William N. Law Blog: Grateful Dead and Jon Hendricks

Perhaps the most mind-blowing revelation from my interview with Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead last week (go here) was the band's connection to Jon Hendricks. For my "Anatomy of a Song" column in The Wall Street Journal (print and a longer version online), I spoke with Bob about "Truckin'," one of the Dead's most iconic counterculture anthems. We talked about Robert Hunter's lyric and how difficult some of the lines were to sing. [Photo above of Bob Weir courtesty of Bob Weir's Twitter account]

Said Bob: "The choruses were easy for me to sing lead but the verses were hell. Some of them were straight-up tongue twisters, like 'Most of the cats that you meet on the streets speak of true love.' Give it a try. You’re not going to get through it. At first, I complained bitterly about how those dense verses were going to go. Jerry (Garcia's) response was, 'Sing ’em like Chuck Berry in School Days. Jerry meant I should use Chuck’s rapid-fire delivery and enunciation to fit a lot of words into each measure." [Photo of Grateful Dead courtesy of Wikipedia]

But Jon Hendricks also played a role:

"Three years earlier, in 1967, as the Warlocks, we backed Jon on a single called Fire in the City. Jon was producing it for a documentary. Jon was cool. He got what he wanted out of us—vocal harmony—and we learned from him. He’s a vocalese singer and composer and one of the best at coming up with lyrics for instrumental jazz solos. Jon’s mind and mouth are so fast that he’s able to get a lot of words into each measure with perfect enunciation. Just being in his presence made us think. Truckin’ has that same vocalese and vocal-harmony feel in places. I thought of Jon as we worked on Truckin’.”

Here's Jon Hendricks backed by the Warlocks (the Dead) in San Francisco on Fire in the City in 1967...

Also in the WSJ this week, my "House Call" interview with singer-songwriter Michael McDonald on growing up in Ferguson, Mo., and the battered upright grand piano his father brought home that changed Michael's life. Michael has a new album out, Wide Open. Here's Michael with the Doobie Brothers singing lead on his song, What a Fool Believes...

Here's Michael singing harmony behind Donald Fagen on Steely Dan's Peg...

And finally in the WSJ, my "Playlist" interview with Jen Welter, the first woman to play running-back on a men's professional football team (go here). Jen chose 3 Doors Down's Kryptonite. Here's why Jen is special...

Sweet Smell of Taxi Driver. Following my examination of Sweet Smell of Success last week, I thought I'd share this montage from Taxi Driver (1976). At 2:37, director Martin Scorsese pays tribute to the 1957 film by including Nedicks, which is where Tony Curtis first checks Burt Lancaster's gossip column after the opening credits...

West Coast jazz. In Los Angeles at the end of October? You're in for a treat. The Los Angeles Jazz Institute is producing Mulliganesque, a four-day tribute to the music of baritone saxophonist and arranger-composer Gerry Mulligan. The festival will run Oct. 27-30 at the Four Points Sheraton at LAX airport. For more information, go here.

Early Steve Allen Show. Carl Woideck sent along a link to an early complete Steve Allen Show in 1956. As Carl notes, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge and other jazz greats appear at 24:50...

More Sinatra on DVD. Eagle Vision has released three new DVD sets of Frank Sinatra in concert and on TV: The Royal Festival Hall (1962) & Live at Carnegie Hall (1980); Live From Caesars Palace (1978) & The First 40 Years (1979); and Portrait of an Album (documenting the recording of L.A. Is My Lady in 1984) & Sinatra Sings, a compilation of performances over four decades. You'll find these DVDs here, here and here.