Not only was the song released in 1970, but it is about a defining event of the era, a commentary on the disastrous concert at California’s Altamont racetrack (which took place in December of 1969). Cale’s “After Midnight,” which has been covered to death), but the Dead’s “New Speedway Boogie” is a nice pick. The song selection is sometimes overly obvious (J.J. (Worth noting: “Deadicated” was among the first such albums, with multiple artists paying homage to the songs of a particular act.) But when Los Lobos play the song live, it is invariably a highlight, and a live version is included on “Just Another Band From East L.A.”While the exceptional, but hardly prolific songwriter Marc Cohn battles another episode of writer’s block, he released last month “Listening Booth: 1970,” featuring takes on songs from that year. A studio version is the opening track to the 1991 tribute album “Deadicated” – impressive placement, considering the album also features contributions from Elvis Costello, Indigo Girls and Dwight Yoakam. Their take on “Bertha” is raunchy, driving and milks every bit of pleasure out of the straight-up rocker. This is about the jamming, with several healthy guitar breaks.The best cover version of a Grateful Dead song arguably is another one from Los Lobos (who opened a bunch of shows for the Dead in the ’80s). Here Hidalgo gets the lyrics (based on the fatal drug overdose of John Belushi, who died in L.A.’s Chateau Marmont) right, and the band has mastered the chords, but the overall feel isn’t far from the shambling Belly Up version. Fadeaway” shows up on Los Lobos’ new studio album “Tin Can Trust,” released this week.
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Fadeaway,” besides being another in a series of cautionary tales from the Dead, has a marvelously simple set of chord changes (which explains why the first band I was in, the Limits, played it) and Los Lobos eventually found the groove.That could well have been a one-off effort, but no: “West L.A. A train wreck in the making – except that “West L.A. Hidalgo remembered half the words at best the rest of the players looked over to see what chords they should be playing. Fadeaway.” (A nice in-joke: Los Lobos are from East L.A., and titled their 1993 compilation “Just Another Band From East L.A.”) It soon became clear how under-rehearsed (possibly unrehearsed) this was. Perhaps the best part: Any garage guitarist diving into, say, “Deal” for the first time knows that, as bad as they might play it, there’s a version out there of the Dead f-ing it up even worse.Case in point on how inviting the Dead’s material can be: Last year, during a Los Lobos show at Belly Up, guitarist David Hidalgo began playing a familiar riff – the bluesy guitar line from “West L.A. When a group of musicians who don’t know one another come together to jam, some of the first common points of reference are from the Dead’s repertoire: “Bertha,” “Friend of the Devil,” “Me and My Uncle,” “Ripple.” The songs are structurally simple the rhythms are loose the themes tend to be universal and obviously they are ripe for extended jamming. Covering a Grateful Dead song (or many of them) is an irresistible thing. Part of the Dead’s endurance comes not from the listening, but from the playing. When the world comes to its end, a 1977 “Morning Dew” will be playing somewhere. Seeing the lyric employed by a kid cheered me no end, as I was struck by the thought: This road goes on forever. Stewart Oksenhorn/The Aspen TimesMarc Cohn's new album, "Listening Booth: 1970," features a cover of the Grateful Dead's "New Speedway Boogie."Īt last spring’s Person exhibition, a group of works by local high-school kids at the Aspen Art Museum, one of the pieces featured a lyric from the Grateful Dead’s “Scarlet Begonias.” This from a teenager who, if she saw the Grateful Dead at all, it was as a toddler, since the band’s lengthy, odd journey concluded in 1995.
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