I was looking for a Bobby song for today and settled upon Picasso Moon. I’m still not sure how I feel about the song. In some respects I’m amazed that Bobby remembered all the words to this one. It seems like it has a lot of lyrics and it’s the prototypical song for flubs.
When the dust settled Picasso Moon received 77 airings by the Grateful Dead so it was a pretty regular for the 1989-1995 period as far as I can tell. I find the music to be much more interesting than the lyrics on this song and if we were playing “what if” I’d be intrigued to see what Hunter lyrics might fit it. But it is what it is.
This is a song that I don’t really have a feel for how it’s viewed by Dead fans. You never hear anyone rave about an epic Picasso Moon. So I’m interested to hear what others think, and if there are better versions than this one to seek out.
Listening back to this sparks the idea that this tune has too many lyrics. It’s almost like there’s a rush to get all the lyrics sung and not enough time stretching out. Granted not every song needs to be an exploratory jam vessel, but this seems a bit force now that I think about it. Finally around the 6 minute mark Jerry gets a chance to really show his stuff. You can tell he’s really trying but it just doesn’t seem to click. It sounds more like going through the motions at this point than pushing the boundaries of what the song can take. After idling for a while the song peters out and Phil signals that Fire On The Mountain is next.
Complete Setlist 5/27/93
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Picasso Moon was the first song I really heard a lot of deadheads complain about. Before one show I heard some random guy say, “Come on Bobby, open with something good. Enough with this Picasso Moon shit.” It seemed to be pretty low on the favorites list when I was going to shows.
I had a real problem with the “bigger than a drive in movie oo-wee” lyric and that seemed to annoy a lot of others as well. Later someone pointed out to me that “trading bits for pieces” might mean trading software for weapons. There seems to be all kinds of subversive activity going on in the lyrics and I had to wonder if the “drive in movie oo-wee” lyric was another example of Weir driving Barlow insane by changing his lyrics. Maybe the lyrics are actually kind of good, although quite esoteric, and as Lunchbox pointed out, there’s an awful lot of lyrics here. The song might have been better in a more concise form (lyrically at least).
I didn’t like this song much, but one time, soon after Jerry died, I heard it on a tape and thought it really wasn’t so bad after all. I’d have loved, at the time, to see the Dead and Jerry play it again if only that were possible. And it started to seem musically similar to Hell in a Bucket to me, which is a song I like well enough. Picasso Moon is still far from a personal favorite, but I don’t mind it that much anymore (although tonight is the first time I’ve listened to it in god knows how long).
Just thought I’d add that by stating this song was the first that I heard a lot of complaints about makes it clear that I wasn’t going to shows when Day Job was in the rotation. I don’t mind that song and never took the lyrics too literally but that’s a discussion for another day I suppose.
The band kicks this in with audible spirit. The overall audio quality is no better than it was on the main release, but at least some good energy bleeds through. I’ll admit I’m no big fan of this song. Still, if you are looking for a version that has a chance of moving you, this might be the one. The complex changes are followed without wrecks and there is plenty of wailing by all the players. The vibe stays high for the entire seven-plus minutes and drops into its ending figures expertly. The band actually stops for a split second before Phil loudly enters Fire on the Mountain.
I tend to agree with both Mike and Steve. More concise lyrics would have been better and the drive in movie line is terrible, in my opinion. But as Steve points out this song rocks from beginning to end, which is, I think, it’s primary revealing quality.