Artist: Jerry Garcia Band
Album: Cats Under The Stars (1978)
Best Song: Rubin And Cherise (the first song seems to be the best in all the albums I've heard lately, I wonder why that is!?)

Jerry Garcia's Cats Under The Stars is the album that he apparently liked best:

Cats Under the Stars is one of those records I worked really hard on. I was really proud of—considering the limited situation we were working in at the time, I was real proud of the way it came out. The production values. It's a nice-sounding record.

A few years ago, when the only artists I knew were Dylan and the Dead, I came across this curious little album and got it off Amazon. Back then, I was even more naive than I am now, I think. I wouldn't say that I thought of Dylan & the Dead as my Gods, but considering they were the only artists I listened to, well, it's obvious that I thought of them highly! For this particular album, I remember listening to the 30-second sample clips off CD Universe and keeping a note of which songs sounded good. My metric at the time was to see how many songs sounded good based on the 30 second clip - for this album, I believe it was somewhere around 5 or 6 out of 8 tracks, which is pretty good. I suppose I haven't really changed in this regard, because I still listen to sample clips before buying an album (otherwise there tend to be unhappy results - such as what I fear has happened with Heartattack And Vine, one of the few albums I bought merely based on a review alone!).

Anyway, at the time, I remember being slightly disappointed with the album, because there was nothing grand and sweeping about the album as a whole. There were two good songs on it, "Rubin And Cherise" and the title track, but other than that, there was nothing that really leapt out. A little disappointed, I was content to have the album humbly sitting on my CD rack, although it was probably sad that I didn't reach out for it.

However, a while ago a came across a lovely review of the album that got my attention. I found the review to be written so beautifully, and, more importantly, it opened my eyes to the message behind the album that flew over my head - 'twas, funnily enough, the title of Dylan's first music video - don't look back.

I reflected a bit and when it sunk in, it was a wonderful feeling. As though it validated my belief that there was something more to Garcia and Hunter than how they're generally portrayed (as wallowing in psychedelia, nothing more). The first song, "Rubin And Cherise", mirrors the story of Orpheus in Greek legend, who travelled to hell to get back his wife. He convinced Hades to release her, but it was on the condition that he did not look back to see her as they walked back to the mortal world. Unfortunately, he did look back, and his wife was lost forever. A tragic tale, much like this song. It ends with the aphorism:

The truth of love
An unsung song must tell
The course of love must follow blind
Without a look behind

and the last one, "Gomorrah", a retelling of the Biblical story where the wife of Lot is turned into a pillar of salt ends with the warning

Blew the city off the map
Left nothing there but fire
The wife of Lot got turned to salt
Because she looked behind her

There's the link! Don't look back! Always focus on the present, with no regrets! I can't believe I missed that - I suppose it's easy to miss it, actually, since the message isn't so clear in other songs, but once you realize the connection, the album seems to take on a different tune.

Poor Garcia had an interview where there was the question "Do you think it (Cats Under The Stars) would be worth re-releasing as a CD?", to which he matter-of-factly replied "If anybody wanted it". That really breaks my heart, hearing him talk about how happy he was, and how he thinks it's his best effort, only to have no public response whatsoever. Well, I have your album Jerry, and I love it!

By the by, one may wonder why Lou Reed alternates between nasty and nice. Apparently, the poor fellow underwent electro-shock therapy at his parents' behest, because they believed that there was something wrong with him. Maybe that explains why he became so "evil", especially in his criticism of everyone?

Update: In fact, thinking about "Ruibin And Cherise" again makes me realize how lucky I am to have come across such a song, because with the current direction that my musical tastes are travelling, there is no way I would come across any album remotely like this. I fear I have become a bit of a musical snob, or at least I am starting to take the word of some online reviewers too seriously. It's important to look at why albums like this perhaps don't score as well as other more well known ones; I mean, there may be nothing groundbreaking or truly original on here, but gosh darn it I like it; and I'll be darned if I've heard more than a handful of songs as moving as "Ruibin And Cherise". I may well never come across hidden gems like this, but I'm grateful (oops, pun unintended!) that early on in my musical development, there was something like this that came into my radar. My love of this song in particular probably has a fair bit to do with nostalgia and all that, but it really is one of those "best songs you've never heard" kind of things.

Now, in turn I'm starting to remember how enamoured I was with Robert Hunter a while ago, and feel like waxing lyrical about his talents, but I think I'll save that for another day.