The Deadcast explores Phil Lesh’s masterpiece “Unbroken Chain,” its mysterious lyricist Bobby Petersen, & digs into the luminous synth with Ned Lagin himself; plus, the story of the album title & art with the Grateful Dead Records crew & a visit from Animal Collective’s Avey Tare.
by Jesse Jarnow
Phil Lesh and Bobby Petersen’s “Unbroken Chain” is a piece of Dead music unlike any other, a studio-only song until its surprise live debut in the spring of 1995. Part of its power comes from the luminous ARP Odyssey part contributed by composer Ned Lagin. We speak with him extensively on this episode (as well on our previous Nedcast) and, likewise, Ned has posted some notes about his work on “Unbroken Chain.”
Ron and Susan Wickersham and Alembic continue to build world class instruments from their Santa Rosa homebase.
Following Bruce Hornsby’s “Sunflower Cat” in 1998, Animal Collective’s “What Would I Want? Sky” became the second song to officially sample the Grateful Dead.
In addition to having to tell Robt. Williams that the Dead couldn’t use “New Eyes” painting on the cover of Wake of the Flood, Andy Leonard took the original photographs for the front and back covers of From the Mars Hotel.
David Gans’s books are the cornerstone of any Dead library, including Conversations With the Dead, This Is All A Dream We Dreamed (with Blair Jackson), and his recent Improvised Lives, all available from his site. Brian Anderson is working on Loud and Clear, a history of the Wall of Sound.
Guests: Ned Lagin, Dave Portner, Alan Trist, Ron Rakow, Andy Leonard, Steve Brown, Richard Loren, Richie Pechner, Stephen Barncard, Eric Bray, David Lemieux, Brian Kehew, Nick Paumgarten, Nicholas Meriwether, Christian Crumlish, Shaugn O’Donnell, Brian Anderson, Seth Mnookin
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New Potato Caboose lyric
Since 1969, I've been hearing "Above my doorknob, two eagles hang, against a cloud." Thanks to the Deadcast, today I learned that it's "Above Madonna..." Thanks for the public service, Deadcast.
New Potato Caboose lyric
To my ear, I never heard Bob singing the words "Black Madonna" in "New Potato Caboose" (which is how the Grateful. Dead Anthology songbook printed the lyric, and how it appears in David Dodd's Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics). I also always heard it as you did, dkat (or as "Above the doorknob,...") -- to me, that was a psychedelic foreshortening of images seen by someone crouching or sitting on the floor by an opened door. But "Above Madonna" makes sense. I grew up in Santa Cruz County, where Mount Madonna's a landmark neighboring place (the peak is in Santa Clara County).
New Potato Caboose lyric
Thanks, mark_mumper. Good to know I wasn't the only one who heard doorknob. My image was a little different: I saw it as someone outside his house looking up and seeing the eagles "above his doorknob." Same idea, though. I never thought to check the official lyrics. I see now it only would have confused me,
Ugly Rumors of Unbroken Chain
Another absolutely excellent edition of the Good ‘Ole Grateful Deadcast that covers a song that lives deeply lodged in the further regions of my internal landscapes…
Listening to Mars Hotel late one night, many years ago while living at the University Hotel in Berkeley, the extra-ordinary sounds added by Ned Lagin on Unbroken Chain generated a high frequency buzz that synched-up with extremely fired-up synapses and left a sonic shadow impression that lasted a long time after the end of the song…I became pretty obsessed with listening to it for a while, intrigued by the complex interplay of parts, like in Slipknot!, or the 7/8 section in Eyes of The World…
Unbroken Chain was also the last song I saw Jerry Garcia play with Grateful Dead on April 2, 1995 in Memphis, Tennessee.
The Grateful Dead were playing in Tennessee after many years and so I decided to do the yearly run of shows at the Omni in Atlanta and then the two in Memphis at The Pyramid.
These shows had some of the “roughest” moments on stage that I experienced since I started seeing Grateful Dead shows…
Jerry seemed to be in very low energy mode and it didn’t seem like he felt very well…He kept his head down on his chest quite a bit…There was a moment when Phil and Bobby were standing close to the drum risers and looking over at Jerry, like they were ready for him to take the lead…I don’t want to project too much, but that’s the impression I got…
It’s always frustrating to see your favorite musicians going through a difficult time, but when you’re willing to stick with a band when they have an “off” night or bad set, you learn to move along and “see what tomorrow brings” hoping for a better day which you know will inevitably happen.
And although Jerry was looking like he was feeling really rough, after all the on-and-off he had been through, surely he was just going through a “bad phase” that would again clear-up…or so I thought…or was hoping…
When the encore began on 4/2/95 and it became apparent they were playing “Unbroken Chain” an enormous rush of emotion shot up the spine like instantly unleashed kundalini and “OH MY GOD! They’re playing it!”
I couldn’t begin to count how many times I’ve simultaneously had tears in my eyes and a smile on my face at a Dead show, but this one felt really intense…heart breaking open intense…
Soon after the show I remembered reading or hearing something about how Phil said “If we start playing Unbroken Chain, it will probably be our last shows” or something along those lines…
I can not find the source for this “quote”…I’ve looked through Blair Jackson’s “Goin’ Down The Road” and David Gans “Conversations with The Dead” where Phil speaks of how difficult the song is and how they would have to relearn the parts and that maybe it would happen, but nothing cryptic about the meaning of Unbroken Chain appearing on the setlist.
I did lose a lot of books, Relix, Dupree’s Diamond News, and Golden Road publications in a flood in 2010, but the article/interview would have to be before 1995…
At the time, lots of life changes were starting to happen with a 3 year old kid and my family moving to a different house so I ended up not going to any shows on the 1995 Summer “tour from hell” which is probably for the best…but I do wish I could have seen Jerry Garcia one more time…
Whatever may have been said about the Grateful Dead performing Unbroken Chain live, it was the last song I saw Jerry Garcia play.
Thank you to everyone involved with the Good ‘Ole Grateful Deadcast!
Another absolutely excellent edition of the Good ‘Ole Grateful Deadcast that covers a song that lives deeply lodged in the further regions of my internal landscapes…
Listening to Mars Hotel late one night, many years ago while living at the University Hotel in Berkeley, the extra-ordinary sounds added by Ned Lagin on Unbroken Chain generated a high frequency buzz that synched-up with extremely fired-up synapses and left a sonic shadow impression that lasted a long time after the end of the song…I became pretty obsessed with listening to it for a while, intrigued by the complex interplay of parts, like in Slipknot!, or the 7/8 section in Eyes of The World…
Unbroken Chain was also the last song I saw Jerry Garcia play with Grateful Dead on April 2, 1995 in Memphis, Tennessee.
The Grateful Dead were playing in Tennessee after many years and so I decided to do the yearly run of shows at the Omni in Atlanta and then the two in Memphis at The Pyramid.
These shows had some of the “roughest” moments on stage that I experienced since I started seeing Grateful Dead shows…
Jerry seemed to be in very low energy mode and it didn’t seem like he felt very well…He kept his head down on his chest quite a bit…There was a moment when Phil and Bobby were standing close to the drum risers and looking over at Jerry, like they were ready for him to take the lead…I don’t want to project too much, but that’s the impression I got…
It’s always frustrating to see your favorite musicians going through a difficult time, but when you’re willing to stick with a band when they have an “off” night or bad set, you learn to move along and “see what tomorrow brings” hoping for a better day which you know will inevitably happen.
And although Jerry was looking like he was feeling really rough, after all the on-and-off he had been through, surely he was just going through a “bad phase” that would again clear-up…or so I thought…or was hoping…
When the encore began on 4/2/95 and it became apparent they were playing “Unbroken Chain” an enormous rush of emotion shot up the spine like instantly unleashed kundalini and “OH MY GOD! They’re playing it!”
I couldn’t begin to count how many times I’ve simultaneously had tears in my eyes and a smile on my face at a Dead show, but this one felt really intense…heart breaking open intense…
Soon after the show I remembered reading or hearing something about how Phil said “If we start playing Unbroken Chain, it will probably be our last shows” or something along those lines…
I can not find the source for this “quote”…I’ve looked through Blair Jackson’s “Goin’ Down The Road” and David Gans “Conversations with The Dead” where Phil speaks of how difficult the song is and how they would have to relearn the parts and that maybe it would happen, but nothing cryptic about the meaning of Unbroken Chain appearing on the setlist.
I did lose a lot of books, Relix, Dupree’s Diamond News, and Golden Road publications in a flood in 2010, but the article/interview would have to be before 1995…
At the time, lots of life changes were starting to happen with a 3 year old kid and my family moving to a different house so I ended up not going to any shows on the 1995 Summer “tour from hell” which is probably for the best…but I do wish I could have seen Jerry Garcia one more time…
Whatever may have been said about the Grateful Dead performing Unbroken Chain live, it was the last song I saw Jerry Garcia play.
Thank you to everyone involved with the Good ‘Ole Grateful Deadcast!
Since 1969, I've been hearing "Above my doorknob, two eagles hang, against a cloud." Thanks to the Deadcast, today I learned that it's "Above Madonna..." Thanks for the public service, Deadcast.
To my ear, I never heard Bob singing the words "Black Madonna" in "New Potato Caboose" (which is how the Grateful. Dead Anthology songbook printed the lyric, and how it appears in David Dodd's Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics). I also always heard it as you did, dkat (or as "Above the doorknob,...") -- to me, that was a psychedelic foreshortening of images seen by someone crouching or sitting on the floor by an opened door. But "Above Madonna" makes sense. I grew up in Santa Cruz County, where Mount Madonna's a landmark neighboring place (the peak is in Santa Clara County).