Truckin': Difference between revisions
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"Trucking" is a type of [[dance]] step, associated with the [[blues]] and other early 20th century forms of [[folk music]]. |
"Trucking" is a type of [[dance]] step, associated with the [[blues]] and other early 20th century forms of [[folk music]]. |
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Correspondingly, "Truckin'" is the archetype for the Grateful Dead's shuffling yet propulsive rhythmic underpinning and laconic singing style, all laced on top with Garcia's trademark clean [[electric guitar]] fills and runs. The communal, shared-group-experience feel of the song is brought home by all three of the group's chief songwriters, Garcia, Weir, and Lesh, collaborating on the music. Similarly, Weir sings the main [[vocal|lead vocal]]s, but Garcia comes in to take the lead in spots. |
Correspondingly, "Truckin'" is the archetype for the Grateful Dead's shuffling yet propulsive rhythmic underpinning and laconic singing style, all laced on top with Garcia's trademark clean [[electric guitar]] fills and runs. The communal, shared-group-experience feel of the song is brought home by all three of the group's chief songwriters, Garcia, Weir, and Lesh, collaborating on the music. Similarly, Weir sings the main [[vocal|lead vocal]]s, but Garcia comes in to take the lead in spots. |
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Revision as of 01:13, 14 July 2006
| "Truckin'" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| B-side | "Ripple" |
"Truckin'" is a song by the Grateful Dead, which first appeared on their 1970 album American Beauty.
Written by band members Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and lyricist Robert Hunter", "Truckin'" molds shufflin' Grateful Dead rhythms and instrumentation with lyrics that use the band's misfortunes on the road as a metaphor for getting through the constant changes in life. Its climatic refrain, "What a long, strange trip it's been," has achieved widespread cultural use in the years since the song's release.[1]
Music
- Key: E
- Time signature: 12/8
- Chords used: E, A, B, Bsus4, G, D, F#, Amaj7
"Trucking" is a type of dance step, associated with the blues and other early 20th century forms of folk music.
Correspondingly, "Truckin'" is the archetype for the Grateful Dead's shuffling yet propulsive rhythmic underpinning and laconic singing style, all laced on top with Garcia's trademark clean electric guitar fills and runs. The communal, shared-group-experience feel of the song is brought home by all three of the group's chief songwriters, Garcia, Weir, and Lesh, collaborating on the music. Similarly, Weir sings the main lead vocals, but Garcia comes in to take the lead in spots.
Lyrics
The song revolves around the vissicitudes of life on the road for a "counterculture" band in the late 1960s/early 1970s era. Misadventures are described from Buffalo to Dallas, culminating in a (real life) drug bust in New Orleans. The mood is one of outrage reduced to exasperated resignation:
- Sittin' and starin' out of the hotel window.
- Got a tip theyre gonna kick the door in again ...
- I'd like to get some sleep before I travel,
- But if you got a warrant, I guess you're gonna come in.
- Busted, down on Bourbon Street;
- Set up, like a bowling pin.
- Knocked down, it gets to wearin' thin.
- They just wont let you be, oh no.
The song does not, however, paint the culture that the band and its followers lived in as a utopia. In particular, "Sweet Jane", a fan or group associate, is depicted as going into decline due to drug abuse.
Gradually the narration and music builds to a climax, setting up Robert Hunter's most famous verse:
- Sometimes the light's all shinin' on me;
- Other times, I can barely see.
- Lately it occurs to me ...
- What a long, strange trip it's been.
This last line has become the most popular of any phrase to come from a Grateful Dead song, and has been used in countless other contexts.[1][2]
"Truckin'"'s lyric also makes some cultural allusions: the "doodah man" is probably lifted from "Camptown Races" by Stephen Foster, while "Soft machine" probably refers to William S. Burroughs' The Soft Machine.
Single and album history
The song was taken from the American Beauty album and edited down in length from five to three minutes. It was released three times as a single, with it reaching number 64 on January 27, 1971 on the Pop Singles chart and staying there for eight weeks. "Truckin'" was the highest-charting pop single the group would have until the surprise top-ten performance of "Touch of Grey" 17 years later.
While "Truckin'" did not penetrate pure Top 40 stations, it did receive airplay on stations with slightly more relaxed formats, and the unedited track received heavy airplay on progressive rock radio stations.
The song was released two more times as a single, first as the B-side of the single "Johnny B. Goode" in 1972, and then as an A-side again, with "Sugar Magnolia" backing, in 1974; neither release charted. The edited version of the song also appeared on the compilation album What a Long Strange Trip It's Been in 1977 and The Golden Road (1965-1973) box set in 2001.
The full version appeared on American Beauty and the compilation Skeletons in the Closet in 1974. Live versions of the song appeared on:
- Europe '72
- Dick's Picks series, Volumes 1, 7, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 23, 28, 30, 31, 34, 35, and 36.
- Hundred Year Hall
- Ladies and Gentlemen ... The Grateful Dead
- Steppin' Out with the Grateful Dead: England '72
- View from the Vault series III
- Rockin' The Rhein
- The Grateful Dead Movie soundtrack
- Winterland 1973: The Complete Recordings
- Grateful Dead Download Series Volumes 3, 8, and 10
Chart history
| Date first charted | Position | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| January 27, 1971 | 64 | 8 weeks |
Performance history
"Truckin'" debuted as the first song on the first set on August 18, 1970 at The Fillmore in San Francisco, the same performance where many of American Beauty's songs premiered.
An longer rendition that turns into a jam was included on the popular 1972 live album Europe '72.
Over the band's long concert career, "Truckin'" was performed 520 times, making it the eighth-most performed Dead song. [3]
References
- ^ a b "What a long strange trip it's been, The Annotated "Truckin'" by David Dodd".
- ^ "What a long strange trip it's been search at Google.com".
- ^ Deadbase X: The Complete Guide to Grateful Dead Song Lists by John W. Scott, Mike Dolgushkin, Stu Nixon, Deadbase, 1997.