Cover Wars: Row Jimmy
Row Jimmy was released on the 1973 Grateful Dead album Wake Of The Flood. Over at one of my favorite GD online sites, The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics, they point out…
First performance: February 9, 1973 at Rose Maples Pavilion, Stanford University. “Row Jimmy” was in the second slot in the first set. Other firsts at this show included “China Doll,” “Eyes of the World,” “Here Comes Sunshine,” “Loose Lucy,” “They Love Each Other,” and “Wave That Flag.”
That’s quite a batch of tunes.
The Contestants:
In this unsourced blog posting, Colin Meloy of The Decemberists discusses how his views of the Grateful Dead evolved over the years. It’s a highly recommended read and I like the fact that he addresses the facts that he blew some of the lyrics, that way I don’t have to call him out on it.
READ ON for three more covers of Row Jimmy…
Jazz Is Dead, an ensemble that almost exclusively played instrumental renditions of Grateful Dead Songs, recorded all of Wake Of The Flood in its entirety and issued it as their own release cleverly titled Laughing Water. It’s a live release, but it is so tight and well recorded that it passes for studio work. Lead guitarist Jimmy Herring is joined by Derek Trucks for this both beautiful and scorching version.
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Singer Judy Mowatt, who backed up Bob Marley as part of the vocal section I Threes, contributed this track to the 1996 compilation Fire On The Mountain: Reggae Celebrates The Grateful Dead. It’s a good arrangement and an even better lyric change to, “Down by the river at the reggae show”.
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The debut gig for “The Trio” featuring Trey Anastasio, Tony Markellis and Russ Lawton took place on February 15th, 1999 at the Higher Ground in Winooski, VT. The performance saw the debut of Row Jimmy and was a benefit for Very Special Arts Vermont. Two months later, Trey performed the song with Phil Lesh & Friends at The Warfield in San Francisco. When The Trio hit the road in May for a full tour, Row Jimmy made two more appearances and has since disappeared from Trey’s live repertoire. Trey has played Row Jimmy with Phil Lesh at least one more time: at the Vegoose festival in 2006, and it was not good. Source: 05/04/1999
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Man, I forgot how awesome Jazz is Dead was.
I was reading a jerry bio and it said this was one of jerrys favorite songs, but he he felt the fans never really dug it.
the decemberist are garbage. always have dug jazz is dead
The P&F version cannot touch any done by the Grateful Dead, but I still think it might be the most true-to-the-bone version here. Judy Mowatt’s is an cool interpretation.
Jazz id Dead was awesome…I really wish they would do a few shows here and there.
Hmm, I wonder why Jerry didn’t think the fans dug it? I know I do. I love the reggae feel with the slide guitar. Hell, it’s just a damn good song.