"Teddy Bears' Picnic" Jerry Garcia & David Grisman-Not For Kids Only

I bet you never knew Jerry Garcia released a children's album. It must be hard to sell a children's album when your entire personality revolves around hard acid and heroin, tie that in with the fact that you look like a child molesting-Santa Claus and Jerry Garcia had a lot to contend with when he released this album; not for the people who really knew him. Captain Trips was less free-baser backstage than a hyper-intelligent-down home shaman of pure Americana. Vastly more proficient at banjo and acoustic guitar than anything he put out on stage electrically; he was a total enigma operating in realms in which the only traits that carried him through were a passionate lust for music and inhuman proficiency on every instrument he touched.

Because of this it was no surprise to me when this album was released, it was also of no surprise when after hearing it I fell in love instantly. Only someone as gifted as Jerry could make a 250lb hockey player take breaks from lifting, drinking and dipping to figure out the solos on a children's album. The wholehearted giddiness exuded reminds one of Blake's "Songs of Innocence and Experience" This song is "The Tyger" and "The Chimney Sweeper" it is what we lose when we grow pubes and get jobs.

Forgetting about the meanings and 18th century poetry implications for a moment: Listen to the clarinet weave in and out of the banjo and trombone as a child running through fields of lilies naked, hear Jerry's voice fragile, raspy with Marlboro Reds, the strange Uncle whom everyone adores and always has chocolate in his pocket, feel Grisman's mandolin skipping into the forefront during the solo over chalk murals on the sidewalk under a azure summer sky. In this frame of reference you can picture Jerry and Mr. Rogers jamming on his front porch with cardigans on, Big Bird bobbing his head up and down in the background.

It is a terribly cute song and for those who don't know Jerry it is an introduction to why so many people loved him like a father. Don't write me off as naive, but for most Deadheads it wasn't the drugs and the scene they loved about the man, it was the purity in his soul which held such attraction. Like everyman he had his faults, like all great men he kept them inside and smiled as much as humanly possible never letting the world know. For a few days those demons chasing Jerry took a break and let the man revert back to childhood dreams and pleasures, they were probably even swaying their heads back and forth, watching with smiles on their faces over his shoulder.

"She Thinks I Still Care" Elvis Presley-Moody Blue

Elvis Presley, the world knows the name. There was the young sex symbol, the cheesy movies, the Army, the over the top suits, the drugs, strange sexual and emotional problems...we think we all know the man and everything about him. Below those various facades there is a much more accomplished and multi-faceted individual than the world could ever comprehend and it is evident in this Dickey Lee cover which was made famous by George Jones, recorded on Elvis's final studio album

Elvis's voice is probably one of the most amazing gifts ever bestowed on someone in the history of music. Defying classification, his voice was both a baritone and a tenor, it covered an astounding two octaves and a third, it was almost two separate voices kept in reserve when he needed them. Elvis could hit full high G's and A's in a simple ballad, a range that is usually reserved for opera singers. He was also described as having perfect pitch, as well as the ability to hear a song once and play it flawlessly on piano.

Being from Tennessee his first love was Gospel and Country music and I believe he is at his finest in performing the genres. "You Gave Me a Mountain", "Kentucky Rain", "You Don't Know Me" and "How Great Thou Art" provide one with bone chilling high notes and intensity that sweats out his pores and onto the stage. In these songs it isn't just the voice that comes to the surface, it is the young man who grew up in a 12x12 house in the antiquated south, every man who had a story to tell but not the pipes to tell it with. It is the voice of a man who throughout the course of his life had extreme difficulty forming and keeping intimate relationships and that of one of the few people in history vast fame isolated into a sad and lonely world. He was no different than Jesus or Roman Emperors, he was truly so successful and so famous that it remained impossible for him to possess even the simplest pleasures the common man enjoys on his worst days. Luckily for him and for us is that when his times were darkest he reverted back to music to bathe in their heeling waters.

"She Thinks I Still Care" along with "I Wish I Was Blind" is the saddest love song you could ever hear on a jukebox at two in the morning. It is the saddest song you could ever hear on the radio in your car, in bed, in the shower...it is sadder than the long walk to the electric chair. Check out the bridge at 1:45 into the song:

Well if she's happy thinkin' I still need her
Then let that silly notion bring her cheer
Oh how could she ever be so foolish
Tell me where would she get Lord such an idea

With Blues and Soul steroids the King knocks these softball lines out of the park, beyond the bleachers and into the streets leaving fans fighting for remnants of the twisted Latin alphabet. Every step Priscilla took leaving Graceland is evident in those notes, they're alive on his sash, lighting up the rhinestones on his white jumpsuit.

In today's world we love to be different for different's sake, something always has to be new, edgy...hipsters base their entire lives on such a premise. In this world it is easy to overlook the basics, to opt for the American-Fusion instead of the porterhouse, the apple-tini over the scotch and to pass over Elvis because we picture him dancing in front of a cheap screen on the beach in G.I. Blues. Make no mistake about it, Elvis and this song are the bedrock that every musician laid their foundations atop of to build their own structures.

If you ever visit Graceland and stroll through the racquetball courts you'll see the upright piano he played on hours before his death, people say the last song he played was "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" which is also on this album. I bet the King knew it was time to take care of business and give those pipes back to his creator.