It sounds to me like he’s trying to do a descending diminished chord blues cliche, except that he doesn’t know diminished chords: | F7/A Abdim7 | Gm7 F7 | The conventional thing would be to have it resolve to C, which would then resolve back to F. You could think of it as being a continuation of the F chord with the root moved down a half step to E. The Am is nice, you don’t hear a lot of iii chords in rock. The second half of the verse is harmonically more colorful: | F Am | Bb F | F G7 | Bb F | There’s nothing like a little rhythmic dissonance to liven up a simple chord change. This is all plain-vanilla diatonic F major, but that last change to F is anticipated by a half a beat. The harmony settles down in the first half of the verse: | F | Bb | F Dm | Bb F | But it has been quite a winding path to get there. From here on, the tune stays unambiguously in F aside from a few outlier chords. The intro ends with a little one-bar break on F, which settles the question of what key we’re in. I guess the G and Dm imply that we’re back in G Mixo, but then what? Maybe the Bb and C are bVI and bVII in D minor? Or maybe they’re bVII and I in C Mixo? Or IV and V in F major? It’s ambiguous.Īnyway, the intro continues with another four-bar phrase (“All the birds that were singing…”): | G | Dm | Bb | C | The G and the Am sound like the I and ii chords in G Mixolydian, but then what? Is the Bb from parallel G minor or G blues? Are the Bb, F and C the IV, I and V in F major? I hear C as being the resolved chord, not F, which would indicate C Mixolydian. When Jerry’s vocal enters, there’s this four-bar phrase (“Fare you well, my honey…”): | G | Am | Bb F | F C | This is a favorite modality of the Dead’s. The first part is one and a half bars of gentle groove on G7, establishing the “key” as G Mixolydian. However, taken as a whole, it’s hard to understand what’s going on. The tune’s intro sounds innocent enough, and the chords all make sense when you consider them pairwise.
Phil Lesh sings the high harmony part in the straining falsetto that would wreck his vocal cords in a few short years.
Jerry sings lead, and it’s one of his loveliest performances on record. The lyrics and melody are an Americana mishmash. The extremely slow tempo, wide sixteenth note swing, and some of the chord changes evoke gospel music. What genre would you say this song is? It has a strong country-music vibe thanks to Jerry Garcia’s pedal steel guitar and the barrelhouse-style piano part by Howard Wales. But I can see why it isn’t such a campfire song: it’s harder to play, and it’s in the not-very-folk-friendly key of F. “Brokedown Palace” has actual feelings in it. I love “Ripple” too, but its lyrics aren’t about much of anything. On American Beauty, it comes right after “Ripple”, which is better known and is more of a singalong standard. My sister, stepsiblings and I are going to sing a Grateful Dead classic:įor me, “Brokedown Palace” represents the high point of the Dead’s acoustic folkie side. And for you audiophiles out there, this recording has a lot of noise - not enough to bother me, but I can see where it would distract some listeners.My stepfather died a year and a half ago, but thanks to the pandemic, we’re only now able to have a memorial service for him. The show gets three stars for the playing, but the incorrect order is really annoying. One big complaint about this particular transfer is that Revolution and Brokedown Palace are tracked in the middle of the show, when they belong at the end. In the second set, the jam at the end of Terrapin, Drums, and then a smoking Wharf Rat were the highlights for me - the Wharf Rat is especially good. It Must Have Been the Roses in general is a first set highlight, and Cassidy ends with the typical 1980's pizazz. I enjoyed the tail end of Jack Straw where the entire band stops playing and Jerry plays the intro into It Must Have Been the Roses - it was just a brief little moment of crisp, clear calm playing and then the band picks up the new tune. Why? Because this show typifies 1985 - a lot of straightforward, hard-rockin' (for the Dead) songs, but nothing that really gets totally, jazzily out there. If you don't like shows from 1985, then you won't like this show. If you like shows from 1985, then you will like this show.
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