Hoddle Headquarters today mourns the passing of Donna Jean Godchaux, former backing vocalist for the Grateful Dead.
Godchaux, who joined the Grateful Dead in 1971 with her husband Keith Godchaux, sang backing vocals for the band during its seminal years. She was there for Europe 72, under the full moon in Egypt and, of course, at Barton Hall in 1977.
Her voice added a fresh layer to the Grateful Dead sound in what could be considered the band’s biggest era - the points between Ron McKernan’s death and before the arrival of Brent Mydland delivered a harder sound.
Many of the Grateful Dead live songs I enjoy because of Godchaux’s inclusions - think The Music Never Stopped, Dancing in the Street or, of course, Playing in the Band, the jammiest of the Dead’s catalogue defined by her wailing.
I just so happened to be at a Grateful Dead cover band concert on Sunday night. The band played its rendition of Scarlet Begonias into Fire on the Mountain. As I was listening to that version I pondered if the Grateful Dead had achieved its so-called telos on May 8, 1977, when it paired those two songs together for the first time.
The idea of telos, first brought by Aristotle, is sort of to consider an object or whatever else as its intended and ultimate reason for its existence. It’s probably a silly thought to ascribe to a band, but I’ll do it anyways.
When the Dead paired Scarlet > Fire, I think it can be reasonably asked if they had achieved the ultimate objective for the band’s existence. Of joining the rock fusion of Scarlet Begonias with that reggae-like Fire on the Mountain, but it’s the interlude between the two where things get interesting. Like the space that connects two interdimensional portals.
During that version you can hear Donna Jean Godchaux’s soft wails in the background, leading us from the first song into the second before Phil Lesh’s boppy bass carries the audience into the latter half of one of the band’s most legendary outputs.
If the Grateful Dead did indeed reach telos at Barton Hall, then Godchaux guided us all there.
May the four winds blow her safely home.
Fitzie’s track of the day: Sing Me Back Home, by the Grateful Dead
And now for your links:
Matt Law: “Micky Van de Ven and Djed Spence ‘sorry’ for Thomas Frank snub”
Alasdair Gold: “Every word Thomas Frank said on his Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence meeting plus Kudus injury”