On January 10, Bob Weir, The Grateful Dead’s driving spirit, joined Jerry, Pigpen, Phil and co. in the psychedelic jugband in the sky. As part of our extended tribute to Weir in the latest issue of MOJO – on sale now! – esteemed Deadhead David Fricke selects ten of his finest tracks, with the Dead, solo and beyond…
New, New Minglewood Blues
(from The Grateful Dead, Warner Bros, 1967)
Weir is in full rock’n’roll voice, a raver beyond his years, in this bullet-train cover of a 1928 relic by Cannon’s Jug Stompers, one of two on the Grateful Dead’s debut LP. He shares the lead with Jerry Garcia in the other, Viola Lee Blues.
Sugar Magnolia
(from American Beauty, Warner Bros , 1970)
Written with Robert Hunter and streaked with Garcia’s angel-dance pedal-steel guitar, Weir’s powerpop valentine became one of the Dead’s most beloved and performed songs – nearly 600 times, often with that Sunshine Daydream coda as the evening’s singalong finale.
One More Saturday Night
(from Bob Weir – Ace, Warner Bros, 1972)
Weir sang many of the Dead’s rock’n’roll party pieces: Johnny B Goode, Johnny Cash’s Big River. He lets that inner Chuck Berry loose on this fan favourite getdown, with the Dead as sessioneers. Oddly, they got top billing (“with Bobby Ace”) on the German 45.
Weather Report Suite
(from Wake Of The Flood, Grateful Dead, 1973)
This Weir-John Perry Barlow epic (co-written with Eric Andersen) is the closing apex of the Dead’s first album as label bosses – a meditation on changing seasons and the miracle of birth in serial tides of bracing chorale, like a Marin County twist on The Beach Boys’ Heroes And Villains.
Sage & Spirit
(from Blues For Allah, Grateful Dead, 1975)
Phil Lesh was the Dead’s resident Bach, but this acoustic, instrumental delicacy placed between the cosy reggae of Crazy Fingers and the title track’s caravanserai is a rare, uncluttered window into Weir’s melodic craft and logic, played live only twice – in 1975 and 1980.
Estimated Prophet
(from Terrapin Station, Arista, 1977)
There was a dark side to the people’s circus that followed the Dead. This deceptive groover in elliptical 7/4 time was based, Weir said, on a familiar fan: “really bug-eyed [and] having some kind of vision” – a self-righteous menace rendered in illusory, vocal hallelujah.
Two Djinn
(from RatDog – Evening Moods, Grateful Dead, 2000)
Weir’s only studio album with RatDog includes this long, exuberant funk about a mystical encounter with two comic genies, while referencing a lifetime of crossroads with the Dead (“Ever since I was a pup/Deal was I’d sing before I sup”). Features Mickey Hart on percussion.
Ki-Yi Bossie
(from Bob Weir – Blue Mountain, Legacy/Columbia, 2016)
Weir’s last solo album is a trip back to his adolescence in folk music and cowboy songs, abetted by members of The National. A night of whiskey and trouble, as recounted at a 12-step meeting, this ballad features yodels by Greenwich Village buckaroo Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.
The Well
(from Ace Of Cups – Ace Of Cups, High Moon, 2018)
Weir brought shared history and empathy to the first ever album by this pioneering all-female Bay Area band. His guest vocal and cutting-treble turn on guitar heighten the reach-back to a simpler enlightenment, just down the riverside from Workingman’s Dead’s Uncle John’s Band.
Ripple
(from Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros – Live in Colorado, Vol. 2, Third Man, 2022)
Recorded in June, 2021, this Garcia-Hunter encore captures Weir at a profound moment in his mission, back on-stage after lockdown. “I could see how much it meant to the audience,” Wolf Bors Don Was says of that night. “And he was trying to serve it up from the heart.”
"I knew he would go to the end - I just didn't think the end was coming this soon..."
Get the latest issue of MOJO to read our extended tribute to Bob Weir in full as friends and bandmates tell Weir's story and salute his legacy. More information and to order a copy HERE!
