The WELL: deadsongs.vue.137: Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleloo

#64: Robin Russell (rrussell8) Wed 3 Oct 07 06:26

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 06:26:00 PDT

Oops, make that "Chained on the Rock" in post 62 above.

I am starting to get a handle on this song after about three years of trying to play it. It has always been one of my favourites, and I am getting a better understanding of why: the ragtime meets rock 'n' roll of the music and the just out of reach implications of the lyric. Great improvising potential. Plus one of the greatest opening lines, of course. [Read entire topic]

#63: Marked from the Day That I was Born (ssol) Tue 2 Oct 07 10:53

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:53:00 PDT

Oh, the irony and ambiguity double-play again! Nice. [Read entire topic]

#62: Robin Russell (rrussell8) Tue 2 Oct 07 06:34

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 06:34:00 PDT

In respect to the ship coming in, a passage on illicit trades conducted by Bermudians (typically a white captain commanding a crew including black slaves) in the early eighteenth century from Packwood's seminal treatise on slavery in Bermuda:

"Often, they lured unsuspecting vessels to their graves on these remote islands; then stripped the disabled ships of everything they could carry away - cargo, rigging, sails, loose planks, etc. These items were easily disposed of at Curacao, St Eustatius, St Thomas and the French Islands. If the price was right, the Bermudian sloop itself, might be sold. Intercourse, with known pirates, constituted the chief illicit trade."

Cyril Outerbridge Packwood, "Chained to the Rock", Eliseo Torres & Sons NY / Baxter's Ltd Hamilton, Bermuda, 1975, p. 47

So maybe the verse refers to false lights, deliberate wrecking and pillage? "When your ship comes in" may not be a virtuous circumstance at all. [Read entire topic]

#61: David Dodd (ddodd) Mon 21 May 07 19:32

Mon, 21 May 2007 19:32:00 PDT

Thanks! [Read entire topic]

#60: Robin Russell (rrussell8) Mon 21 May 07 07:52

Mon, 21 May 2007 07:52:00 PDT

Sure thing David. Goes for anything I post. [Read entire topic]

#59: David Dodd (ddodd) Tue 15 May 07 17:05

Tue, 15 May 2007 17:05:00 PDT

That is fabulous! Geez, when will I ever get to update the annotated lyrics book? This would be a definite entry... Meanwhile, Robin, with your permission, I'd like to include your note in the annotations on the website--ok by you? [Read entire topic]

#58: Bryan Miller (bamfinney1) Thu 10 May 07 08:04

Thu, 10 May 2007 08:04:00 PDT

Oh, boy! Old Cain caught with his pants down. Now that is something! [Read entire topic]

#57: Robin Russell (rrussell8) Thu 10 May 07 07:46

Thu, 10 May 2007 07:46:00 PDT

Just to lower the tone of this discussion, Half-Step is a nickname I have encountered in Bermuda, where just about every male seems to have one. It refers to the gait adopted when making a quick exit with the trousers around the ankles. [Read entire topic]

#56: Marked from the Day That I was Born (ssol) Wed 25 Apr 07 15:13

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 15:13:00 PDT

Very nice thoughts. [Read entire topic]

#55: Bryan Miller (bamfinney1) Sun 22 Apr 07 13:35

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 13:35:00 PDT

I'm sorry to hear about those tragedies in your life, expecially Lisa. It's a solid thing that the Dead gives us these songs and lyrics to help deal. It is quite amazing, really. A certain song can speak to you in ways that it seem to heal (and many other things beside), or at least give hope of healing. The sympathy I find in Jerry's voice, the commonality I find in Hunter's lyrics really is medicine. Lots of Bobby/Barlow songs do that too. For me, Black Throated Wind is such a song. It speaks to me about my marriage. And the song ends with me going back home to the one I truly love (of course I never really left, but you know what I mean).

There was quite a round of discussion concerning Jack Straw a while ago about whether or not Jack killed his buddy or whether the fuzz finally caught up with 'em and hung Shannon, Jack somehow escaping the same fate. "Jack Straw from Whicita cut his buddy down." Does "cut" mean kill or cut down from a hangman's noose was the pivotal point in the discussion.

However, MHSUT has been very precious to me of late. Many of us feel "marked" from birth (whether our literal birth or our metaphoric "birth"), a certain feeling of destiny, direction, unavoidable notions. And to know we're half-steppin' down a well worn trail is certainly comforting to say the least!

I've noticed two different drum beats on it too. One double time, and one half time, or however you might say it. I'm always partial to the slower of the two. It lets me ease into it better, the beat is more spread out, easier to weave in and out of. [Read entire topic]