Allman Brothers Band & Grateful Dead - Mountain Jam (Watkins Glen)

 

40 Years ago this weekend, 600,000 people gathered in Watkins Glen, N.Y. to hear The Allman Brothers Band, The Grateful Dead and The Band. It was called Summer Jam.

First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is...

Some cool photos can be found here:
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/grantdabassman/sets/72157603224730871/

Grateful Dead - Brokedown Palace

Those melodic, sugary tones that carried Jerry G's signature. Excellent version of a great show closer.

Brokedown Palace (Grateful Dead)

Fare you well, my honey
Fare you well, my only true one
All the birds that were singing
Are flown, except you alone

Gonna leave this brokedown palace
On my hands and my knees, I will roll, roll, roll
Make myself a bed by the waterside
In my time, in my time, I will roll, roll, roll

In a bed, in a bed
By the waterside I will lay my head
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

River gonna take me, sing me sweet and sleepy
Sing me sweet and sleepy all the way back home
It's a far gone lullaby sung many years ago
Mama, Mama, many worlds I've come since I first left home

Going home, going home
By the waterside I will rest my bones
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Going to plant a weeping willow
On the bank's green edge it will grow, grow, grow
Singing a lullaby beside the water
Lovers come and go, the river will roll, roll, roll

Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

U2: Pride in the Name of Love

 

Song Factoids: The morning after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, I remember my mother crying. 

Note that lyrics to this classic U2 song say, "Early morning, April 4, Shot rings out..." Actually it was early evening and Bono later realized the error and the band sometimes changes the line to, "Early evening... And Chrissie Hynde sings background vocals. Who knew?  

Pride in the Name of Love (U2)

One man come in the name of love
One man come and go.
One man come he to justify
One man to overthrow.

In the name of love
What more in the name of love.
In the name of love
What more in the name of love.

One man caught on a barbed wire fence
One man he resist
One man washed up on an empty beach
One man betrayed with a kiss.

In the name of love
What more in the name of love.
In the name of love
What more in the name of love.

Early morning, April four
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky.
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride.

In the name of love
What more in the name of love.
In the name of love
What more in the name of love.

In the name of love
What more in the name of love.
In the name of love
What more in the name of love.

Albert Hammond: The Free Electric Band

 

This may seem a little cheesy in retrospect, but it was quite the catchy counter-culture tune...admit you loved it!

The Free Electric Band 
By Mike Hazlewood, Albert Louis Hammond


My father is a doctor, he's a family man,
My mother works for charity whenever she can,
They're both good clean Americans who abide by the law,
They both stick up for liberty and they both support the war
My happiness was paid for when they laid their money down,
For Summers in a Summer camp, and Winters in the town,
My future in the system was talked about and planned,
But I gave it up for music and the free electric band...

I went to school in hand-washed shirts with neatly oiled hair,
The school was big and newly built and filled with light and air,
And the teachers taught us values that we had to learn to keep,
And they clipped the ear of many idle kids who went to sleep,
My father organized for me a college in the East,
But I went to California, the sun-shine and the beach,
My parents and my lecturers could never understand,
Why I gave it up for music and the free electric band...

Well, they used to sit and speculate upon their son's career,
A lawyer or a doctor or a civil engineer,
Just give me bread and water, put a guitar in my hand,
'cause all I need is music and the free electric band...

My father sent me money and I spent it very fast,
On a girl I met in Berkeley in a social science class,
Yes, and we learned about her body, but her mind we didn't know,
Until deep rooted attitudes and morals began to show,
She wanted to get married, even though she never said,
But I knew her well enough by now to see inside her head,
She'd settle for suburbia and a little patch of land,
So I gave her up for music and the free electric band...

Grateful Dead: Terrapin Station

Classic version, clean sound. The Crescendo builds and builds and peaks, then video unfortunately cuts as the jam continues...


Terrapin station  (Hunter, Garcia)

Lady With A Fan:

Let my inspiration flow in token rhyme, suggesting rhythm,
That will not forsake you, till my tale is told and done.
While the firelights aglow, strange shadows from the flames will grow,
Till things weve never seen will seem familiar.

Shadows of a sailor, forming winds both foul and fair all swarm.
Down in carlisle, he loved a lady many years ago.
Here beside him stands a man, a soldier from the looks of him,
Who came through many fights, but lost at love.

While the story teller speaks, a door within the fire creaks;
Suddenly flies open, and a girl is standing there.
Eyes alight, with glowing hair, all that fancy paints as fair,
She takes her fan and throws it, in the lions den.

Which of you to gain me, tell, will risk uncertain pains of hell?
I will not forgive you if you will not take the chance.
The sailor gave at least a try, the soldier being much too wise,
Strategy was his strength, and not disaster.

The sailor, coming out again, the lady fairly leapt at him.
That's how it stands today. you decide if he was wise.
The story teller makes no choice. soon you will not hear his voice.
His job is to she'd light, and not to master.

Since the end is never told, we pay the teller off in gold,
In hopes he will return, but he cannot be bought or sold.

Terrapin Station:

Inspiration, move me brightly. light the song with sense and color;
Hold away despair, more than this I will not ask.
Faced with mysteries dark and vast, statements just seem vain at last.
Some rise, some fall, some climb, to get to terrapin.

Counting stars by candlelight, all are dim but one is bright;
The spiral light of venus, rising first and shining best,
On, from the northwest corner, of a brand new crescent moon,
While crickets and cicadas sing, a rare and different tune,
Terrapin station.

In the shadow of the moon, terrapin station.
And I know well get there soon, terrapin station.
I can't figure out, terrapin, if it's the end or beginning, terrapin,
But the trains put it's brakes on, terrapin,
And the whistle is screaming, terrapin.