Grateful Dead Music Forum

tcsned wrote:D is what I've always done. It's the 5th of G and resolves to the G for the last verse. If we're talking about the last two measures of the bridge - B/A/ | D /

yeah man

I like to play this take off on the D to set up the last verse.
Build tension, then resolve.

E|--x--
B|--3--
G|--3--
D|--4--
A|--5--
E|--x--

tcsned wrote:D is what I've always done. It's the 5th of G and resolves to the G for the last verse. If we're talking about the last two measures of the bridge - B/A/ | D /

Agreed!

For the last two chords ending the jam (the A and the D) going into the last verse this sounds good with some fingering vibrato:

E---------------------------
B------5---------10--------
G-----4(h)6-----9(h)11---
D---------------------------
A--------------------------
E--------------------------

I'm pretty convinced of two things...

One the chord is a D before going back to the 3rd verse. The V of the home key is that D. That's typical and makes sense.


The next bit is a little bit of a stretch.

Two...Jerry makes a "mistake". He hits a B, coming up from the A on whole step below. The A is the root of the chord he's playing over then comes that B. Some folks hear that and think " oh it's a b note therefore the underlying chord is a B.

Wrong. It's a D the V of the home key G.

The problem is that B note at the end of his big solo on E72. The first two solos end by hitting C and then D the last solo get to D too except it just takes off I to IKYR without hitting the C chord.

My point being that I think Jerry is used to thinking of hitting his second to last note as the tonic and then coming up a whole step. So C to D...so in the context of the B section he plays A to B. But the chords don't go A to B...consequently the relation of that B note is different this time so his b note gets played over the D major chord. It ends up sounding like a D6 chord to me. But harmonically I think it a touch weak/atypical. Not intentional IMHO.

Like I said...I play it, but I don't think the B is intentional, but it's become part of the tune because the E72 version is so revered.


End theory.

J

I absolutely concur that it goes A - D at that point. That's how I figured it out by ear anyhow, and it is also what the copyrighted music stipulates. I would need to check what Phil does usually though.
I am assuming the discussion is re: China Cat...but I don't see a reference to the title in the original post or any other for some reason (this has happened before when I see posts asking about a song here; I don't know what song they are inquiring about lol).

The tab here seems to have a B instead of a D. It also appears to show a sliding in the main riff of Jerry (from C to D notes) which should be a hammer on. This bugs me cuz I guy I played with used to slide from the C to D note and I thought it sounded horrible (ham-fisted was how someone described it), to the point I didn't like to play it with him.

jackaroo wrote:
Two...Jerry makes a "mistake". He hits a B, coming up from the A on whole step below. The A is the root of the chord he's playing over then comes that B. Some folks hear that and think " oh it's a b note therefore the underlying chord is a B.


J

Entirely possible. I remember hearing Warren Haynes talking about his first rehearsals with the Allman Bros and getting to some point in One Way Out and he band stopping and asking what the hell are you doing? He said that he was playing the part just like Live at the Filmore. They laughed. He responded, damn! Do you know how much time it took to learn how to play that mistake?
Jerry was improvising, never a perfect process.

Damn, I was sure this thread was going to be about metalurgical crystalography differences of pot metal, brass, and steel....

copper dome bodi?