Random Shuffle - 12/19/06

I have recently become an absolute shuffle mode junkie. This is difficult to admit for I used to be a full album purist kind of guy. In many ways I still am – when really listening to music on my home stereo I always throw a singular album on and let each song tell their story. However while surfing the internet, checking my e-mail, working out, or writing I love the uniqueness that shuffle mode gives me.

There is something just about perfect about being able to juxtapose “Like a Rolling Stone” from the Bootleg Series with The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven.” If there is a problem with listening to entire albums, it is that most albums have a couple of really lousy songs that you have to trudge through. By handpicking the songs on my hard drive and shuffling them all together, it’s like one super-gigantor greatest-hits collection of my life.

For months now I have been chronicling five randomly picked songs from my collection in an article I call Random Shuffle. I’ve now decided its time to share these picks with the good people at Blogcritics.

Enjoy!

“Whiskey in the Jar” – Grateful Dead
From So Many Roads (1965-1995)

One of the many things I love about the Grateful Dead is their undying passion for the music. This is a band that played together for 30 odd years and never seemed to stop exploring new grounds or finding joy in the pleasure of making music.

Even after they had became an enormous corporate behemoth, they still enjoyed learning new songs as can be seen in this performance. This is not so much a cohesive song as it is a rehearsal session. It begins with Jerry singing one of the versus, but stops short before it is completed.

What follows is the entire band joyfully talking about the song and where it came from. It is in fact an old folk song which Jerry has recently remembered (and for a full brilliant performance of the song see the Garcia/David Grisman disk, Shady Grove.) The band laugh and talk excitedly about the song before Jerry launches into it again.

Article Author: Mat Brewster

Mat Brewster is a periodic ex-pat wondering if he'll ever find a home. You can find him musing on pop culture, and obsessing over concert bootlegs at The Midnight Cafe.

Visit Mat Brewster's author page — Mat Brewster's Blog