Jerry Garcia was born in San Francisco, California and started his musical career in 1960, becoming a really important guitarist from that area that helped to form Grateful Dead, one of the most important American groups of all time.
Besides being the band’s guitarist and singer he was also their principal songwriter, being pointed by many people as the leader of the group, although he didn’t agree with that.
Until the group came to an end in 1995 after Garcia’s age they released 13 studio albums that had many amazing tracks that are still loved by the millions of fans. But, there was one song that Garcia revealed he really loved but no one else liked.
The Grateful Dead song Jerry Garcia loved but nobody else liked
The Grateful Dead was formed back in 1965 in Palo Alto, California and never could be labeled into only one category. The group was also mixing many different styles but they could be defined as live band, since their concerts were also the highest point of the group, that really loved to improvise.
Garcia was a very prolific songwriter that was a very important part of the band’s line-up. Althoguh he was responsible for many famous tracks there were also some less-remembered ones he liked. In an interview with Relix magazine back in 1976, he mentioned the track “Row Jimmy” as one of the tracks he loved the most, but no one else liked.
“There are some songs that I really loved. Like I really loved ‘Row Jimmy Row.’ That was one of my favorite songs of ones that I’ve written. I loved it. Nobody else really liked it very much. We always did it. But nobody liked it very much, at least in the same way I did,” Jerry Garcia said.
“Row Jimmy” was first released on the band’s sixth album “Wake Of The Flood” in 1973. The track is credited to Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter. At the time the Grateful Dead was formed by Garcia, Donna Jean Godchaux, Keith Godchaux, Bill Kreutzmann and Bob Weir. It was their first album released after the death of the founding member Ron “Pigpen” McKernan.
Garcia said that the tracks of that album were more sophisticated
With the release of “Wake Of The Flood” many fans and critics thought that the band had changed their sound and songwriting approach a little bit and Garcia agreed with that.
In an interview with Cameron Crowe back in 1973 for Circus Magazine, he said the songs were more sophisticated. However, he said that they continued to have the Dead’s footprints. “They’re a little more sophisticated in terms of structure than our other ones, the new tunes. But they’re Grateful Dead all the way. I mean they sound like The Grateful Dead.”
Garcia continued:
“I can’t really look at them objectively. But I feel that they’re better. It’s hard to tell what direction they’re moving in. They’re really sort of dispersed in that they are widely-patterned. All the tunes are very different from each other. The ones that preceded them as well,” Jerry Garcia said.
At the time the album reached the number 18 on the United States Billboard charts. Some of the most remembered tracks from the record are: ‘Let Me Sing Your Blues Away”, “Stella Blue” and “Here Comes Sunshine”.
Jerry Garcia died back in August 9, 1995 at the age of 53, victim of a heart attack when he was in a California drug rehabilitation facility. The track was played by the band during their final tour with Garcia a few months before his death.