[Tiffany Sun's Post]

In the lyrics of the Grateful Dead’s version of “Casey Jones”, there is a notable change in expression of the singer right before he sings the line about “the lady in red”.  He drawls out the word “the” right before singing “lady in red” to draw more attention to his advice: “you’re better off dead.”  There is another notable change when he sings “train one hundred and two/ is on the wrong track and / headed for you”.  The first and last line is sung the same way, both with a drawl and stress on the last word, and in the second line the stress is in the middle of line on the word “wrong”. There are two distinct changes in the singer’s expression when the idea of death appears in his lyrics.  The Grateful Dead’s version of this song dabbles into folk music characteristics, in the sense that it also has tension between music and idea.

Throughout the song, the tone of the singer and the tempo doesn’t dramatically change until the last verse of the song.  In the last verse of the song, the drums and the singing gradually picks up tempo and then it slows down on the second-to-last line “and you know that notion just crossed my mind”.  The line is then repeated again for the last time, but is only accompanied with the guitar.  The absence of drums in the last line stresses the last few words of the song.  

Comments

[TaylorFridrich]

I wrote about this version for my discussion as well. I am trying to determine if this song would be considered a blues or folk piece. Any thoughts?

[mmalouf]

Hi Tiffany,

I commend you on your close listening, but what connections to these structural qualities of the song can we make to the message or story that Jerry Garcia is telling.

In the last verse of the song, where the song's tempo picks up makes me think of a drug overdose, and the end of the song where the song cuts instrumental and Jerry Garcia sings the last line is "Casey Jones" either hitting rock bottom or dying. The song has a steady pace to it until the end, where it speeds up but then, at the end, becomes slower than the rest of the song. I think this type of structural flow is directly related to theme of the song, especially with the repition of "Casey Jones, your better watch your speed" followed by "Trouble ahead, you know, trouble behind" comes from experience of the Grateful Dead (who were no strangers to drug abuse).

For your essay you should take your close lyrical and song analysis and apply them to the thematic and historical trends that you see and hear in the class. A lot of these developments in the song follow a thematic and historical arc, an important thing to keep in mind.

In this live version of "Casey Jones" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0HM0RtRv-E) the song progression and all lyrical and instrumental changes are, in my opinion, even more clearly obvious.

To Taylor:

you have pointed out a really important think with your question of whether this could be a folk or blues piece. This is somewhat up to personal opinion and somewhat up to analysis. This originally is a folk song (but what we considered folk is part of a much larger cultural appropriation that Professor Carson will cover in class) but can also be considered a Blues song. What you will see throughout the course is that, just like Avril Lavigne, is that music is hard and sometimes impossible to describe under one genre. The character of popular music in a country with as much free flow of cultural capital as ours and reinforced through this song is based upon a melding of different styles. This is a broad (and I mean very broad) topic, and through these discussions we will gain a large understanding of it.

[Tiffany Sun]

Thanks for the feedback. As for thematic and the historical trend of this song, the Grateful Dead's version of Casey Jones leans heavily to the references of drug abuse (which may be more interesting to our generation) , whereas Billy Murray's version is more concentrated on the actual life story of Casey Jones (signified by the opening lines of the song, as well as the progression of the lyrics), which may have been more interesting to listen to for the people of that era.

I don't know if that was what you were getting at, but I also find it interesting that if you take the Grateful Dead's lyrics to Casey Jones and read them as if you were part of the early 1900s, the lines that reference cocaine wouldn't be so surprising, since it wasn't illegal back then and people who had to work late into the night ( like Casey Jones, a train conductor) probably used it as a pick-me-up. Similar to how college kids consume coffee & other caffinated drinks.

to taylor:
I'm not really sure how I'd categorize this song, but to me it feel more folk than blues. I'm not really sure why it makes me feel that way.

What do you guys think? Why would you consider it more folk than blues or vice versa ?

[mmalouf]

Rhythmic and Stylistic Change:

Rhythm and style evolution seem to be an important point of analysis for Casey Jones and John Henry because it represents a relationship to both the lyrical intent and the time period in which the rendition was performed. In several of your discussion posts there was talk about how the tone and tempo increased towards the end of the song (for both the Grateful Dead and John Hurt versions), which is important to note as a stylistic holdover through the evolution of this song. Tiffany Sun’s post (link: http://www.tinyurl.com/tiffanysun) points out that “the absence of the drums in the last line stresses the last few words of the song.” This is an interesting observation because other bands and other songs have made use of this technique, and the Grateful Dead I think made use of it in line with the theme of the song. It could be said that this drumless ending is done by Jerry Garcia to emphasize a point, which in this case may be the overdose and/or death of Casey Jones, yet this technique was not used in either Fiddlin’ John Carson or Mississippi John Hurt’s versions. This rhythmic and instrumental retooling of the song to fit the lyrical changes is an important phenomenon in studying the evolution of American pop culture. Ryan Atchley’s analysis (link: http://www.tinyurl.com/RyanA) of Mississippi John Hurt’s rhythmic change is to show that:

”the death of Jones as something that would affect the family but in the end, as the song repeats its beginning, shows that Jones will be missed but never forgotten.”

These connections of analysis to lyrical content are the next step in fully analyzing songs for your essays. The relationship between the structural and lyrical characteristics of the song is how we ultimately determine the <u>feeling</u> of the song. Drawing on the song as a story will allow you to understand the context and the message, and the instrumental will allow you to gauge how those lyrics should be interpreted and the mood that is trying to be transmitted from performer to audience.

To develop your essays further, which are due on October 15th, make sure to draw connections in the evolution of rhythm/tempo/speed/beat (or any other musical factor) and the lyrical or situational character of the song itself. These connections, especially ones that focus on historical premise and interpretation, will help reinforce your essays and intended point by incorporating themes and topics that Professor Carson has been discussing in class.

If there are any questions, points of analysis, or something you’d like to talk about, feel free to email or post on the website.

-Matt

[Joshua Mackey]

I think that this song is definitely a folk song. It has the storytelling element that is common in folk songs and the guitar in this song isn't really consistent with the Piedmont or Delta blues styles that we heard in class. I agree with your analysis of the expression in the singers voice particularly the "lady in red" part.

[tehewitt]

I too noticed the change in tempo on the final repetition of the chorus. What do you think the result/intent of this was?

[Tiffany Sun]

mimicking the speed of a train going faster, perhaps?

[JamieKass]

Tiffany

I listened to the same song and agree with what you said about the tempo and the changes throughout the song. I felt as though the song started to speed up toward the ends because it was approaching the end. Also, I would say that this is a folk song.

[Jeanne-MarieVanFossen]

I think what you said about the tempo being representative of a train is very interesting. I can definately hear something like that. In fact, the rythm (drums) throughout almost has a "chuga chuga" sound to it.