fast forward to the two particular instances in which
“sweet Suzy” is sung with the simply movement of a finger across my
iPhone. Wow, how times have changed with regard to searching for a particular
part of a song.

So a few months ago I decided to complete the project once and for all. I
needed to know when “sweet Suzy” died, and I kind of wanted to arrive at
a reason for her death. Sadly, I found her apparent death on October 20th,
1974, then realized she had risen from the dead on January 10th, 1979, only
to be buried once again for eternity. Even more tragic is the unknown reason
for her death.

What I did find, however, is an obscure protraction of her death. Think about
all the hours I’ve logged listening to “Last fair deal in the country,
sweet Suzy!” and the amount of accumulated thoughts about Suzy, what she
must’ve looked like to Hunter and Jerry, what she must’ve meant to Jerry
on the nights that he sung her into the song with such love and tenderness
and longing, what she must have meant to him on the nights that he abandoned
her and left the audience singing her in their own empty words, and what he
must’ve thought on January 10th, 1979 when he resurrected her one last
time. What drove him to do it?

The Dead performed Loser 346 times. Only a few of these shows do we not have
the recording. I tally 88 known Losers that include the “sweet Suzy” or
just “Suzy” line. Remarkably, of the 54 Losers performed in 1971, only
one show did not feature the “sweet Suzy” line. That show is 7/2/71 at
the Fillmore West, oddly the last show at that venue. The very first Loser
performed on 2/18/71 at Port Chester features a “sweet Suzy” in the first
slot and a rare “Suzy”-only in the second slot. All three “Suzy”-only
versions were sung in the second slot of the song in 1971, but of the three
remaining “Suzy”-only versions in 1972 and 1973, Jerry sang it in the
first slot of the song.

The first show in which Jerry sings “sweet Suzy” in only one of the two
slots is the 22nd performance of Loser on 4/21/71 in Providence, Rhode
Island, and it appears in the second slot. There are no other shows or
patterns in 1971 of note except to say that toward the middle of the year,
immediately following the 7/2/71 Fillmore West show, Jerry starts to exclude
the “sweet Suzy” line in one of the two slots more frequently. Between
2/18/71 and 5/30/71, Jerry performs Loser 31 times, and he is fairly regular
with the “sweet Suzy” line in all of the Loser versions, singing it both
times in all but 2 of the 31 times. But once 7/2/71 hits, the remaining 23
performances of the song are variable when it comes to the singing of the
line. Between 7/2/71 and 12/31/71, Jerry sings the line twice during the song
only 13 of the 23 times.

What this means is that Jerry started the slow death of “sweet Suzy”
officially on 4/21/71, booted her from the song for the first time altogether
on 7/2/71, and then proceeded to ween her from the song thereafter.

1972 sees the demise of Suzy even more. Of the 39 times Loser is played in
1972, only 4 times does Jerry sing “sweet Suzy” in both slots of the
song. 13 times he abandons “sweet Suzy” entirely. 1973 isn’t any
better. 25 performances, 7 “sweet Suzy” lines, and none of those 7 times
does Jerry sing the line in both slots of the song.

1974 saw “sweet Suzy” virtually die. Of the 10 times Loser is performed
(remember, there were only 40 shows this year), only 3 times does “sweet
Suzy” make her appearance, the last being on 10/20/74 at Winterland, and
it’s sung in the second slot of the song. I fitting farewell to the
Grateful Dead at the time and to sweet Suzy, whoever she was.

And that is all we know of the mysterious girl called Suzy in the song Loser.
For the next 4 years and 45 performances of Loser, not a trace of “sweet
Suzy” is found – that is, until the first show of 1979, in Uniondale, New
York, on January 10th. Making her appearance one more time – and her last
time – was “sweet Suzy” in the first slot of the song. It’s so brief
and nondescript. If you blink, you miss it in the recording. There’s no
emphasis, no powerful resurgence, no eruption from the audience. It comes and
goes in a second and a half. And then it vanishes. Ghostlike. Forever.

I knew I had never heard a “sweet Suzy” in the 1980s or 1990s, but I
wanted to be sure, and so I listened to all the “Last fair deal in the
country….” verses (two per song) of all 169 remaining performances. I
sometimes dreamed that I’d find one, hidden within a show that was not on
many popular radars. I held out hope that there was a version of the song in
the post-Brent era that escaped our listening ears because it was a Vince
show. No. I sometimes imagined I heard it because I was listening so hard for
it. I truly wanted it to be there. I wanted so badly for Jerry to sing those
two words again; I’d even take a delayed and whispered “Suzy.” Alas, it
wasn’t going to happen.

I have thought about so much along the way. I thought how crazy I am for
doing this. I thought how empty this project is. I thought how meaningless
and stupid and utterly ridiculous….In short, I thought I had perhaps come
to an end of sorts with the band. When I began the journey, I actually was
listening to 3/24/73 Spectrum and noticed that Jerry had only sung the
“sweet Suzy” line in the second slot. And so I wanted to know what other
shows in the March/April ’73 period did this. And then I wanted to know all
of 1973. And then I decided I’d do all of the Losers and tally them all up.
I searched high and low on the Internet to see if someone had already done
this. I found no one. But, above all, I felt like I had to do this. I was
reminded of my high school years, and always bringing Shannon new “sweet
Suzy” Losers. I simply felt it was my calling to know them all.

So, Shannon, if you’re out there, and happen to stumble across this, here
are all your “sweet Suzy” and “Suzy”-only Losers. Enjoy…

Below are the years and dates in which “sweet Suzy” or just “Suzy”
appear. After the date, you’ll see a “1” or “2” or “none,”
indicating for that particular show where “sweet Suzy” is sung, “1”
being the first slot and “2” being the second slot of the song.
“None” obviously means neither slot of the song featured this line. If
you see a “Suzy” next to either the “1” or “2,” then that means
just the rare “Suzy” was sung. For the inaugural Loser on 2/18, I like
that “sweet Suzy” was sung in the first slot and just “Suzy” was sung
in the second slot.

There are a few shows in which we do not have the recording of Loser:
10/21/72, 11/18/72, 9/12/73 (this one is unclear as to whether the song was
player there at all, but I kept it in anyway), 9/28/77, and 2/6/79. Other
than those, they’re all here.

The penultimate note: the Loser from 5/11/78 does not feature a “sweet
Suzy” but rather a Jerry “Yeeeeaaaahhh Arrrrgghhhh” which is the only
one of its kind.

The ultimate note: I have retained the spelling of “Suzy” as this is how
it appears in Hunter’s Box of Rain.

1971 (53)

02/18 1 2 "Suzy"

02/19 1 2

02/20 1 2

02/21 1 2

02/23 1 2

02/24 1 2

03/03 1 2

03/14 1 2 "Suzy"

03/18 1 2

03/20 1 2

03/21 1 2

03/24 1 2

04/04 1 2

04/05 1 2

04/06 1 2

04/07 1 2

04/08 1 2

04/12 1 2

04/13 1 2

04/17 1 2

04/18 1 2

04/21 2

04/22 1 2

04/24 1 2

04/25 1 2

04/26 1 2

04/27 1 2

04/28 1

04/29 1 2

05/29 1 2

05/30 1 2

07/02 none

07/31 1

08/05 1

08/06 1

08/14 2 "Suzy"

08/23 1 2

08/24 1 2

08/26 1

10/21 1 2

10/23 1

10/26 1 2

10/29 1 2

10/30 1 2

10/31 1 2

11/06 2

11/07 1 2

11/12 1 2

11/14 1

11/15 1 2

12/06 1 2

12/10 2

12/14 1 2

12/31 1

1972 (24)

01/02 1 2

03/21 2

03/22 none

03/26 1 "Suzy" 2

03/27 1

04/07 1

04/14 1

04/16 1 2

04/24 1

04/26 1

04/29 none

05/10 none

05/13 2

05/26 1

06/17 2

07/18 1 "Suzy"

07/21 1

07/25 none

08/20 1

08/22 1

08/25 2

09/03 none

09/09 none

09/15 none

09/17 none

09/21 2

09/24 2

09/28 none

09/30 2

10/09 1

10/18 1

10/21 ?????

10/23 2

10/27 1 2

11/14 none

11/18 ?????

11/22 none

12/11 none

12/15 none

1973 (7)

02/21 none

02/26 2

03/16 2

03/21 none

03/24 2

03/28 none

05/13 none

05/20 none

05/26 none

06/09 1

06/26 1

07/31 none

09/07 none

09/11 none

09/12 ??????

09/17 none

09/20 none

09/26 1 "Suzy"

10/21 none

10/27 none

10/29 none

11/10 2

11/23 none

11/30 none

12/06 none

1974 (3)

02/24 none

05/14 1

06/18 1

06/30 none

07/25 none

08/04 none

09/10 none

09/14 none

10/17 none

10/20 2

1975

None

1976

None

1977

None

09/28 ?????

1978

None

05/11 "Yeaaah arrrgghh"

1979 (1)

01/10 1

02/06 ?????

1980 - 1995

None"
  

    
Awesome.