GOOD OL' GRATEFUL DEADCAST

Episode Title: From the Mars Hotel 50: Pride of Cucamonga
Date: June 6, 2024
Hosts: Rich Mahan and Jesse Jarnow
Main Topic: A deep-dive exploration of "Pride of Cucamonga" from the Grateful Dead's 1974 album From the Mars Hotel, covering the song's creation, Californian roots, lyrical authorship, recording session stories, and the cultural context of the Grateful Dead's era.

Episode Overview

This episode celebrates the 50th anniversary of From the Mars Hotel by spotlighting the song "Pride of Cucamonga," the last Phil Lesh lead vocal on a Dead studio album. Through interviews with band family, lyric scholars, engineers, and pedal steel legend John McFee, the podcast unpacks the song’s peculiar place in the Dead canon, the friendship between Phil Lesh and lyricist Bobby Petersen, and the broader story of the band and its milieu in the mid-70s. The episode also explores the technical and logistical innovations of the Wall of Sound and the pressures that led to the Dead's 1974-1975 hiatus.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Anomaly of "Pride of Cucamonga"

• Pride of Cucamonga stands out as the only overtly country-rock track on From the Mars Hotel, and is notably the only song on the album (and one of very few in Dead history) never performed live by the band.
• The song originates from the collaboration of Phil Lesh (music) and Bobby Petersen (lyrics), the latter brought into the Dead orbit as a nature poet and mutual friend from the Bay Area art scene.

Notable Quote:

"It is the only song on the album to sound anything like the country rock that the Grateful Dead were often associated with... and it's the last original song on a Dead album that might be called 'Bakersfield Dead.'”
— Jesse Jarnow [06:26]

2. Deep Dive into the Lyrics and Petersen’s Influence

• Petersen’s original draft had much more biographical specificity—place names and references trimmed by Lesh to make the lyrics more universal and singable.
• The name "Cucamonga" is a red herring; the song’s landscape is wider California, expanded by Petersen’s road stories and poetic mythos.

Notable Quote:

“There are two surviving drafts of Pride of Cucamonga... and there are only minor differences. The difference between those versions and what ends up getting recorded and the copyright registration is really quite remarkable. It speaks to how Phil Lesh edited Peterson’s lyrics to make them more singable or just more kind of elliptical.”
— Nicholas Merriweather [11:02]

Notable Quotes on Editing:

"Phil excises two entire verses... The original way that the poem, the lyric reads is it's about a guy looking back on all of the highways, all of his travels. And its focus is on Highway 101. Well, Phil eliminates that."
— Nicholas Merriweather [13:57]

3. Laird Grant and the Real 'Pride of Cucamonga'

• The song acts as a tribute, not to Petersen himself but to Laird Grant, Dead’s early roadie and Ashbury regular, whose nickname was 'Pride of Cucamonga' after a cheap fortified wine of the same name—accompanied by stories of Dead family history and the broader California bohemian circuit.

Notable Quote:

“Laird Grant is Pride of Cucamonga. Here’s why: that was his nickname. Laird was fond of drinking. There was a brand of ... basically fortified wines ... called Pride of Cucamonga.”
— Nicholas Merriweather [16:54]

4. Musical Structure and Recording Secrets

• The song is musically divided—peppy country rock with a surprising, bluesy middle section featuring a time-signature shift and Hammond B3 organ flourish.
• Pedal steel part was handled by John McFee (Clover, later Doobie Brothers), not Garcia, creating a memorable melodic signature.
• Recording details include multiple takes, overdubs, and the subtle blending of musical layers—especially Garcia’s pedal-steel-imitating lead.

Notable Quote:

“It starts like a crazy organ jam... then boom, we’re back into this freewheeling country trucker song. It’s the densest part of the song... There are a lot of overdubs.”
— Jesse Jarnow [26:18]

John McFee Perspective:

"They really just gave me the freedom to try to find my way through it in my own fashion, which is really cool and says a lot about the spirit of their approach to life."
— John McFee [35:48]

5. California, Country Rock, and the Dead’s Evolving Sound

• "Pride of Cucamonga" marks the end of the band’s explicit country phase, begun with "Dire Wolf" in 1969.
• Observers and scholars note how the song’s rootsy Americana would give way to more experimental tendencies.

Notable Quote:

"Not only is Pride of Cucamonga the only country-leaning song on from the Mars Hotel, it’s the last original song on a Dead album that might be called Bakersfield Dead."
— Jesse Jarnow [06:26]

6. The Wall of Sound, Touring, and Hiatus

• The podcast situates From the Mars Hotel and this track amidst the band’s technical innovation—the Wall of Sound PA system—and the pressures it brought: logistical, financial, psychological, and interpersonal.
• Interviews recount stories from the legendary Roosevelt Stadium shows, including the infamous rain-out riot and the band’s growing fatigue from endlessly touring and escalating production demands.

Notable Quotes:

“There were starting to be some bad scenes at shows… The crowds were getting a little more rowdy. And I thought maybe it was because once the Dead started getting more popular... there was a certain tipping point…”
— Gary Lambert [71:17]

"It was financially unsustainable and in my view it was a colossal mistake... The crew was double... They were normally even those guys were getting paid tons of money..."
— Richard Loren [73:47]

7. Band Fatigue and Taking a Break

• Deep weariness, logistical chaos, and drug use led to a 1974 band meeting, resulting in a planned hiatus—possibly “trial stoppage.” New administrative realities (payroll, unemployment benefits) signaled the end of a freer era.

Notable Quotes:

"Jerry announced that he wanted to take some time off... He was starting to feel responsible for everybody’s job. So instead of being a talented, basically genius musician, everybody looked to him for work."
— Richie Peckner [72:41]

"Jerry just came to my office and said, we decided to take a hiatus ... They were actually talking about stopping being the Grateful Dead."
— Ron Rakow [80:11]

8. Bobby Petersen’s Legacy

• Petersen continued as a lyrical presence in the Dead world and was always "part of the family," with "Revolutionary Hamstrung Blues" (1986) being his last lyric to surface with the band.
• His poetry embodied both naturalistic observation and the Dead’s deeply Californian sensibility.

Notable Quote:

“Bobby Peterson remained a part of the Grateful Dead social circle... More than the cryptical Unbroken Chain, the cathartic Box of Rain, or the psychedelic New Potato Caboose, Pride of Cucamonga is a postcard from someplace else, from somebody on the way to someplace even further.”
— Jesse Jarnow [86:27]

Memorable Moments & Quotes (with Timestamps)

• "It's like, what the hell is this? And it works. It works perfectly." — David Lemieux on the song’s structure [05:53]
• "Standing in the road alone, watching the fires burn." — Reciting the evocative lyric [19:07]
• "That's when I was checking out and setting up my equipment... meant to go in Computer World, the journal for computers back then." — Ned Lagin on tech innovation at Dead shows [59:28]
• "The field became a mud pit, and finally Bob Weir had to come out and say they were canceling the show. Needless to say, the crowd ready... And they reacted to the news by starting a riot." — John Potenza & Jesse Jarnow on Roosevelt Stadium [52:45]
• "I remember seeing Jerry playing in kind of an insider get together of musicians... there was so much kind of loose stuff going on." — John McFee on Bay Area session scene [34:34]
• "It was hard to manage — more planning required, more manpower. It was unmanageable in the way that it had developed, even though everybody agreed it was the best solution anybody had ever heard." — Richie Peckner on the Wall of Sound [77:25]
• "It was just, just this hell. That part was the beginning of a very big shift in the whole culture... it had been pretty much psychedelics. And then when coke came in, it really changed people's behavior." — Richie Peckner [74:38]

Timestamps of Key Segments

• 03:34–07:30: Introduction & significance of "Pride of Cucamonga"
• 08:30–15:00: Bobby Petersen's lyric drafts, editing process, and Californian roots
• 16:54–18:27: Laird Grant stories and origin of song’s title
• 19:07–21:35: Peterson’s poetry and Dead family memories
• 26:18–32:44: Recording session details, John McFee, and song structure
• 35:48–38:06: McFee’s account of studio freedom and Jerry Garcia attempts at pedal steel
• 49:24–55:07: Roosevelt Stadium, rainout show, fan and band recollections
• 71:17–73:38: The changing concert environment, crowd dynamics, and impact on the band
• 73:47–80:11: Wall of Sound logistics, cocaine influence, and meeting leading to band hiatus
• 82:33–85:30: Aftermath, Europe, last Petersen-Dead collaboration, "Revolutionary Hamstrung Blues"
• 86:27–end: Summation of Petersen’s legacy

Final Reflections

This episode places "Pride of Cucamonga" within a grander tapestry—the Grateful Dead’s creative crossroads, the end of a musical era, and the impact of communal strain borne from innovation and scale. The exploration is honest and affectionate, full of sharp band memories, deep scholarship, and undisguised awe for the idiosyncratic spirit of the Dead family.

Useful Links (Mentioned/Episode Page)

• Complete tracks and session tapes: dead.net
• Annotated Dead Lyrics: David Dodd’s Annotated Lyrics Site
• Nedbase (photos of Ned): Link on Dead.net
• Further reading: Hit Men by Frederick Dannon

For Dead Heads and the Curious alike, this is a rich postcard from the golden, chaotic days of the Dead, brimming with musicology, California myth, and reflections on the peaks and pitfalls of the rock 'n' roll dream.