Carry Me Back
“Tennessee, Tennessee, there ain’t no place I’d rather be.
Baby won’t you carry me back to Tennessee.”
Walking alongside the Stones River while listening to the Good Ol' Grateful Dead’s 1981 Independence Day show was as perfect as it needed to be.
Nashville, Tennessee
July 4, 2021
✌️💀
July 4, 1981
Austin, TX
Tennessee Jed > Minglewood Blues
Rumor also has it that Robert Hunter was recalling a character from a 1940’s West Virginia radio show character,
The obscure 1940s radio show, “Tennessee Jed,” ran from 1945 to 1947. It was sponsored by a bread company (Tip-Top Bread), which seems to tie in with the line “when you get back you better butter my bread.” (Accident? Coincidence? I think not!) The titular character, Jed (a handy guy with a sixshooter) inhabits a western landscape with characters by the name of Cookstove, sharpshooter Steve Martin, Sheriff Anderson, Chief Grey Eagle, Gideon Gordon, and others. Among his other do-gooder exploits, Jed (who also sings) foils a plot to overthrow the US Government by a gang planning to re-start the Civil War (which, at the time, was only about as far in the past, relatively, as World War II is for us—so, sort of a Captain America-era story, to put it in context). — Deadnet, Tennessee Jed.
Some Dead history, “Tennessee Jed,” a Grateful Dead tune which quickly became a tour staple, was first performed October 19, 1971, along with five other firsts: “Jack Straw,” “Mexicali Blues,” “Comes a Time,” “One More Saturday Night,” and “Ramble On Rose.”
