As for the pitch of the song, which is the experience of a note being high or low and is determined by its quality in relation to other notes. The pitch is seen in the chorus at the first line “driving that train” has the same pitch as “high on cocaine,” yet the pitch changes in the next line “Casey Jones you better, watch your speed.” This would not be distinguishable if the lines didn’t have different pitches because it allows for the relationship to be heard. As for the rhythm of the song there are distinct patterns of long and short that are proportionate in time. The melody of the song is very distinguishable as well, especially in the chorus because it goes from high to low, then back to high again.  As for a last note The Grateful Dead rock and I like this version for the song.

The band’s song “Casey Jones” is a perfect example of this heterogenous style of music which has long alluded classification…Is it folk? or is rock n roll? Well I feel it’s partially both, and more importantly that it could be more on than the other depending on the listener’s background. Folk enthusiasts will appreciate the melodic matching of vocals with instruments, or how the lively tune is contrasted by a narration of the realities and struggles of everyday life- all elements that trace back to African-American and European folk music of the early 19th century. However, the Grateful Dead is also undoubtedly a 20th century band, reflected by the electric instruments, powerful expressive changes in singing, pitch, and rythym, and the contemporary iconography-particualarly the drug references. 

When it comes to analyzing this song in the context of how it affects popular culture, I must say that I believe the Grateful Dead and other bands like it managed to change America by making popular what wasn’t popular to start, one of the more major occurrences of a significant “counterculture.” However, I would also contend that what they did was take music that was already common (not necessarily popular as we would define it in this class) and give it the necessary facelift to make it relevant to a 20th century audience.

The artist sings the song differently again when it comes to the last verse.  He sings the lines “trouble with you is the trouble with me” and “come round the bend, you know it’s the end” in the same tone.  It seems as tough the expression changes towards the end of the song because the artist is getting ready for the song to be over.  The song begins to speed up before it finishes.

The artist sings the song differently again when it comes to the last verse.  He sings the lines “trouble with you is the trouble with me” and “come round the bend, you know it’s the end” in the same tone.  It seems as tough the expression changes towards the end of the song because the artist is getting ready for the song to be over.  The song begins to speed up before it finishes.

Lead Belly was an extraordinary musician during his time. He wrote folk, blues-like music that contained many social and political references, especially concerning racism. In addition, Lead Belly had a temper—he served prison time for his violence. In Where Did You Sleep Last Night, Lead Belly took this traditional folk song and modified it to a lyrical social indication of current times. In the song, Lead Belly mentions “in the pines,” referring to loneliness or death of one. This symbolism also refers to the social times in which Lead Belly performed this song. It sheds light on the difficulties of that time—Lead Belly conveys social struggles. He successfully depicts the issues that he believes are significant while maintaining a very folk-like sound in both his choice of instrument and his vocals. The song is very minimal, using only one guitar and Lead Belly’s voice pitches come in and out with the same repeating, smooth melody. It is a very simple song; preserving the essence of what the average listener presumes folk music to sound like. Lead Belly creates a new way to present folk music to his generation.

Musicians always seem to cover or remake versions of songs that they favor from artist that they truly admire. In the nineties, Kurt Cobain had become a martyr for underground musicians. He slowly started to become the embodiment of everything that he fought against—capitalist mainstream music. As a result, he committed suicide leaving only behind his legendary music behind. He instantly became an iconic symbol of authenticity, “[…] Cobain’s desire for authenticity, real and perceived, was matched by that of his fans, who saw him as the real thing in a fake business” (5). He tried to separate himself from anything and everything mainstream, but in order to gain the loyalty and reverence of his fans; he had to slowly accept and as assimilate into mainstream musical culture. The overall performance of Cobain’s version of Where Did You Sleep Last Night was extremely dark and emotional. His feelings were raw and his acoustic performance only made the atmosphere more somber. His remake seems extremely personal, changing “black girl” to “my girl.” He becomes intimidate by specifically stating “my girl,” because the listener has knowledge of his public relationships. He maintains the authenticity of the folk song, but adds his own emotions to the performance by enhancing notes and specific chords. In addition, Cobain re-created this song—originally described as “savage simplicity”—and took this notion to make his music seem more authentic and derived from simpler, rural roots.

Although these two versions of Where Did You Sleep Last Night share very similar characteristics, from basic lyrics to the melody, there are still very distinctive differences. The most notable is the overall message behind each song. The message conveyed behind each song is very different—from social political commentaries to relationships about love. Both artists express turmoil and pain through their performances. Where Did You Sleep Last Night has the lyrical ability to convey the struggles of two very different men with various struggles. It seems that both Lead Belly and Kurt Cobain successfully depicted their struggles and pain in their performances of this historic song with deep-rooted folk origins.

Bill Murray’s version of “Casey Jones” stuck out to me from the rest of the recordings of the song. It is the oldest version of the song in the playlist, and yet it had a slightly more modern feel to me. The sound of the song feels larger in this version than in the others. The singer is accompanied by brass instruments as opposed to just fiddles. In addition, there is a small group of back up singers in this version for portions of the chorus. These different elements of the song produce a more layered, or textured sound.

The juxtaposition of the tone and sound of the song to the lyrics I find very interesting in the Bill Murray version. The tone of the song is upbeat; it feels almost bouncy. The lyrics however are the story of a man who dies and whose children have another father—not the happiest of tales. The lightness of the mood in the song lets the listener find some humor in it. Some of the final lines of the song come across as the punch line of a joke. Unfortunately for poor, dead, Casey Jones, it is at his own expense.

I chose to analyze Grateful Dead’s version of “Casey Jones”. While listening to this song I noticed that it had many different aspects to it. The way the lyrics are expressed changes throughout the song. When the singer gets to the chorus, the lyrics are sung much faster than they are sung in the verses. This accompanies the meaning of the song well since the chorus is talking about a train moving at a high speed. It is as if the lyrics are moving very quickly along with the train. Another aspect I noticed was that the rhythm of the song changes along with the expression of the lyrics. As the lyrics are sung at a faster pace, the rhythm seems to speed up as well. Then when he sings the verses, his notes are much drawn out so the rhythm slows down. The sound of the melody and the emotions that are conveyed in the lyrics go together well in this song. I believe the form of this song to be A B A B’ A B’ because the chorus of the song keeps the same form throughout, but the verses change slightly. The A part of the form has the same melody through the whole song, while the B part of the form has a melody that changes slightly towards the end.

         The lyrics to the song Casey Jones by The Grateful Dead use the metaphor of a moving train as a depiction of a continuously moving cycle. Although the “protagonist” of the song is clearly Casey Jones, the first verse of the chorus is used as a communal device. By singing “Driving that train, high on cocaine” the listener takes an actively personal role in the lyrics. Imagine, hypothetically, that the verse was “He’s driving that train, high on cocaine” the audience would listen to the song quite differently. By leaving out the impersonal he, the audience takes a much more active role in the message of the music by redirecting the gaze unto themselves. Granted this gaze is mediated through the usage of an exterior party, Casey Jones, it implies a sense of connection between the musicians and the audience that might be lacking with the simple usage of the he pronoun. By using the protagonist Casey Jones as the mediator, we allow the audience to reflect upon their own personal situations, without appearing too brash or overly critical of the audience. This point is emphacized by the usage of a verse from the chorus, although altered slightly (“Trouble ahead, lady in red”), in the second stanza of the song. This creates familiarity with the audience, which creates a stronger emphasis on the following lines by emphasizing their differences from the original chorus. This line, “Take my advice you’re better off dead” goes hand in hand with the idea that the audience is intended to take something from the lyrics of this song.

        The usage of formulaic verses is something that Ferris discusses in his piece Blues from the Delta. What he mentions is that often times blues singers would use formulaic verses that were common to listeners in order to create an active involvement and response from the audience. The song creates these formulaic verses, but alters them in order to place heavy emphasis on the new/original verses. This, in combination with the way Garcia raises the pitch of the verse, allows for a particular verse to stand alone by itself and creates more resonance with the audience. He does so similarly at the end of the song, by repeating the chorus three times, but each with different paces. The first two gradually speed up the pace, while the last slows it down and creates a sense of conclusion to the song. It is very poignant that the last verse of the song is “And you know that notion just crossed my mind” because it concludes the overarching message to the song, which is to point out the momentum in which things go wrong. By building up the energy, right before stopping it, the mood becomes that of realization as to how far things have come. Which, in turn, stresses the theme of personal reflection and realization.