Dead Songs in Depth

    
Row Jimmy > Shakedown! Great idea!

One thing I have not seen is an examination of Wake of the Flood as a
kind of concept album. Garcia chuckled that Anthem of the Sun was mixed
for the hallucinations. When WotF was released we (the circle of
explorers I knew) concluded that it was a route map. We found it highly
effective, at least as good as the sonic maps we assembled. For
example, the Jeff Beck Group version of Goin' Down was a favourite way
to kick the door down. 

I rate WotF the ultimate GD studio album, the one where the album form
is most exploited to the boundaries of its capability, notwithstanding
the fact that the collections of songs on WD and AB get all the
attention and Anthem is hailed for its innovations.
  

    
I'm with you on Wake of the Flood.  It's my favorite GD studio album and
really does hold together as an album.  I also have very vivid memories of
the first time I heard it.  I went downtown in San Luis Obispo, where I was
living at the time to pick it up, then several friends and I listened to it
on our front porch drinking tequila sunrises on a beautiful sunny afternoon.
  

    
Maybe we should add "album" topics to this discussion, so that the
gestalt of songs on any given studio album can be explored in context.
Or is that too much?
  

    
Too much? Of a good thing? 

I recall Richard Neville in his seminal work, Playpower, stating that
the good things in life were worth endlessly repeating, not that that
is entirely relevant in this case, but it is worth repeating, though
perhaps not endlessly, for those who have not read this masterpiece by
one of the editors of the legendary Oz magazine and a successful
defendant in the celebrated 1971 London obscenity trial for the
Schoolkids Issue. Neville defended himself, while the other two editors
were represented by John Mortimer, creator of Rumpole of the Bailey.
The examples of things worth endlessly repeating that Neville used were
sex and something else, now what was that other thing ...
  

    

Do it, David!
  

    



Jonathan Gal writes:


Or, maybe Row Jimmy>They Love Each Other .... which seems to have a similar
"funk" to it, though at faster pace.

This TLEO is sweet, puts a double twist in my step ...

<http://www.archive.org/details/gd73-02-15.sbd.hall.1580.sbeok.shnf>
  

    
Posted on behalf of Galileo Orland (exactly as received....):

levee doing the doe pas o. song is about flooding on the river.  ask
the time baby i dont know shows the repetive na ture of flood ing on
the mississ ippi   the kevee doing the doe pas o is the le ee swaying
to and fro and about to break. there is more, much more, but enough for
noe.  listen to the song during the spring tours. all graceful
instruments will br knwn.

iGalileo
  

    
I have a new thought, for me at least, about Row Jimmy, after
watching "Showboat" the other evening. One of the lead characters is
Julie, a singer on the boat, and at one point she demonstrates a
step they're all doing down on the levee. Coincidence? I think not. 

Plus, the show's songs are written by Jerome Kern, Jerry's namesake.


I was hoping there was a Jimmy in the cast, but the most likely
character is named Joe (sings "Old Man River").
  

    

Long ago, Hunter recited a bit of the original lyric, something like

How long, Jack, did we sign on for?
How long, Jack, til we get to shore?
Row, Jimmy, Row...
  

    
Aha. Jack....hmmmm. 
  

    
It might have been "How long Jack... How long John..."
  

    
But no Jim?
  

    
I meant...no Joe?
  

    
Not if I remember correctly. Bear in mind this is a snatch of a conversation
that took place 40 years ago.

I'll have to see if it's on an interview tape.
  

    
I find the 40-year-old memories more easily accessed (sometimes)
than yesterday's. I guess that statement constitutes topic drift. I
apologize. 
  

    
It's in a 1977 interview in "Conversations With The Dead". When
Hunter was asked about "Row Jimmy" he said:

"The title came from:

     How long, Jack, till we get to Singapore?
     How long, Joe, did we sign on for?
     Better keep bailing while the rain pours down
     The day crews sleeping and the night crews drowned
     Row, Jimmy, row
     Gonna get there, I don't know"

Hunter sang it as an intro to Row Jimmy on June 19 1980. It is in
fact a fragment from his lyric "Fair To Even Odds", published in Box
of Rain and set to music by Pete Sears. See
<http://www.whitegum.com/songfile/FAIRTOEV.HTM>
  

    
Yay! 

But I still cling to my Showboat theory. 
  

    
Julie's younger friend is named Magnolia. 
  

    
Thank you, Alex!
  

    
Best Row Jimmy, based in guitar solos, IMHO:

https://youtu.be/3pE-dotBsRs?t=2905

Grateful Dead Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA 3/26/88 Complete Show
  

    
Yep.  That’s a good one.  You should post it in the gdpeak conf. 
  

    
That Row Jimmy is already highlighted in OTDIDH.
  

    

<https://www.dead.net/deadcast/wake-flood-50-row-jimmy>