Cornell '77: The Music, the Myth, and the Magnificence of the Grateful Dead's Concert at Barton Hall by Peter Conners

Author:Peter Conners [Conners, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Genres & Styles, Rock, State & Local, Middle Atlantic (DC; DE; MD; NJ; NY; PA), Music, United States, Individual Composer & Musician, History
ISBN: 9781501712562
Google: HnNuDgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Cornell
Published: 2017-04-11T13:52:07+00:00

“Not Fade Away”

Ah yes, that Bo Diddley beat. The second stress occurring on the second, rather than the third, beat of the first measure. The beat that street-corner musicians once called “hambone” and hammered out on their arms, legs, chest, and cheeks. The “patted Jumba” beat that came to rock ’n’ roll via West Africa. The beat that, when Dead crowds swelled to their largest, was executed with near-perfect synchronization by tens of thousands of fans clapping in unison to show the Grateful Dead how much their music was appreciated and to beg them to come back out to play just one more.

The Grateful Dead debuted their take on “Not Fade Away” at the Carousel Ballroom (which predated the Fillmore West at the same San Francisco location) on June 19, 1969. They played it only once that year, then three times in 1969, before hitting the tune with full commitment a total of forty-nine times in 1970. Although that would be the most they ever played “Not Fade Away” in a single year, the song remained a staple until the end of the band’s career, including twenty-six performances in 1977. When the dust cleared in 1995 they had performed the song a total of 531 times, and fans had all but commandeered the end of the song to turn it into a massive group chant, accompanied by clapping the Bo Diddley beat, to display their gratitude for the Grateful Dead. To be in an arena filled with thousands of blissed-out music fans clapping in unison and singing a profession of their undying love for the band was to know the true meaning of rock ’n’ roll devotion.

In 1977, the Dead took a smooth, laid-back approach to “Not Fade Away.” In Cornell, the song is light and bouncy (instead of the straightforward rock ’n’ roll rave-up it would become) and opens into long jam sections with Garcia exploring the upper regions of his fret board. It is a shimmeringly good version, but perhaps the unique part of Cornell’s “Not Fade Away” is the part that almost occurs, but then doesn’t. The drum solo.

By 1977, with Mickey Hart back in the band, it was de rigueur to have an extended drum solo at the mid-to-late part of the second set. Eventually, a drum solo followed by a free-form jam section—known to fans as “Drums” > “Space”—midway through the second set became sacrosanct. As Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux says, “You look at Cornell where there was no ‘Drums and Space.’ ‘Space’ wasn’t really quite as standard as it would become later in the year, and more particularly in ’78 and ’79, but generally most shows would have a drum break, a drum duet for Billy and Mickey that would usually come out of ‘Estimated’ > ‘Eyes’ or ‘Playing in the Band’ or something like that. And then you get a show like Cornell that doesn’t have a ‘Drums and Space,’ nor does it have ‘Terrapin Station,’ a song they were playing a lot of times.

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