Co-writer of “Fumo Verde”
As most of you can tell, Ego Fumo Verde, I’m playing Jerry, but what you don’t know is that Bob Dylan is one of the many, along with El Diablo, to whom I will put my soul, so with me. got word that Garcia Plays Dylan was coming out, he immediately told El Bicho that I was doing a review. El Bicho is a good man. This is a double CD set that features Jerry’s voice flexing through Dylan’s legendary songs with accompaniment by The Jerry Garcia Band, The Legion of Mary, and of course the .
Dylan’s words not only transcend generations but music genres and artists as well and Jerry was no exception. This set includes songs sung by Jerry and spanned the years 1973 to 1995, which included The Legion of Mary, The The Jerry Garcia Band, which is featured on most of the album, and obviously The Grateful Dead.
Disc One features The Garcia Band playing on five of the seven tracks. “Postive 4th Street”, which gave the anti-establishment “60s rante” a new form, hard R&B; a touch that produces the pain of loss and the hope of a new beginning. On “A Simple Chain of Fate” and “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” Jerry unleashes his gut wrenching soul as his voice takes you through the stories of love and impending death that Dylan told us so many decades ago. to Cry”, a Garcia/Merl Saunders duet, two tracks on Disc One that have more of a gospel air to them than the previous offering is told with more of a sense of hope.
Disc One is dedicated to Dylan’s darker side, told by his emotional stories. On the Fumo Verde scale of “Blue-ness”, this disc is high, blue, and it’s not just JGB droppin’ blues on you. The Legion of Mary gets involved in “Wicked News”, allowing Jerry’s guitar to go away from the journey of pain and suffering.
Disc Two is split in half with the Garcia Band and the Dead having four tracks, the Dead tracks being more upbeat. While “Paint My Favorite” isn’t as dark as “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Gate,” you may find yourself wandering down a dark path as your soul absorbs the blues that scream from such a song, or even a more frequent story with “Senior (Tales of Yankee Power )” in which Dylan brought to light the darkest deeds of men.
Both of these songs have a sharp edge to them, while the songs of the dead feel lighter. “Visions of Joan” has Jerry’s kind of bluesy way, not trying to match Bob’s, just going around in a different way, like the Dead did in “Ave Over Now, Baby Blue”, which closes out Disc Two. . That song revives us all in this way, Leaving the dead feeling Shows, always missing forever. Jerry and the Dead weave the message of Dylan’s Grateful-jam into this style, leaving listeners crying for more.
All of these songs were recorded at live shows and have been released previously. The applause and entertainment of the audience can be felt across time and space. How I wish I could have been there, from any of the shows, but alas, this set will have to do, and it certainly does. It’s a great sign of a night to have friends over and just kick back, making a few cocktails, rollin’ on your own and enjoying “Garcia Plays Dylan,” a classic in its own right.
And if you don’t believe me that Dylan’s words are in Jerry’s competent hands, listen to what the man who inspired this collection had to say: “There is no way to measure his size or greatness as a man or as a player… He really had no match.. Bob Dylan, after the death of Jerry Garcia in 1995
