It was such a tricky song to recreate that the Dead stopped playing it onstage between and Late in life, Garcia loved nothing better than an epic melancholy ballad that spoke to his difficult journey. I can lean back and have fun with it. I kept writing and writing versions of it.
By the early Eighties, Garcia was grappling with his escalating and ultimately life-threatening drug addiction, as well as malaise within the Dead itself. Perhaps some of his feelings spilled out on the title track and high point of his solo album. Trading jaunty licks with fiddle player Vassar Clements, he delivered a wry, buoyant performance that achieves the timelessness he was looking for. Garcia and the Dead were always extremely critical of their recorded output; they always felt more comfortable onstage, where songs truly blossomed, than in a studio.
In that regard, Garcia was never more unhappy with a studio performance than he was with this country-blues breakup song. Garcia always put down that performance, too. One of the last and most poignant songs Garcia and Hunter wrote together was this steadfastly contemplative ballad, which gradually built in tension over its 11 minutes. I almost feel in certain respects we were just getting started. More so than any other single song. It seemed to get my feeling about those times and our place in it.
Black Pete is a traditional Dutch bogeyman, but Hunter turned him into an ailing, sympathetic figure — and Garcia merrily took on the role. The song started as a shuffle when the Dead began playing it live in early , but Garcia toughened it up for his first solo album, with a slide-guitar riff and a rarely heard growl in his vocal.
Just the feel. Though never recorded in a studio, it was performed live more than times. The result is one of his most gripping vocal performances. Guitarist Jerry Garcia, right, and drummer Mickey Hart play music spanning two decades to an enthusiastic crowd of rock and roll fans. Hunter, who lived in the Mission when he was starting out with the Dead, penned the testimonial of a wharf-rat-style down-and-outer whose dreams once rode tall.
In the middle of the extended experimental section of his first solo album, Garcia began jamming on piano, joined by drummer Kreutzmann. Out tumbled this rollicking melody that, luckily, was captured on tape. The core of this sprawling multipart composition is sung by Weir. But the breathtaking guitar runs that define it are pure Sixties Garcia. For a relatively straightforward boogie, this enduring shuffle equating the symbol of America with showmen like P. Barnum had a somewhat tortuous history.
When Garcia first recorded this come-down ballad, he admitted that it was his magisterial melody that appealed to him. Who was Franklin, and where was his tower? Onstage in , Hunter finally clarified the inspiration behind the song — his wife, Maureen, whom he met in England where the song is set.
A revolutionary cell? Therefore, the best part, I would hope, would not be anything in particular that I might have to say, but rather, the conversation that may happen via the comments over the course of time—and since all the posts will stay up, you can feel free to weigh in any time on any of the songs!
The narrator, after an elegant opening musical riff that establishes a deceptively lazy and laid-back feel, tells Althea about his life situation, as a lead-up to what, apparently, is a declaration of needing to back out of their relationship. Althea assents that indeed, things are not all right in his world, and proceeds to give him quite a bit of advice. Starting with our title character, Hunter weaves in his ambiguity.
She pulls the log from the fire, but casts it onto a fire years later when she learns her son has murdered her brothers. And poof! Her speech begins at the end of the first verse, and carries through to the beginning of the final verse.
Each word we say is something we ourselves might need to hear, and all those words attributed to Althea—might they not be a conversation the narrator is having with himself? Could it be an entirely internal dialogue? Or, conversely, could it be that the words Althea speaks might just as well be self-directed? This is what I love about these words—they might sound like one wise person giving advice to a foolish heart, but they might be that foolish heart talking to himself, or they might be the wise person addressing his or her own foolish heart while supposedly giving advice to another.
And all along there is the wash of the musical setting, lulling us and gradually building to the bridge, and then dropping off again for the final verse, and the closing with one final instrumental round through the verse chords. The entire show was like that, and there were moments of less-than-stellar musicianship.
If the song was a message to Garcia from Hunter, then his playing it right up to the end was some kind of brave acknowledgement of the relevance of the lyrics. And that is a wonderful thing to look forward to. Where Were We? September 25, That all seems pretty straightforward, right? Next Article:. Grateful Dead Hour no. Jerry Garcia Jerry Garcia. Bob Weir Bob Weir.
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Homepage Feature title. Custom Teaser. Feature type. Greatest Stories Ever Told. Althea It is interesting you bring up Greek mythology. Hunter loved to visit that stuff. For whatever reason, maybe due to what was going on when I first heard it, I have always thought Althea was about what happens in a group of friends when egos, jealousy and personal ambitions start to block the light.
We forget what is truly important and get caught up in petty intrigue and little games. Bonds of love can become strained, changed or even break. Althea seems to be reminding the singer, who is caught up in all this crap, of what really matters. At the end of the day, you need the ones you love and who love you more than what ever small thing you have fixed your mind on "Gonna want a bed to lay your head and a little sympathy" BTW I saw those Shoreline shows as well.
I thought the "Days Between" on the day after the show with "Althea" was a very sad moment. I had been watching the band for 23 years at that point and it seemed over. Mysterious Althea Althea has always struck me as a marvelously one-of-a-kind piece of music. Quite likely many musicians could quickly explain what "kind" of song this is--e.
Regardless, my mind refuses to let it fit into any such box. To me it just seems to exist without family or peer, and that alone makes it astonishing--like finding a big blue diamond on a sandy beach. Some may have heard a story about an afternoon show at Frost Amphitheater Stanford.
All morning there was a heavy overcast and it was shaping up to be a foggy, grey, and possibly rainy day. But then, about half way into the first set the band plays Althea and literally just as Jerry sang "this space is getting hot It seemed everybody there was amazed and convinced it was a miracle.
This story is true. Just a strange coincidence, perchance, but it happened. And it's something else too. Maybe all of us have already heard this exceptional "Rockpalast" rendition.
I find it mesmerizing and consider it definitive. If there is a stronger version anywhere, I'd like to learn of it. Hamlet David -- I am struggling to understand why you decided to omit the reference to Hamlet in Althea. Perhaps because it is so obvious, but it reflects the complexity you reference here. Not only is the narrator plagued by the same vacillations as the Prince, albeit not as deadly, but he and Althea share -- again not as extreme -- the same on-again-off-again relationship that Hamlet shares with Ophelia.
Ok, so much for the obvious. The interesting part is how Hunter transfers the contemplation of suicide sleep perchance to dream from Hamlet to Ophelia.
While the shoe fits -- Hamlet's madness is only rivaled by Ophelia's despair over the death of her father -- the reference is so blatantly misplaced by Hunter, it can't be unintentional. Instead, I would offer it is exactly as you discuss: Hunter suggests that the madness of love is interchangeable.
It may be the fate of Ophelia, but it may be the fate of Hamlet or both. It doesn't matter. The love is the thing. And it is surely dead.
I love your analysis, but Hunter is rarely so conspicous and he doesn't do it idly or cheaply. We can't expect to grasp this work without examining that line, it seems to me. Honest Talk Have you ever had a dialog with a person you know sees right through you, and so you know you have to be brutally honest with, and in so doing reveal things you never fully realized about yourself to yourself?
To me, this is what "Can't talk to you without talking to me" means. Every time you try to explain yourself to this person you're actually telling yourself the truth that you aren't facing up to. This can be painful and is maybe why he wants to pull away from her, but can't.
Another key line in this song to my ear is "Honest to the point of recklessness, self-centered in the extreme. Oh well, fantastic song and such a great, hook-filled tune. I love the "now I'm trying to Catch Her" emphasis toward the end of the song. Althea All of the song is resonant but the line that has always stood out for me as the most complex one to wrestle with and contemplate is the couplet: Honest to the point of Recklessness Self centered to the Extreme and then from that Spring , first released on "Without a Net", the ascending clarion notes of Brent emphasizing and punctuating the line I always thought that honesty is the point of the song.
Of course then the song goes on to reconciliation and that this flickering perfect honesty is not a monolithic aspect of any one person and that we all fail at the goal held aloft. I now need to go listen to an Althea, thanks Stanford Althea I can confirm the cosmic occurrence referenced in handjive's post. The show took place on August 21, , and it started out as a chilly summer afternoon, the infamous San Francisco fog doing it's thing.
I remember a young naked boy complaining to his mom that he was cold. Anyway, the sun broke through exactly as handjive described, the warmth was felt instantly, and the significance of the moment was immediately recognized by the crowd - you can actually hear the reaction quite clearly in recordings. One of the more memorable of the many moments of synchronicity I experienced at Dead shows over the years.
There's also the fact that Althea is the botanical name of Rose of Sharon, and Hunter is not one to do these things by accident. I think it's linked to the song of that name in interesting ways. I don't know if it is "stronger" but it is a solid performance, appropriately punctuated with Bob's slide.
Not sure this illuminates anything much, but here's the very small portion of my Golden Road interview with Garcia and Hunter about the song.
BJ: I think "Althea" is one of your most interesting songs. JG to Hunter : What is she? The anima? The helpful lady, big sister kind of RH: I don't know if it's the anima; I'm not a Jungian.
JG: Me neither. I see her out there. RH: You evoke her, you don't say what she is. JG: She's beyond description. RH: Minerva. JG: Right. Your helpful god-woman. RH: Or Athena. BJ: The whole thing is just an evocation of her, in the same way a song like "She Belongs to Me" just offers these flashes of feeling more than information about the main character.
It's more mood than anything else. JG: Well, sometimes the mood is the thing, and it says it better than anything else does. The justice dealer Great story about the log. I'll think twice this fall when I throw another log on the fire.
I remember an excerpt from Relix Magazine about Saturdays child. Monday's child is fair of face,Tuesday's child is full of grace, Wednesday's child is full of woe, Thursday's child has far to go, Friday's child is loving and giving, Saturday's child works hard for a living, But the child who is born on the Sabbath Day Is bonny and blithe and good and gay. It is weird,I was just thinking the other day as I was on Archive listening to some 76 shows,thanks to the "Tapers Section" recommendations.
With all the new tunes released around that time, I was pontificating on the 20 or so "lost" songs that we may have had from 95 onward. Oh well. Thanks for the informative forum. Chord wise fun song to play. I like the bridge. Dmaj, G, F E There are things you can replace After "born to be a bachelor" It sure sounds like, it was Althea, after that, that says, "Ok that's fine, Son, now I'm gonna try and catch ya" Maybe that misunderstanding explains a lot in my own life!!!! Haha oops!!!!
Sometimes the mood is the thing That comment of Jerry's from blairj's interview- "Well, sometimes the mood is the thing, and it says it better than anything else does"- really struck me, as this is how I tend to approach music. As a fairly analytically-oriented person most of the time, I compensate by relating to music and the other arts in a fairly emotionally-driven, non-analytical way referencing Jung a bit farther, in a loose sense, music helps me access an "inferior function" of mine- a direct emotional experience of something.
Because Hunter's and often, Barlow's lyrics are strongly ambiguous, I've always responded to them on a predominantly emotional level, along with the melodies and the playing, without much thought to their particular meanings.
For me Althea evokes desire with ambivalence, and an awareness of one's reluctance to fully commit in relationships, plus the approach-distance dynamic in relationships, and the dark, rueful humor of it all- but I've interpreted it that way based more upon particular lines and their relationship to what's being played with them- the bluesy, funky, offbeat music- rather than a close or deep reading of the lyrics.
Of course, Chinacat also strikes me now as having a lot of overlap in the psychedelia of its lyrics with Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds as I see now that Handjive has written about in another post - interesting to note how the tone of each of the melodies- Chinacat strikes me as very bluesy, bouncy, and upbeat, while LSD strikes me as a bit joyful with a tinge of melancholy for most of the song in a very calm way- seem to really fit with the lyrics.
Now I'm trying to imagine Chinacat's lyrics in a more placid melody, and the substance of Lucy's lyrics presented in a bouncy way! I imagine my experience of the music is a fairly common one, but I still do enjoy the analyses of the lyrics as well. I'm really glad they haven't attempted in their interviews to nail down the meanings of the lyrics to them!
Strong overall rendition of it and great show, though- and once again- " Jerry f-ups I was always amused by how often Jerry would mess up the line before "If you get confused listen to the music play Give me more. This blog is fun to read every week, but what it needs are a lot more performance notes. These are ususally all about the lyrics and their possible meaning.
I'm not a lyrics guy. You sing 'em, I hear 'em.
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