Listen to Jerry Garcia’s isolated guitar on Grateful Dead song ‘Casey Jones’
Perhaps one of the most underrated guitarists of his generation, Jerry Garcia’s star turn for the Grateful Dead during the 1960s and ’70s should go down as one of the era’s defining tenures. Sure, Jimi Hendrix had more style, Jimmy Page more power and Eric Clapton more guile, but Garcia possessed a uniqueness that not only defined him and his band, but a generation of kids looking for something completely different.
As the founding member of The Grateful Dead, Garcia performed with the group for the entirety of its 30-year career. As well as participating in a range of side projects, Garcia was the unofficial leader of the band, and his attitude towards music permeated everything the group were renowned for. He unified their sound with his swashbuckling guitar performances. One such moment can be revisited below as we take a listen to his isolated guitar for the song ‘Casey Jones’.
Loosely based on the true story of the heroic train engineer Casey Jones — the man at the centre of the 1902 song ‘The Ballad of Casey Jones’ who sacrificed his life to save the lives of those on a careering train — the Dead deliver their modus operandi on this coke-driven number. Bringing stories of Americana through their folklorish curtain of cocaine and dripping it with LSD-inspired jams, this number quickly became a favourite for the group’s diehard fans.
But, the track isn’t wholly beloved by Garcia. Asked in Garcia: A Signpost to New Space is the track annoyed him, he shared: “Sometimes, but that’s what it’s supposed to do. It’s got a split-second little delay, which sounds very mechanical, like a typewriter almost, on the vocal, which is like a little bit jangly, and the whole thing is, I always thought it’s a pretty good musical picture of what cocaine is like. A little bit evil. And hard-edged. And also that sing-songy thing, because that’s what it is, a sing-songy thing, a little melody that gets in your head.”
It might not have been Garcia’s favourite, but the track certainly became an integral part of the group’s live performances and was given an outing over 300 times, before being phased out of the group’s sets after 1974. The song has since gathered more interest after it was included in the Rock Band game in 2008.
But back in 1972, the track was a key moment in the Grateful Dead live show, and thanks to the group’s dedication to recording those events, we can listen to Garcia’s isolated guitar for ‘Casey Jones’. It gives us the best view of Garcia’s power.
The live performance of the song from 1972 at the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Hall and the guitar of Jerry Garcia. Brought to us by YouTuber First Last, they say of the isolated track: “This is the Right Channel Audio from this soundboard tapes and is primarily Jerry’s guitar. Not sure who was running the mix, but this is a nice treat!”
