# 4 -- Surprise

Come Back Step

That's right, #4 is a surprise.  In their own words:

"I'm Uncle Sam, 

that's who I am.

Been hiding out 

in a rock 'n roll band."

In combining the following attributes, they became literally great:

* The most concert-goers, ever: 25 million over 30 years

* Lyricists to compose the words that some--myself included--consider the best in Rock

* A cult following that developed by word-of-mouth to become one of Rock's most famous

* The broadest playlist: approximately 500 songs played, 100 of those often, and probably Rock's greatest variety of genres:

Songs and their genres: 

40. One More Saturday Night -- Party

39. Mexicali Blues -- Cantina

38. Box of Rain -- Folk

37. Loose Lucy -- Soul

36. Picasso Moon -- Arthouse

35. Dark Star – Space 

34. Estimated Prophet -- Reggae

33. Cumberland Blues -- Bluegrass

32. Victim or the Crime - Avant Garde

31. Not Fade Away -- Rock Standard

30. To Lay Me Down – Prayer

29. Me and My Uncle -- Ballad

28. Big River – Swing

27. Playing In The Band -- Self-referential

26. Brown-Eyed Women -- Historical

25. Promised Land – Early Rock
24. US Blues - Patriotic

23. Wharf Rat – Christian

22. Iko Iko – Cajun
21. St. Stephen – Medieval
20. Peggy-O – Traditional
19. New Speedway Boogie – Rap
18. Sampson & Delilah – Spiritual
17. El Paso – Tex-Mex

16. Turn On Your Love Light – R&B
15. Shakedown Street – Disco

14. Blues For Allah – Arabist

13. Sugar Magnolia / Sunshine Daydream - Nature

12. Feel Like A Stranger – Punk

11. Casey Jones - Railroad

10. Jack Straw – Cowboy
9. Fire On The Mountain – Pacific Island
8. Mississippi Half-step Uptown Toodleloo – Ragtime
7. Sugaree -- Waltz

6. China Cat Sunflower – Asian
5. Eyes of the World – Jazz
4. Terrapin Station – Scottish

3. Alabama Getaway - Boogie-woogie

2. Stella Blue – Blues

1. Tennesse Jed – Country

(Included in that 500 songs were 82 covers of others’ work; in the above list:  #16: Deadric Malone & Joseph Scott, #17: Marty Robbins, #18: traditional, #22: Dr. John, #25: Chuck Berry,  #28: Johnny Cash, #29: John Phillips, and #31: Buddy Holly).

The reason they're a surprise is that they intentionally avoided the limelight.  This meant that the hit-maker machinery was turned off for the most part (they had minor hits with "Ripple", "Truckin'" and "Touch of Grey"), and the focus was instead on the improvisation and group-mind fusion that is live performance. Rather than a set play-list, practiced over-and-over, they emphasized timeliness, choosing appropriate songs as the mood struck.  But that’s life at its best--and when you think about it, true creative freedom.

And the critical recognition will come, eventually.  Songs that, when recorded, deserved to be heard by a wider audience, like "Bertha", "Scarlet Begonias", and "Ramble On Rose", to name a few, will, at an adequate historical distance, shine brightly. When all is said and done, the un-hyped public demeanor, as well as the excess paraphernalia of the times--shocking to some and cautionary to be sure--will sink into irrelevancy, as did lack of self-promotion and the personal foibles of past musical greats, from our country’s jazz pioneers back through Beethoven.

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Each band or performer is graded on four things:
  1.  Innovation
  2.  Influence in my life--as a typical American
  3.  Integrity: the band's approach to music (just making a buck or honing a craft?)  
  4.  Immortality--am I, a typical American--still eager to hear their music

10/7/9/9 = 35 out of a perfect 40

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Behind the Curtain: And who is this band that on September 16, 1978 performed at the Egyptian pyramids–the only rock act to have ever done so? The Grateful Dead.