Decoy

J

Joel Stewart

Joel Stewart
You told me good-bye, how was I to know?
You didn't mean good-bye, you meant please.....

don't let me go (I was having a high time)....
Living the good life, well I know

The wheels are muddy, got a ton of hay,
now listen here, Baby, 'cause I mean what I say.
I'm having a high time, living the good life, well I know.

I was losing time, I had nothing to do,
no one to fight, I came to you.
Wheels broke down, leader won't draw,
the line is busted, the last one I saw.

Tomorrow come trouble, tomorrow come pain,
now don't think too hard Baby, 'cause I know what I'm saying.

I could show you a high time, living the good life, don't be that way.

Nothing's for certain, it could always go wrong,
Come in when it's raining, go on out when it's gone.

We could have us a high time, living the good life, well I know.
 
Both albums do have their merits. Also listening to Reckoning these days. Their music in the country idiom is quite tasty as well as underestimated, imo.
 
And I thought...he is drinking Duckhorn Decoy???? (a real mess of a wine from Napa..overpriced and overhyped)
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
One of my favorites from the dead. This and Easy Wind are two of my favorite tracks. I guess that dates me.
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But maybe because of the country idiom, it seems constant. Though we listeners may date ourselves, the song holds. Jerry's pedal steel is so tasty on High Time...he hits the core of country with it....
 
originally posted by Larry Stein:
Ian is right, you know. Most of the live versions of Easy Wind from early '70 kick ass.
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I think the ultimate version can easily be heard here. Of particular note are Bob's first, then Jerry's solos in the second half of the song. The acoustic set is truly exceptional too. This run of FE shows happened just after having concluded the American Beauty sessions.

That is of course if you enjoy this kind of thing. I don't think this level of music quality and performance has an expiration date.

edit: If you look further to the other posted versions, the "Jim Wise, Darrin Sacks and SirMick" version is heavily spoofed digital noise reduction.
 
archive.org rocks.....this is great stuff. The drumming approach on Easy Wind shifts what would be a typical blues dive number into something with the potential to lift off....no doubt as planned. Must just be me and a few others, but the archives are so vast, I never tire of this stuff. Jerry is one of the few American musicians who learned the roots of American music and basically never repeated himself in his solos throughout a 30 yr career, and Robert Hunter, still alive, is a brilliant scholar/translater/poet...Wharf Rat even better than High Time.
 
And then there's Jack Straw ...

There's a documentary around somewhere of Garcia and David Grisman (Grateful Dawg) with some cool footage showing both Jerry's country roots and his skill with an acoustic guitar - which he plays like a mandolin, whipping off lengthy riffs of distinct 32nd notes.
 
Now you've got me listening to a soundboard acoustic set from the Warfield in '80 (burned from archive.org back in the days you could do such thngs). Jerry's voice really crashed in the late '70s, but the playing skills remained strong for a long time after that.
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
And then there's Jack Straw ...

There's a documentary around somewhere of Garcia and David Grisman (Grateful Dawg) with some cool footage showing both Jerry's country roots and his skill with an acoustic guitar - which he plays like a mandolin, whipping off lengthy riffs of distinct 32nd notes.
Click to expand...

I still haven't seen that yet, dammit....have you heard the Warfield '91 shows with Grisman, Jerry on acoustic, an upright bassist and a percussionist? They play a whole range from old timey, Irish, bluegrass to Irving Berlin (Russian Lullaby, which Jerry just rips on) and Miles Davis. Chops are way up there.
 
David, since I work at home, I can stream all of those shows on archive.org (if I had 30 yrs!)...but I love to pick periods and hone in on shows from certain tours and stream them while I work. What a fabulous resource.

The 70's was one heck of a growth decade for the band. Weir's writing brought in some amazing material especially, I thought.
 
Barton Hall (5/8) and Fox Theater (5/19) in May '77 are my two favorite shows.

Barlow wrote some pretty nice lyrics for Weir. He wasn't Hunter, but not bad at all.
 
Barton Hall I know and love....will check on Fox, thanks! Barlow had some good word twist moments, and he's no intellectual slouch by any stretch (and to be sure, both Barlow and Hunter lagged in the end, tho I think Hunter had some final second swish hoop shots)...what I mainly meant tho was that Weir's compositional writing in the 70's kicked some ass in the musical sense. Without it, the Dead would have been just a bigger version of JGB. Playing in the Band and Estimated Prophet, just for starters...
 
originally posted by Joel Stewart:
Jerry's pedal steel is so tasty on High Time...
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I had the pleasure of seeing Jerry play pedal steel when the band backed Bob Dylan in the summer of 1987. What a treat.

So many haunting Dead moments. My favorite may be the first few notes of the Dark Star revival in October 1989. Still gives me chills.
 
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