Labor Day Vibes: Grateful Dead, George Thorogood, and MoreA special Labor Day edition featuring a recap of significant events in the music world, particularly focusing on the Grateful Dead's September 2, 1988, concert at the Capitol Center in Landover, Maryland. Larry Mishkin reminisces about the band's history, including the song "Hell in a Bucket," its significance, and its evolution in the Grateful Dead's lineup. There's a detailed discussion about the song "Dire Wolf," including its origins, inspirations, and its role in the band's performances.The episode also features a tribute to Steve Silverman, a renowned science writer and Grateful Dead enthusiast who recently passed away. Silverman was celebrated for his contributions to the understanding of autism and his deep connection to the Grateful Dead community. The tribute highlights his life, his work, and his impact on both the music and science communities.Larry shares reviews of the recent George Thorogood and Journeyman Tribute the Eric Clapton https://www.georgethorogood.com/https://vilarpac.org/https://journeymantribute.com/ Grateful DeadSeptember 2, 1988 (36 years ago)Capital CenterLandover, MDGrateful Dead Live at Capital Centre on 1988-09-02 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive I hope everyone is having a great Labor Day weekend. Night one of a four night run at the Cap Center to kick off 1988 East Coast Fall Tour (played Friday and Saturday, 2 and 3 and Monday and Tuesday 5 and 6). Took a night off for my wedding on Sunday 4th. Saturday night show was my rehearsal dinner and they played second encore, final electric Ripple and final Grateful Dead Ripple. Memorable weekend for all (except for my east coast deadhead buddies at the wedding who were bummed to have missed the Ripple. INTRO: Hell in a Bucket Track #2 0:00 – 1:34 David Dodd: The Bob Weir / John Barlow / Brent Mydland song “Hell in a Bucket” directly references the biker scene, and I’m sure that somehow Barlow just wanted to put that element into the band’s repertoire somehow. After all, there are plenty of outlaw elements sprinkled through the band’s songs. In the case of this song, though, the singer/narrator seems to be wishing a sorry fate on his erstwhile main squeeze, with the argument being that once she has a biker charging up and down her halls on his chopper, she’ll realize that the narrator was really pretty good, at least by contrast. “Hell in a Bucket” appeared on In the Dark, released in July 1987. The song frequently featured as the show opener over the course of the next two-plus decades, although it wasn’t used in that role until about a year after its first performance. Played: 217 timesFirst: May 13, 1983 at William Randolph Hearst Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA, USALast: June 30, 1995 at Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, PA SHOW No. 1: Dire Wolf Track #5 2:00 – 3:24 "Dire Wolf" is a ballad by the Grateful Dead, released as the third track on their 1970 album Workingman's Dead. The lyrics were written by Robert Hunter after watching a film adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles. The music, containing elements of country and folk music, was composed by Jerry Garcia on the same day. The song tells the story of a man who plays cards with a "dire wolf" on a cold winter's night in "Fennario"; the lyrics have been variously interpreted. The piece became a staple of the Grateful Dead's performances, and was played more than two hundred times between 1969 and 1995. A few months before the release of their album Aoxomoxoa in 1969, Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter and his then-partner Christie Bourne began sharing a house with the band's guitarist Jerry Garcia, his wife, and his step-daughter. Living in close proximity gave an impetus to their collaborative song-writing: Hunter and Garcia wrote every song on Aoxomoxoa.[2] Some time later, Hunter and Carolyn Garcia spent an evening watching a film adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles. According to Grateful Dead historian Dennis McNally, Carolyn later remarked that the hound was a "dire wolf".[3] However, according to Hunter himself, as quoted in the Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics, he and Garcia were speculating about the identity of the hound in the story, and came up with the idea that it may have been a dire wolf.[4] Hunter wrote the lyrics the next morning, based on images that the phrase conjured for him, and Garcia wrote the music to them later ...
