Top 25 Grateful Dead Songs: Jerry

Five of my favorite Jerry Garcia-led songs from the Dead's catalogue.

This next batch of Grateful Dead songs focuses on five of my favorite Jerry Garcia songs (save for the ones that will appear in my final, best-of-the-best Top 5).

We’ll be doing a batch of Bobby Weir songs next and then moving into that final final Top 5 list soon. So stay tuned!

“He's Gone”

A song that was about the band’s manager at the time (father of Mickey Hart, one of the band’s two drummers) absconding with their money turned into the song the Dead used to pay tribute to a friend of the group’s who had passed on. This speaks to the range of interpretations that are contained within these songs.

It also gave us the line “Steal your face right off you head,” which provided the name for the famous Stealie/Steal Your Face logo.

You can hear elements of the Workingman’s Dead vocal harmonies on “He’s Gone,” but “He’s Gone” is more expansive than the songs on that album. Though Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty seem anomalous at times relative to the rest of the Dead’s oeuvre, on something like “He’s Gone” it becomes clear how that is not the case.

There’s greater opportunity for improvisation with "He’s Gone” when it is performed live. According to Heady Version, the best performance of this track was at the famous 8/27/72 show in Veneta, Oregon. I am inclined to agree.

“Althea”

We jump from early ‘70s Dead to ‘80s Dead with this track off of Go To Heaven, which was a regular in the Grateful Dead’s setlist following its recording. I can’t help but notice the Shakespeare allusions in the Robert Hunter-penned lyrics.

You may be a clown in the burying ground

or just another pretty face

You may be the fate of Ophelia

sleeping and perchance to dream -

honest to the point of recklessness

self centered to the extreme

There’s this slinky electric blues sound Garcia creates (I also think Brent Mydland’s addition to the group played a role in the creation of that vibe), which gives the track an element of darkness. It’s a song of the night.

“Althea” is also a great combination of lyrics but also with the room for Garcia to solo on the lead guitar and stretch things out. Songs will often feel like they have to be in one camp or another, but “Althea” is very much in both. It has a drive to it, but it’s also very languid and silky. It’s something of a conundrum. It’s great.

“It Must Have Been The Roses”

This one should have gone in either the honorable mention post or with the more miscellaneous choices because both the words and music were from Robert Hunter.

But I’m including it here because it’s a song I couldn’t leave off. The way Garcia sings highlights its beautiful fragility. It also reminds us that Bobby Weir wasn’t the only member of the band who could do the cowboy act, as Garcia excels with this country-tinged saloon song.

But I’m not going to count it towards my total, which will allow me to include another song here. Specifically…

“Brokedown Palace”

As part of his annotations of the Grateful Dead’s lyrics, David Dodd includes this e-mail regarding the song’s title.

I thought that you and the readers of the sight might be interested to know that the word originated in Steinbeck's Cannery Row, published 1945. The Broke-down Palace was the name that some bums gave to a dilapitated warehouse, where they all resided.

David Brown

Asheville, NC

Hunter making literary allusions in his lyrics again, which I love.

This is a song that, like the track that precedes it on American Beauty, feels both anthemic and so delicate. So large and so slight.

The big-ness of the song comes from Hunter’s lyrics, which paint a picture of weary wandering that wouldn’t seem out of place in Steinbeck or Jack Kerouac.

Goin home, goin home

by the waterside I will rest my bones

Listen to the river sing sweet songs

to rock my soul

The music is so lilting and beautiful—the plunking piano calling to mind the past along with the slight twang of the pedal steel, the vocal harmonizing, and the softly-played drums with Bill Kreutzmann gently keeping time using the ride cymbal. The music feels like it could slip away.

There’s a profound tranquility to this track that makes it stand out in the Dead’s oeuvre.”Brokedown Palace” is also a bit of a rarity amongst the Dead’s songs in that the album version is the one I listen to most often.

“Here Comes Sunshine”

Garcia’s evocative lead guitar work on “Here Comes Sunshine” is what makes it work. There’s something so simple to it, perhaps echoing the sunshine referenced in the title. This shining, pristine brilliance can be heard on both the album version and when it was performed live.

The version on Wake of the Flood is a bite-sized version, the easily consumable and direct distilled presentation. But when it was performed live, it provided that jumping off point for improvisation and exploration, as you can hear in this 1973 version from Pauley Pavilion on the UCLA campus.

“Eyes of the World”

This is another of those songs that could’ve easily ended up in my final Top 5 but got ever-so-slightly edged out. There’s this brilliant sheen and brightness to “Eyes,” similar to what you hear on “Here Comes Sunshine,” which makes sense because they’re from the same album. But while “Sunshine” is a slight treat, “Eyes” is more of a heavy-hitter, particularly as a chance for Garcia to show off his lead guitar chops with some stellar licks.

It, like some of the other songs I’ve got on this list, has some stellar lines courtesy of Robert Hunter.

Wake now, discover that you

are the song that the morning brings

but the heart has its seasons

its evenings and songs of its own

While the version on Wake of the Flood is quite good, and there are some other stellar live versions, I’m incredibly partial to the March 29th, 1990 version that features Branford Marsalis on the saxophone.

“Eyes” is a song that the Dead could play in a very… hot way, and Marsalis’ saxophone provides this cooling counterpoint that gives this version such a great feeling. The interplay between Marsalis and Garcia as they each take the lead and solo during this version is really stunning. There’s also some great playing in this performance from Brent as well as Phil Lesh.