Contrast Between Mississippi John Hurt and The Grateful Dead

  After listening to the four renditions of “Casey Jones” then two that I found to have the most interesting contrast were that of Mississippi John Hurt and The Grateful Dead. In “Casey Jones” by Mississippi John Hurt the lyrics expression the desperation of poverty. There is no way to freedom and no hope of success in the future for many impoverished people. There are feelings of being eternally stuck and of desperation that are expressed by Mississippi John Hurt. This is especially clear in the line “you’re gonna draw a pension after daddy’s dad”. Casey Jones’ wife is so desperate for money to support her family that she sees a positive light to her husband’s death in the fact that there will be a pension. 

The version of “Casey Jones” by The Grateful Dead expresses a completely different source of desperation through the change of its lyrics. In this version Casey Jones is used to portray the troubling affects of drug addiction. This is expressed in the line “got two good eyes but you still don’t see”, which shows the drastic altering of the mind through drug abuse. Not only is there a variation in lyrics between the two songs, there is also a variation in rhythm. While Mississippi John Hurt creates a more bluesy folk sound, The Grateful Dead create a more rock and roll folk sound. 

Comments

[BigBopper]

When you say there's a variation in rhythm, what kind of variation do you mean exactly? I'm not sure what "bluesy folk" means, and I feel like maybe in this class it would worth while for us to try to get more specific...

[KathleenKanaley]

The contrast that you found between the two versions of "Casey Jones" is very interesting. I think that the different interpretations of the song are due to the different cultures and time periods of the two artists. Grateful Dead’s version of the song has a reference to drugs, which were a big part of the musical culture of the sixties. On the other hand, Mississippi John Hurt was an artist during a time when it was difficult to make enough money to support yourself or even your family, so he sung about the horrors of being poor. By contrasting these two versions of “Casey Jones”, it makes it easy to see the influence that the time period can have on an artist and their music.