Sorry, Ladies...He's Take (Well, Actually Dead)

It's been a little while since I've posted some homegrown videos/slideshows of the bootlegs, so tonight is as good a time as any.

This is from New Years Eve, 1969 at the Boston Tea Party. It's the Good Old Grateful Dead doing Big Boy Pete.

They only did it a few times (including at my dear Loyola's Rambler Room) and this is one of the times with Pigpen...enjoy!

Pfleger Reels It In

Father Michael Pfleger apologized to his parish this morning for the allegedly racist and sexist words he spoke last week as a guest pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ.

I don't care enough to repost the rant (even though I got kind of a charge out of it), but his only sin as far as I'm concerned, is that he should have known better.

He expressed surprise and disappointment this morning that people are fixating on a minute or two of his sermon and not on the larger problems facing our society. Furthermore, I guess he's gotten quite a few angry and threatening emails since he went nationwide.

This is a disappointment to me. I've casually admired the Loyola Chicago grad from afar for some time. He's certainly way out there on the fringes (and if a certain Catholic friend still reads this, he'd probably argue that Pfleger should be sent packing), but he appears to be associated with more positive work, and puts himself in more danger while doing said work, than a lot of other men who wear the collar.

Keep you chin up, Padre.

Blackbirds: Satis est Satis

Loyola University Chicago, my alma mater, has found itself leading the Sun-Times news this evening.

It seems that their literary magazine, Diminuendo, had some kind of a racy drawing on the front cover and the Society of Jesus decided that they'd had enough...the issue has been pulled.

This is such a run-of-the-mill story that it's not worth my having a very strong opinion on, but looking back on some of our adventures during those days (none of which landed us on the front page of the city's blue collar paper, mind you), it's good to know that the students there still have some, uh, spunk in them.

I'll be keeping an eye on The Phoenix for the rest of the story.

Go Ramblers!

What a Treat!

The other day, I came across a soundboard tape of the Grateful Dead at the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center in Oakland from 11/21/85 and practically boogied down the street as I heard the opener.

The boys were in fine form this evening and came out playing a song they only did two times in the post-Pigpen years...Big Boy Pete. It's a fun little ditty that kind of reminds one of the Jim Croce classic, Bad Bad Leroy Brown.

The other interesting thing about this song that brings it right back home to me is that the only other time they played the song after 1972 was at the Rambler Room at Loyola University Chicago in November 1978. This is at my alma matter and the Rambler Room is where I used to have breakfast on the weekends when my dorm's cafeteria was closed! The band did a little gig there in the afternoon for a charity before the main show that night at the Uptown Theatre.

So I found a homemade video from this wonderful night in 1985. The video quality is really crappy, but what a thrill to listen to the crowd warm up when they realize the gift they're being given! Enjoy!






The joint was jumping on the corner
Down on Honky Tonk Street
All of a sudden up pulled a Cadillac
And out stepped a cat named Pete

A diamond on every finger
He wore a tailor-made suit
He smoked a black cigar, he wore a Stetson hat
He wore a pair of cowboy boots

Busted on through the doorway
Mad as he could be
Said, don't mess around, I'll cut you down
'Cause my name is Big Boy Pete

The music stopped, there wasn't a sound
Over in the corner stood Bad Man Brown
Brown smiled and grinned, he said my friend
If you take two steps further, I'm going to do you in

Pete said look here buddy
I know I'm going to tan your hide
I got a fourty five, keeps me alive
Got seven bullets on my side

Brown pulled a knife, jumped on Pete
They fought from the counter right on out to the street
They swung from north, they swung from south
Brown cut that black cigar right out of Pete's mouth
Pete hit the ground, he yelled and screamed
Then he took his Stetson hat and fleed the scene

If you're ever down on the corner
Down on Honky Tonk Street
Don't mess around he'll cut you down
Take a lesson from Big Boy Pete