ImJerryToo wrote: ↑Tue Apr 10, 2012 8:32 am
I would be pretty firm in my views that the questioned lyrics are
"moanin' low", "love" and "braggin"
(Actually I don't really see how these are questionable, but I guess that's just me because apparently there are plenty of people with the questions)
I do also agree though that Jerry did slip "laughing" in place of "braggin" at times.
"Put your gold money where your love is, baby" is a phenomenal line, exquisite Robert Hunter! Substituting "luck" there makes it pedestrian and totally un-Hunterish (to me).
Agree.
Been trying to expand my repertoire, and using YouTube, brought this into the fold, again, and have been working on it constantly, of late. (Lowden custom nylon string; to die for guitar)
These are wonderful chromatic cowboy runs to be found on this song, and no one on YouTube has fleshed them out. Some of the YouTube vids are difficult to watch because no one knows how to learn songs anymore, they just know how to learn
many songs, and leave the fine detail to languish for Eternity. But they do present the basics, and then they are leaving it to the next generation… to perfect it.
What the vids lack is the presentation of launching with pace into the beginning of the song. That comes with practice. You have to be completely fluent with it, to master it. That means learning almost nothing else for a while as you bring it up to speed. Then you have to push on to take it to the next level. Once you nail it (still working on it for myself, but some parts are getting there), then you can take it to the nether world freeform, where this song blooms like no other.
To get some of the finer lines, for example: one chromatic down followed by an immediate chromatic up thereafter, and then a resolve… 75% speed can render it beautifully, but you may need 50% to be sure, when you learn it.
This is such a wonderful song, and should be a lifetime effort for every true Jerry devotee.
To learn this song really well… probably requires 1000 hours. This means learn it, drop it, relearn it, drop it, relearn it, drop it…
ad absurdum.
To really get in the mood, watch YouTube
The Sting poker scene and the poker scene from
Cincinnati Kid can also be a well of resource.
Never give up on this song. Even Jerry revered it, as he knew it was easy to dilute its import, so he left it alone — almost never live performing it — as a golden nugget for generations to come.