DeadTest™ Vol. 36 – St. Stephen

Aoxomoxoa, 1969 – “St. Stephen” is the lead track on Aoxomoxoa (1969). Apparently the title is a meaningless palindrome – pronounced ox-oh-mox-oh-ah. (A palindrome is a word that is spelled the same forwards and backwards.)

Extra credit: Aoxomoxoa was recorded twice. The initial version of the album had been completed just as Ampex manufactured and released the first 16-track multitrack recording machine. The new equipment doubled (from eight) the number of individual tracks for recording and playback. It took the band eight months to re-record the album with the new technology.

Stoned to death – Although St. Stephen was beloved as a “savior” for his care of the poor and lonely misfits of the world, he was ultimately (and ironically) stoned to death for blasphemy against the church – a false charge cooked up by enemies of Jesus who were skeptical and jealous of Stephen’s growing popularity and success.

It isn’t hard to see how St. Stephen’s situation could be applied to Jerry and the band in the late-’60s just as the counterculture movement was exploding.

As a side note, some Deadheads believe “St. Stephen” is about Stephen Gaskin, a beloved and respected spiritual guide and “acid guru” from the 1960’s Haight-Ashbury district. He co-founded “The Farm,” a well-known commune in Summertown, TN. Lyricist Robert Hunter has denied the song is about Gaskin.

May 8, 1977; Barton Hall, NY – Despite the fact that backup singer Donna Godchaux (not to pick on her) comes in too early with the beginning of the lyric, “Lady finger, dipped in moonlight,” this version remains one of the greatest the Dead ever played.

Here’s the early entry by Donna:

And remember, the intent isn’t to criticize Donna. Jerry made countless vocal stumbles and we still loved him.

Close Encounters – It’s from the performance on January 22, 1978, at McArthur Court on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene.

Heaven – The three other words appear in the following lines:

BUCKET hangin’ clear to Hell

Lady finger, dipped in MOONLIGHT

SEASHORE washed by the suds and foam

1971 – This “Stephen” is from April 28, 1971, at the Fillmore East. It was commercially released on Ladies and Gentlemen…the Grateful Dead.

For the record, “Stephen” made its live debut in the summer of ’68 (according to DeadBase IX).

Extra credit: That’s former Dead member, Tom Constanten, sitting in on organ. TC left the band in 1970 but returned as a guest on April 28, 1971, at the Fillmore East.

It was inflexible – Jerry called the song “inflexible” and “unnecessarily difficult,” lamenting the fact that the verses had to be executed in order and were not interchangeable.

Garcia also disliked the bridge – marked by the lyric, “lady finger, dipped in moonlight” – implying it killed the flow of the song. In fact, Jerry equated “St. Stephen” to a “musical policeman” to illustrate its inflexibility (ouch!).

Jerry offered this answer when asked by Blair Jackson in a 1988 interview why the band stopped playing “St. Stephen”:

…it’s unnecessarily difficult. It’s been made tricky. It’s got a bridge in the middle that doesn’t really fit in… It has a couple of things that work real good, but finally, the stuff that doesn’t work overpowers the stuff that does work… If you don’t remember every bit of it: ‘Let’s see, what verse is this?’ They’re not interchangeable – you have to do them in order. So a song like St Stephen is a cop. It’s our musical policeman: if we don’t do it the way it wants to go, it doesn’t work at all. That means it’s inflexible… what we need is material that is authentically open.

William Tell Bridge – In 1969, the Dead used the bridge, named after the Swiss folk hero, to segue into “The Eleven.”

High green chilly winds and windy vines
In loops around the twining shafts of lavender
They’re crawling to the sun

Wonder who will water all the children of the garden
When they sigh about the barren lack of rain
And droop so hungry ‘neath the sky

Underfoot the ground is patched with
Climbing arms of ivy
Wrapped around the manzanita
Stark and shiny in the breeze

William Tell has stretched his bow
Till it won’t stretch no furthermore
Or it may require a change that hasn’t come before

Extra credit: 1969 (the audio is from Live/Dead)

1978 – It’s the “Close Encounters” version from January 22, 1978, at the University of Oregon’s McArthur Court.

By the way, if that solo from Jerry doesn’t make you smile, you’re definitely not listening to it right.

Just for the record, the Dead didn’t play a single “Stephen” in 1974 or 1984. The final performance with Jerry was on October 31, 1983.