Phish's three-night run at Alpine Valley

Deadhead Cannabis Show

Phish's three-night run at Alpine Valley

Larry Mishkin features a Grateful Dead concert at a "funky" venue on July 29, 1994, at Buckeye Lake, Ohio. The Grateful Dead opened with "Rain" by the Beatles, reflecting their admiration for the Beatles' music. "Rain," primarily written by John Lennon, was a song exploring themes of reality and illusion and was notable for its use of reverse audio effects. The Grateful Dead incorporated several Beatles songs into their performances, demonstrating their appreciation for the band.

The conversation touches on the Grateful Dead's setlist, which included several opening songs like "Feel Like a Stranger" and "Bertha." The speakers recall personal experiences and the excitement of attending these concerts, sharing memories of Buckeye Lake as a vibrant venue despite unpredictable weather. The conversation transitions to "Wang Dang Doodle," a blues standard written by Willie Dixon and performed by artists like Howlin' Wolf and Koko Taylor. The Grateful Dead's affinity for blues music and their ability to blend various musical influences into their performances is highlighted.

Larry changes his focus and shifts to a discussion about the band Phish, detailing a recent three-night run at Alpine Valley. He express his excitement and nostalgia for the venue, sharing experiences of attending concerts there over the years. The recap of Phish's performances includes a detailed analysis of the setlists, noting songs like "46 Days," "Moma Dance," "Cities," "Cavern," "Axilla," "Down with Disease," "Bathtub Gin," and a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Good Times Bad Times." Larry's enthusiasm is evident as he recount the energy and musicianship of Phish, highlighting the unique experience of attending their concerts and the connection it fosters among fans.

Grateful Dead

July 29, 1994 (30 years ago)

Buckeye Lake Ohio

Grateful Dead Live at Buckeye Lake Music Center on 1994-07-29 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

INTRO: Rain

Track #1

:26 – 2:10

• John Lennon wrote most of "Rain." It was his first song to get really deep, exploring themes of reality and illusion - after all, rain or shine is just a state of mind.
• Written by John “about people moaning about the weather all the time” as he was becoming more in tune with his role as a social leader – as is evidenced by the lines “I can show you” and “Can you hear me”

Played 29 times

First: December 2, 1992 at McNichols Sports Arena, Denver, CO, USA

Last: June 30, 1995 at Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

SHOW No. 1: Wang Dang Doodle

Track #4

4:03 – 5:43

"Wang Dang Doodle" is a blues song written by Willie Dixon. Music critic Mike Rowe calls it a party song in an urban style with its massive, rolling, exciting beat.[1] It was first recorded by Howlin' Wolf in 1960 and released by Chess Records in 1961. In 1965, Dixon and Leonard Chess persuaded Koko Taylor to record it for Checker Records, a Chess subsidiary. Taylor's rendition quickly became a hit, reaching number thirteen on the Billboard R&B chart and number 58 on the pop chart.[2] "Wang Dang Doodle" became a blues standard[3] and has been recorded by various artists. Taylor's version was added to the United States National Recording Registry in 2023.

In 1995, Taylor's rendition was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in the "Classics of Blues Recording – Singles or Album Tracks" category.[17] The Foundation noted that the song was the last blues single produced by Dixon to reach the record charts, and "became Koko Taylor's signature crowdpleaser, inspiring singalongs to the 'all night long' refrain night after night".[17]

Taylor's version of "Wang Dang Doodle" was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2023.[18]

Chuck Berry, Bruce Hornsby, John Popper, Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead and Willie Dixon's daughter, Shirley Dixon, performed "Wang Dang Doodle" in tribute to Willie Dixon at the 1994 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

In his autobiography, I Am The Blues, Willie Dixon says;

Wang Dang Doodle meant a good time. Especially if a guy came in from the South. A wang dang meant having a ball and a lot of dancing, they called it a rocking style so that's what it meant to wang dang doodle.

Wang Dang Doodle was first performed by the Grateful Dead in August 1983. The song was played only a few times each year through the rest of the 1980's. From 1991 onwards it was performed more often averaging about 15 performances a year through to 1995.

Played: 95 times

First: August 26, 1983 at Portland Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR, USA

Last: July 8, 1995 at Soldier Field, Chicago, IL, USA

MUSIC NEWS:

1. Phish shows, Friday and Saturday night at Alpine Valley
2. RIP – John Mayall

SHOW No. 2: Althea

Track #7

9:40 – end

INTO

Eternity

Track #8

0:00 – 1:39

Co-writing a song with one of your personal heroes—that seems like a dream come true.

Willie Dixon (1915-1992) was one of the preeminent blues songwriters and performers of all time. The Grateful Dead covered a fairly lengthy list of his songs, attesting to his influence on the band: “Down in the Bottom,” “I Ain’t Superstitious,” “I Just Want to Make Love To You,” “Little Red Rooster,” “The Same Thing,” “Spoonful,” and “Wang Dang Doodle.” Plus a couple they only played once, or only in soundcheck.

The song was written during the sessions for Rob Wasserman’s Trios album. “Guitar Player” magazine ran an interview with Weir in 1993:

I had this chord progression and melody that I wanted to run by Willie to see if he liked it .... he did, so he started dashing off words. He wanted me to run a certain section by him again and stuff like that, and we started working on a bridge. Then he dashes off this sheet of lyrics and hands it to me. Now I'm really stoked to be working with the legendary Willie Dixon and I'm prepared for just about anything.

He hands these lyrics to me and I'm reading through them. And they seem, you know, awfully simplistic. Like there wasn't a whole lot to them....

....Now he wants me to read through it and sing the melody I have and see if they fit. And so I started singing through these simplistic lyrics, and that simplicity takes on a whole other direction.

By the time I had sung through them, it's like my head is suddenly eons wide. I can hear what's happening just sort of echoing around in there and I'm astounded by the simple grace of what he has just presented to me. I'm sitting there with my mouth open literally, and Willie's laughing. He's just sitting there laughing, saying, 'Now you see it. Now you see it. That's the wisdom of the blues

Played: 44 times

First: February 21, 1993 at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena, Oakland, CA, USA

Last: July 8, 1995 at Soldier Field, Chicago, IL, USA

SHOW No. 3: I Want To Tell You

Track #11

0:00 – 1:35

"I Want to Tell You" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1966 album Revolver. It was written and sung by George Harrison, the band's lead guitarist. After "Taxman" and "Love You To", it was the third Harrison composition recorded for Revolver. Its inclusion on the LP marked the first time that he was allocated more than two songs on a Beatles album, a reflection of his continued growth as a songwriter beside John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

When writing "I Want to Tell You", Harrison drew inspiration from his experimentation with the hallucinogenic drug LSD. The lyrics address what he later termed "the avalanche of thoughts that are so hard to write down or say or transmit".[1] In combination with the song's philosophical message, Harrison's stuttering guitar riff and the dissonance he employs in the melody reflect the difficulties of achieving meaningful communication. The recording marked the first time that McCartney played his bass guitar part after the band had completed the rhythm track for a song, a technique that became commonplace on the Beatles' subsequent recordings.

George Harrison wrote "I Want to Tell You" in the early part of 1966, the year in which his songwriting matured in terms of subject matter and productivity.[2] As a secondary composer to John Lennon and Paul McCartney in the Beatles,[3] Harrison began to establish his own musical identity through his absorption in Indian culture,[4][5] as well as the perspective he gained through his experiences with the hallucinogenic drug LSD.[6] According to author Gary Tillery, the song resulted from a "creative surge" that Harrison experienced at the start of 1966.

In his autobiography, I, Me, Mine, Harrison says that "I Want to Tell You" addresses "the avalanche of thoughts that are so hard to write down or say or transmit".[1][12] Authors Russell Reising and Jim LeBlanc cite the song, along with "Rain" and "Within You Without You", as an early example of the Beatles abandoning "coy" statements in their lyrics and instead "adopt[ing] an urgent tone, intent on channeling some essential knowledge, the psychological and/or philosophical epiphanies of LSD experience" to their listeners.[13] Writing in The Beatles Anthology, Harrison likened the outlook inspired by his taking the drug to that of "an astronaut on the moon, or in his spaceship, looking back at the Earth. I was looking back to the Earth from my awareness."

Played: 7 times

First: July 1, 1994 at Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA, USA

Last: May 24, 1995 at Memorial Stadium, Seattle, WA, USA

MJ NEWS

SHOW No. 4: Standing On The Moon

Track #19

7:23 – 9:00

Garcia/Hunter tune from Built To Last (1989)

Played: 76 times

First: February 5, 1989 at Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, Oakland, CA, USA

Last: June 30, 1995 at Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, PA

OUTRO: Quinn The Eskimo

Track #21

2:28 – 4:17

"Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)" is a folk-rock song written and first recorded by Bob Dylan in 1967 during the Basement Tapes sessions. The song's first release was in January 1968 as "Mighty Quinn" in a version by the British band Manfred Mann,[4] which became a great success. It has been recorded by a number of performers, often under the "Mighty Quinn" title.

The subject of the song is the arrival of Quinn (an Eskimo), who prefers a more relaxed lifestyle [" jumping queues, and making haste just ain't my cup of meat"] and refuses hard work ["Just tell me where to put 'em and I'll tell you who to call"], but brings joy to the people.

Dylan is widely believed to have derived the title character from actor Anthony Quinn's role as an Eskimo in the 1960 movie The Savage Innocents.[5] Dylan has also been quoted as saying that the song was nothing more than a "simple nursery rhyme". A 2004 Chicago Tribune article[6] said the song was named after Gordon Quinn, co-founder of Kartemquin Films, who had given Dylan and Howard Alk uncredited editing assistance on Eat the Document.

Dylan first recorded the song in 1967 during the Basement Tapes sessions, but did not release a version for another three years. Meanwhile, the song was picked up and recorded in December 1967 by the British band Manfred Mann,[7] who released it as a single in the US on 8 January 1968 under the title "Mighty Quinn".[8] A UK single followed within a week.[8] The Manfred Mann version reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart for the week of 14 February 1968, and remained there the following week.[9] It also charted on the American Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 10, and reached No. 4 in Cash Box. Cash Box called it a "funky-rock track" with "a trace of calypso [to] add zest to a tremendous effort."

Played: 59 times

First: December 30, 1985 at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena, Oakland, CA, USA

Last: July 2, 1995 at Deer Creek Music Center, Noblesville, IN, USA

.Produced by PodConx

Deadhead Cannabis Show - https://podconx.com/podcasts/deadhead-cannabis-show

Larry Mishkin - https://podconx.com/guests/larry-mishkin

Rob Hunt - https://podconx.com/guests/rob-hunt

Jay Blakesberg - https://podconx.com/guests/jay-blakesberg

Sound Designed by Jamie Humiston - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-humiston-91718b1b3/

Recorded on Squadcast