The Grateful Dead's 100 Essential Songs by Barry Barnes & Bob Trudeau

Author:Barry Barnes & Bob Trudeau [Barnes, Barry & Trudeau, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2018-09-12T16:00:00+00:00

“Jack a Roe”

“Jack a Roe” is a lilting, folksy song that the Grateful Dead performed either in acoustic sets in a series of shows in 1980 or in the first set of electric shows; it was played only one time in the second set in 115 performances. This is a traditional song, one that the Dead adapted from the treasure trove of American folk music as heard in the folk movement, the jug band music movement, and “old-timey” early country music movement in the 1960s.

You could say there’s a marriage trilogy among the “folk songs” the Grateful Dead played. In “Cold Rain and Snow,” as mentioned earlier, the hero has a nagging wife and he wishes he were elsewhere. In fact, in the original versions of the song—though not in the Dead’s version—he murders her. “Peggy-O,” coming later, also tells a tale of unrequited love: Peggy-O would wed “sweet William-O,” but she fears her parents would reject him because of his relative lack of wealth: “your guineas are too few.” Enraged, he declares war but is killed, leaving her to lament. Finally, we have “Jack a Roe,” a folk song that again addresses the theme of love and marriage. For more on these thoughts, see Josephine McQuail’s fine essay (1994): (Jack a Roe #1).

“Jack a Roe” is a song about a young woman in love with Jack the sailor; the lyrics are here: (Jack a Roe #2). In the original folk song, her father forbids her to pursue this relationship. In the Dead’s version, she is prevented from pursuing it initially because Jack goes sailing off to war. She decides to follow him, “dressed in men’s array.” This is perhaps the only Grateful Dead reference to the theme of transgender behavior, a much more visible trend at present than it was in the 1970s. Our heroine sails away herself, finds Jack wounded, and gets a doctor to heal him. In the final verse, there’s a happy ending: in a surprising twist, the narrator suddenly shifts from a historical tale to a seemingly current conversation with his listener, turning the song into a marriage proposal: “this couple they got married, so why not you and me?” Maybe the whole story is just a setup?

Musically, as mentioned earlier, this is a folk song performed something like Dixieland style with precise guitar playing and excellent musical support from the band. We particularly like the strong punctuation at the end of the song. “Jack a Roe” is a stable song and fairly short, so there was no serious improvisation, no extended jams. Like many other first set songs, it’s self-contained, with a clear start and ending.

The Dead introduced “Jack a Roe” on May 13, 1977, in Chicago (Jack a Roe #3). With the exception of an extended intro as the band seemed to be getting their bearings, this version is not that different from others you will find. Garcia’s solos, especially the second, are ringing. The performance on October 10, 1980, at the Warfield

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.