Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
I'd be interested in hearing about how you and Rita got together and
stayed together. All I know is that you met on The Well. From the
outside looking in, it seems like you have one of the more devoted and
durable relationships around. That's as much of an accomplishment as
the music.
  

    

Rita and I met at a series of WELL-mediated events, most notable the Sing
Thing.  (See <oakland.354> for the current incarnation of the Sing Ting
topic, and http://www.singthing.org for more info.)

There was also tthe chili cookoff at the Berkeley Yacht Club - in August
1992, I think - to which Rita brought the richest, yummiest cornbread you
ever tasted.  Bu mostly it was the Sing Thing, which was pretty mush a
monthly event in those days.  We just sort of emerged out of the crowd into
each other's gaze over a period of months, and on November 5, 1992 I just
couldn't take my eyes off her.  I won't bore you with the details, but we
communicated over that weekend and had dinner together on November 8.  And
the rest is history!  We were married on September 11, 1994 at the Pt Isabel
dog park on the shores of San Francisco Bay, opposite the Golden Gate, on a
breezy and beautiful day.  Tennis balls and frisbees were thrown, and some of
our friends wore necklaces by Fido of Milkbone.
  

    
So sweet in the telling.  "Emerged out of the crowd into each other's 
gaze" almost sounds like the seeds of song.  
  

    
What Gail said!

And Sing Thing! I had seen that mentioned somewhere else but with no
explanation. So I conjured up a scenario in my head and dang if it
ain't pretty close.

I might just get motivated to have one at our house.
  

    
Is being on the road good therapy right now, or not? How is it playing
songs and singing lyrics that you associate with the people you
recently lost?
  

    
Speaking of lyrics that directly address other people, I woke up this
morning with "Sovereign Soul" in my head.  I was wondering if you could
talk a little bit about that song -- its genesis, what you were trying
to do with it, either musically or lyrically.

It's one of my favorites of yours -- when I made a couple of CDs of
music for my son's wedding, it was one that I included.
  

    

Funny thing about "Sovereign Soul."  I sat down just before my wedding to
write a song - for Rita and our love, I expected - and that fierce
libertarian anthem emerged.  What the fock?

Fortunately, Rita was not offended - although one of our dear friends found
it alarming.

The lyrics:

Sovereign Soul
David Gans

I'm a sovereign soul
And my freedom is something I mean to enjoy
I'm a sovereign soul
My time and attention are mine to deploy
I'm a sovereign soul
And I was not created by anyone's God
So I won't go inferno for breaking his laws
I'm a sovereign soul
And I speak for myself and I do as I please
And I care for my neighbor come famine or freeze
I'm a sovereign soul

I'm a sovereign soul
I know who my friends are and what's worth the time
And I won't kiss your ass unless you're kissing mine
I'm a sovereign soul
I thought I was dead but I came back to life
I'm sticking with this world and taking a wife
She's a sovereign soul
I'm a sovereign soul
We are sovereign souls

I'm a sovereign soul
And I do what I can to make sense of it all
And I keep myself ready to answer the call
I'm a sovereign soul
And I own my own words and I think for myself
And there's more to this life than creation of wealth
I'm a sovereign soul
And I honor my word and I pay off my debts
And I tell you my story so I don't forget
I'm a sovereign soul
We are sovereign souls
You are a sovereign soul



What was I trying to do with it, musically or lyrically?  Hard to say, since
my intention at that moment was to write something else entirely.

I think it's a powerful statement, but for some reason it hasn't been as
prominently featured in my shows as I would have expected.  Part of the
reason for that, I think, is that it needs a more elaborate musical setting
than I am able to give it on my own.  I've got a picture in my head of
mariachi horns playing a counterpoint to the melody; if I had a budget I'd
hire a Mexican band to record it with me.

I think it expresses my philosophy well, and it is thematically consistent
with my recent work.  It's taken me years to feel that I have standing to do
this sort of preaching, but I think there is a coherent world view emerging
in my work.  I strive to make strong but non-confrontational statements.
  

    
Oops, I sent that too soon.

By that, I mean: in the grand tradition of sensitive new-age guys and all
that shit, I am making "I" statements rather than "you" statements.
  

    

And to answer Ruth's question:  All performing is therapeutic, all the time!
  

    
Slippage in answer to Ruth's question ...


The thing that resonates for me in the song -- and the reason I sent
it to my son when he got married -- is, in one sense, the obvious:

I'm sticking with this world and taking a wife
She's a sovereign soul
I'm a sovereign soul
We are sovereign souls

But then, I think that "fierce libertarian" streak of the song is
wholly appropriate for embarking on a marriage in which two individuals
remain true to themselves while also acknowledging, respecting, and
reinforcing the other's "sovereign soul."  I think I can see how a
friend would be alarmed, but it has always seemed to me to be right on
target as a marriage song.

I've never thought of mariachi horns, though!
  

    
Thanks, Gary. You get it!

Our wedding vows include the phrase "guardian of each other's solitude."
  

    
another aye for this one.
it is one of the songs that set you apart from the pack.
the music doesn't vie for position with what you're saying but it is
powerful in a supportive way.
i can't imagine anyone else setting different words to that tune.
there's a terrific version on the Solo Acoustic CD.
  

    
John Adams writes:


David, I'd like to turn Peter's question in #249 around and ask how
being associated with the Dead has affected your relationship with
other music lovers who are not big fans of the Dead, either
Dead-bashers (the old me, who still drops by my house from time to
time) or those to whom the Dead is just another band (the newer me, who
gets along better with my wife, who spent a few months following them
around and didn't care so much for the old me).

And a note for Sharon in reference to #243: When I saw Zevon in the
summer of '94 and early in '96, he was using what sounded to me like a
single loop, probably controlled both by his soundman and by the switch
I saw him stomp, to run rhythm behind his lead.
  

    

> how being associated with the Dead has affected your relationship with
> other music lovers who are not big fans of the Dead

It's hard to know, but I've often felt that people who don't care for the
Dead are dismissing me without hearing me because they assume they won't care
for me, either.
  

    
I am not much of a a Dead fan.  Lately, though, as I poke deeper into
the obscure corners of folk, roots music, and country rock, I get what
they were doing a little better.

I had a pretty good idea of your association with them going in and it
had no influence on my decision to pursue an interest in your music.

I don't know if I have this right but I think there was a quote from
one of the band members in the liner notes for the Persuasions album
that said something like, "Maybe someone will come along one of these
days who will do this music justice."  Something like that.  I think
you do their music great justice.  Can you give us some impressions of
the some of the bands that cover and/or mimic the Dead's style?  Who
does them justice, who's just along for the ride, maybe even some bands
that are characterized as Dead-like when they are really doing their
own thing?
  

    <scribbled by tnf Fri 15 Sep 06 00:27>
  

    

Peter, that is a great multi-part question, and I'm going to take some time
to answer it thoroughly.  But not right now, because I am on my way to a
music festival where the Grateful Dead are the principal inspiration.

Headlining is Dark Star Orchestra ( www.darkstarorchestra.net ) - the premier
Grateful Dead tribute band in the country.  DSO take a studious approach,
replaying set lists from GD history and replicating (but not note for note,
which would be impossible) the atmosphere and musical setting of the era.
Their players are very good at doing this, which some consider to be cheap
and imitative but which I know to be quite a challenge.

For one thing, I pick the handful of Grateful Dead songs that work for me -
that tell my story, as noted earlier, and of course the ones that suit my
musical abilities.  DSO has to learn all the songs from the years they are
committed to covering (post-Pigpen: 1971-1995), including the difficult ones
and the lame ones.  They pay careful attention to the instruments,
amplifiers, stylistic evolution, tempos, etc. of the band through time.  It's
not something I am interested in doing, but I very musch appreciate the work
they put into it and I know from sharing stages with them they they do this
because they really love the music and get great pleasure from playing it.
And there is an audience for it.

Also on today's bill are the Zen Tricksters, who began as a Dead cover band
more than 20 years ago but have a voice of their own and a fine book of
original songs.  Jeff Mattson can evoke Jerry's playing brilliantly, but he
also sounds like himself.  The Tricksters have struggled with the mantle of
their Dead association - facing an audience that tends to want more Dead than
they'd care to deliver.  Last year we shared a gig at Mystic Hot Springs (in
Monroe, Utah).  our host at Mystic, Mike Ginsberg, does a multi-camera video
shoot of every gig, and likes to sell the results if all agree they're
worthwhile.  It's much easier to do that if you don't have to pay sync
licenses to outside publishers, so the Tricksters played a full set of
original material that just knocked me out.

Also last year, the Tricksters bassist, Klyph Black (the spelling is a hold-
over from his heavy-metal days :^), and I put together a short but wonderful
tour that we called Guilty Pleasures, collaborating with three other
musicians who speak that GD language but also have our own things to say.
The songbook for that band was mmostly original material, with a handful of
GD songs and other covers.

At its best, the Grateful Dead connection gives us a starting point for our
own new dialogue - a framework for improvisations, in precisely the same way
jazz, standards, and dixieland do for players in other genres.  David Crosby
referred to the GD as "electronic dixieland," and I think that is quite apt.
  

    

There aren't very many bands doing what the Grateful Dead did at their best:
creating complex musical structures spontaneously.  Most improvisational
music, in all genres, tends to consist of the band playing the head of the
song and then soloists taking turns, with the other musicians supporting and
interacting to some degree.  When the GD groupmind was in full flower, they'd
go to truly uncharted spaces and build magnificent compositions on the fly.
It's hard to do, and my experience as a player over the last 35 years has
shown me that the true nature of that magic is not comprehended by as many
GD-inspired players as I had expected, or hoped.  It is meant to be
colelctive, spontaneous composition by profoundly sympathetic players - a
very difficult bond to achieve and maintain.

Bill Graham fanously said "The Grateful Dead aren't the best at what they do
- they're the only ones who do what they do."  All who are inspired by that
music can take a piece or two from the Dead, but there are too many factors
that depended on the specific people involved, and the specific time in which
it was created, for it to be repeated.

I hunger for the opportunity to build those cathedrals in the air, but even
when I find myself in the company of like-minded players it's very hard to
pull off.  obviously in my solo show I can't even begin to approach that sort
of achievemeent, but I am able to improvise brand new music in collaboration
with my looping tools (which aren't at all good at listening and adjusting,
which is an essential part of the deal).  What I take from the GD is Jerry
Garcia's appreciation of a good song - original or otherwise; a sense of
narrative, both in the individual song and in the structuring of a show; a
love of ballads; a striving for emotional revelation and honesty; a
willingness to go deep and dark in service of the story; and an openness to
the moment we're sharing, wherever we are.
  

    

More later.  I gotta go to the festival.

By the way:  www.zentricksters.com
And today's festival is at www.nlqp.com - rural Ohio, an hour east of
Cleveland.  It continues through tomorrow.
  

    
Enjoy the festival, David!
  

    
John Adams writes:

David, I get what you're saying in #264 so far as your role as a
musician, and I have an idea what it's like for you as a writer, but
I'm curious what the effect has been in your non-professional musical
life, as just another music lover among other music lovers.
  

    


Can you imagine just stumbling on this interview now?  

This is one of those moments when I want to subscribe to the hardcopy
version of the Well.
  

    
I just did stumble on this conversation...pretty interesting. My
favorite band that is/was "characterized as Grateful Dead-like but was
in fact doing their own thing" is/was Phish. Many of the songs they
actually played had a lot more in common with Frank Zappa and others
than the Grateful Dead, but instead of "covering" the music of the
Grateful Dead they instead "covered" the entire Grateful Dead ethos, in
terms of their approach to improvisation, the structure of their
concerts, and their business method. 

I'm more impressed by bands that choose to take what they love about
the Grateful Dead and make something new out of it, rather than playing
Grateful Dead songs as their tribute to the Grateful Dead...but that
can be enjoyable too. Zen Tricksters are great...and Dark Star
Orchestra...they're too "Ripley's Believe it Or Not" for me, but they
are AMAZING at what they do, i.e. imitating the Grateful Dead as close
as possible to the real thing, down to covering entire Dead shows and
having a singer/guitarist who looks, sounds, and moves just like Bob
Weir.

But anyway, I think David does a great job of writing songs that are
inspired by a part or parts of what he loves about the Grateful Dead,
rather than trying to write songs that sound like the Dead, or trying
to go out and play a set of Dead songs every night. Then again, those
songs are truly fun and exciting to interpret...so once in a while, why
not?
  

    
How do you write your setlists? i.e. what goes into deciding what you
want to play on a given night?
  

    
Lots of questions here ...

I have another, but I'll hold it until tomorrow or so, after David has
had a chance to address those that have been posed during his travels.