The song is featured in the Rock Band video game series as downloadable content, along with 17 other Grateful Dead songs. Anyone out there remember what it was like to be three years old?" In popular culture ![]() 'It's about acid' does it less justice than the observation that it's about seeing, sensing, and making connections in a sensuous world. ![]() It's one of the very few rock-and-roll lyrics (including Dylan's) that has as much impact on the page as it does sung, if not more. Wybenga described the lyrics as "acid-drenched", and said, further: "China Cat Sunflower's lyric-composed, Robert Hunter has said, in a state where contemplation of a cat served as touchstone for an interplanetary journey-is a real masterwork. ![]() Wybenga as "that dodgy little Bobby intro that scratches your brain just behind the ears." This second riff has been described by author Eric F. The first is played by Jerry Garcia and then a second one played by Bob Weir is interwoven on top of it. The song begins with distinct guitar riffs. Only twice during this extended period was "China Cat Sunflower" played without this pairing. Over the next 26 years they would pair these songs together over 500 times, most often as a second set opener. In late 1969 the Grateful Dead began segueing "China Cat Sunflower" into "I Know You Rider" during live performances. Four instances of this arrangement have been released on official recordings, the first on the compilation album So Many Roads (1965–1995), the second on Dick's Picks Volume 22, and the other two on Road Trips Volume 2 Number 2.Ĭhina Cat Sunflower → I Know You Rider During the first year after its introduction into the band's set list, the song was played by itself or often in the middle of an extended jam between the songs " Dark Star" and "The Eleven"-a position more familiarly (to Deadheads) filled by " St. The Grateful Dead first performed "China Cat Sunflower" on January 17, 1968, at the Carousel Ballroom in San Francisco, CA, and played the song well over 500 times in concert. Lyrically, this song has many literary references, including Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, George Herriman's Krazy Kat, and Dame Edith Sitwell's " Polka". The first live recording of this song appeared on Europe '72, paired (as was typical) with " I Know You Rider". The song was typically sung by Jerry Garcia. The lyrics were written by Robert Hunter and the music composed by Jerry Garcia. " China Cat Sunflower" is a song performed by the Grateful Dead which was first recorded for their third studio album Aoxomoxoa. Tl,dr Just 'cause Bob plays it don't mean he wrote it.1969 song by Grateful Dead "China Cat Sunflower" I tend to think he and Jerry worked out the rudiments of those songs' Weir-parts together, and then Bob embellished them further on his own. This is probably not the case with Weir's parts in Scarlet Begonias or Lady With A Fan, but he was a far more accomplished guitarist by the time those songs were written. However, given how the two guitar parts in China Cat interweave so specifically in terms of harmony and timing, and how rudimentary Weir's guitar skills were back then, I'd wager both were Jerry's composition, and Weir learned his by rote. I know that they didn't publish any songs as Weir/Garcia joint compositions, while they clearly did contribute to one another's music considerably. However, it was back in '68 that he learned to play is part in China Cat, which Jerry composed. ![]() Bob stated in the early '70s that his goal was to play rhythm guitar to Jerry's lead along the lines McCoy Tyner's chords (left hand) accompany his melodic (right hand) voicing.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |