Ship Of Fools

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"Went to see the Captain, strangest I could find. Laid my proposition down, laid it on the line.

I won't salve for beggar's pay. Likewise gold and jewels.

But I would slave to learn the way to sink your Ship of Fools".

- Robert Hunter

 

I woke up this morning to realize how great a song "Ship of Fools" is.

Very relevant.

Check out this version from UC Davis, 3/14/82 (track twelve)

http://archive.org/details/gd1982-03-14.sbd.clugston.24457.sbeok.shnf

Fun show. It was a Sunday and the band forgot to play One More Saturday Night in Reno the night before and opened with

Bill Graham gave out orange juice and birthday cake before the show to celebrate Phil Lesh's birthday.

Any favorite versions? Or stories?

 

GD stbs 3.13.82 & 3.14.82.jpg

 

Re-post: Fun show. It was a Sunday and the band forgot to play One More Saturday Night in Reno the night before and opened with it.

RRG posted the lyrics to Ship of Fools the morning after Trumps election

Was having a high time at DSO a week later, when they broke into this song and it was overwhelmingly sad

The righteous will salve for nothing.

Its a big boat

Great song, always enjoyed it.

shroomin and trippin is what we called shipping aka ship of fools

Don't usually post vids but thought for this snippet, a younger vs older juxtaposition might be cool for some zoner there.

 

 

HNY David! Sweet memories of that 8/4/76 show...arms wrapped around my girlfriend...ahh the good old days...

I was at the Richfield show Felina posted. 

Really jumped out at me when he sang it that way.

 

 

Awesome, Jon.

Love how many zones there are who saw that stuff.

One of the reasons I like this place.

Really kind of a difficult question for you: if were were absolutely forced to pick one show that was the most special for you in those moments, between Colgate and Buffalo in '77, which one of those two would get the prize?

That's a tough question but since in retrospect I dig the fall of 77 a little more than the spring I'll go with Colgate. That gym was wild and racous...Throw in Garcia reunited with Wolf in addition to how loud he was in that window of time and that fall 3 pk of Colgate, Rochester, and Binghampton...That may be the peak of my GD experience.

And, like the band, our experiences on any given night or week perhaps, was strongly influenced by the drugs we took...I've said this before on here but there was clean blue construction paper acid, and mescaline mixed with iced tea mix going around and the combo was euphoric...Alcohol was not really a part of my/the experience back then...

I thought Fall would win out over Spring.

Some tough competition right there.

 

That Comes vs that Stella.  Battle for the ages.

 

Cool selections and stories!

I've never cared for Ship of Fools. IMO it was more a first set song that was usually played in the second when things were rocking or stretching out, so SOF was usually a bit laborious for me, especially in the clanky later years. An exception to that was the version I saw on 9/19/90, which really worked for me. It's interesting that the OP lists one of the only other versions I saw that stand out in my mind.

That Davis show was trippy and gentle in the way shows still were in '82, which is one of my favorite years overall.

Other than the cool setlist and excellent music my memories of that show are standing in a cold downpour waiting for the willcall line to open, almost 45 minutes later than posted. I wasn't prepared for rain so when they finally did open I might as well have jumped into a swimming pool, and I was none too happy when I saw that they were late because the box office staff had been sitting around eating Kentucky Fried Chicken.

That put me in a dark mood and when I hooked up with my friends who didn't have to stand in the rain I was dripping, shivering and sulking and fairly certain that I was not going to enjoy the show, but then the lights went down and the band bobbed, weaved and flowed and it was fun to be transformed from grumpy to elated, thanks to the good ol' Grateful Dead (and maybe a little chemistry).

A bunch of UC Davis college kids studying farming and veterinary science had no idea how to run a show, which carried over to the student ushers inside who were trying so hard and failing so badly at keeping people sitting down and staying in their reserved seats. They had "dancing areas" set up and expected people to go there to groove. It was comical.

They clearly had no idea what they had gotten themselves into that night and it was fun to watch the dead heads and the dead take the place over.

Great stuff Lance. Thanks for sharing that story.

I saw Dylan at that venue in '03 or '04. 

They still hadn't learned how to properly put on a show.

 

Did you go to the Reno show Lance?

No Reno for me. If I remember it was storming hard in the Sierra's and we didn't have the oomph to brave those elements. 

I'm not sure I've ever listened to that show, but I've always heard it was a rager.

3/13/82 Reno was a good show.

The boys were spaced at on point half the band wet into Dear Prudence and the other half of the band went into Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds.

Jerry brow-beat the band and bailed out that jam. Drums forward is wild stuff.

http://archive.org/details/gd1982-03-13.s2.sbd.digitalrbb.miller.112858.flac16

 

 

sneaking into the rec hall, freeborn and the coffeehouse shows--those were the days!

Great song. A lot of versatility as to where they could throw it in during a show.