“Going Down The Road (Aint Gonna Be Treated This A’Way”) – Woody Guthrie
From Early Masters
I love the fact that I came to know this song through the Grateful Dead. Here is this hundred year old folk song finding a new audience amongst stoney eyed hippies looking for the next jam. Say what you will about the dead and their fans, but they are certainly musically literate.
Guthrie, of course is a folk icon, and musical hero. Compatriots with Pete Seeger, inspiration to Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and millions of others. The voice of a generation and to the common man.
Yet I have to say that I don’t really know a lot of his work. Or, rather, I don’t know a lot of his work, coming from his own mouth. He’s been covered by a myriad of musicians, and I’m quite familiar with his songs, and his legacy, it’s just that his own recordings are relatively scarce and often not in the best of quality. This song, for example, comes from a very scratchy recording, where Woody sound as if he is singing in a tin can out on the farm. It’s worthy a listen, but not something I find myself digging out all that often.
Whereas, recordings of this song by the Grateful Dead, or the Billy Bragg/Wilco collaboration of Guthrie songs are things I listen to and cherish regularly.
“Not Fade Away” – The Grateful Dead
From Dicks Picks Volume 4
Speaking of the Grateful Dead covering classic American music, here they cover the late, great Buddy Holly. Though, like most things Grateful Dead, they have morphed it and changed it into something wholly different than the original.
If you look close enough in this 13 minute mass of psychedelic madness, you can see a little of the original rockabilly, but for the most part, this is it’s own beast. Which is just fine in my book.
One of the great things about the Dead was their ability to take all sorts of genres – folk, bluegrass, early rock-n-roll, jazz and even harder rock – and merge it into it’s own unique blend of American music.
Article comments
1 - Ken Kleiber
Hello- interesting and fun stories/recollections/anecdotes. Regarding the Dolly Parton story ("Cash on the Barrelhead"), if you look at the timeline of Dolly Parton's career, it's noted that Dolly Parton moved to Nashville the day after she graduated from high school, and toiled around Nashville for several years before she was hired to sing on Porter Wagoner's show. So, if the fellas rushed back home to tell Dolly of their own contract signing...they must have gone back via the North Pole...or gone sightseeing on the way...or something! But it is an interesting story nonetheless, and I hope your cousin continued to be a musician. There are some truly talented performers in that part of the country. Thanks! Ken
2 - Mat Brewster
Yes, I've seen some of Dolly's official history and it certainly doesn't match perfectly with my families version. Which is why I kind of poke fun at it in the post.
Many years have passed since the days my family played with Dolly and I'm sure the story has gotten embellished in many ways, but its still a great story to tell.
Thanks for the comment.
3 - Connie Phillips
Mat, I've really been enjoying this feature. Keep it up. The stories you relate to the music are awesome!
4 - Mat Brewster
Thanks very much. Sometimes I think I get a little too personal, and don't talk about the music enough. But then that's how I relate to the music, through my own experiences.
5 - Holly Hughes
That's how we all relate to the music, Mat -- let's not kid ourselves.
I think Willie Nelson's versatility has been seriously underrated. The great thing about Willie as a cover artist is that he actually gets inside the soul of a song and gets to know it, then makes it his own. He never just "Willie-izes" a tune, and never just replicates the original. Generally I discover new things even in a long-familiar song when I hear Willie's take on it.
6 - Mat Brewster
Thanks Holly. I know that's how we relate, but I'm not always sure thats now how critics are supposed to write.
I'm sure you've heard it, but everyone should have a copy of Stardust. Bloody brilliant is that. I love how he is able to take these old songs that have been covered by everybody and still make it fresh and new.
7 - Linda lee
I loved when Willie toured with the Dead, and they played his Fourth of July Picnic. My favorite two bands together! I enjoyed the Stella cover on Songbird, but I would love a Willie/Dead album. Maybe Bobbie and Phil, and those Rhythm Bandits Mickey and Bill could join him in the studio, too. I'd love to hear them do Friend of the Devil, and all the great Robert Hunter tunes.
Nice blog.
8 - El Bicho
"Could a Willie and the Dead collaboration be too much to ask?"
Forget the parking lot scene. I'd want to check out the tour buses.