"Ripple" | ||||
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Single by Grateful Dead | ||||
from the album American Beauty | ||||
A-side | "Truckin'" | |||
Released | November 1, 1970 | |||
Recorded | September 1970 | |||
Genre | Folk rock | |||
Length | 4:09 [1] | |||
Label | Warner Bros. | |||
Songwriter(s) | Jerry Garcia Robert Hunter [1] | |||
Producer(s) | Grateful Dead Steve Barncard | |||
Grateful Dead singles chronology | ||||
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"Ripple" is the sixth song on the Grateful Dead album American Beauty . It was released as the B-side to the single "Truckin'". [2]
Robert Hunter wrote the lyrics in 1970 in London on the same afternoon he wrote those to "Brokedown Palace" and "To Lay Me Down" (reputedly drinking half a bottle of retsina in the process). [3] Jerry Garcia wrote the music to accompany Hunter's lyrics, [3] and the song debuted August 18, 1970 at Fillmore West in San Francisco.
"Ripple" has a similar melody to the gospel hymn "Because He Lives," which was published a year later. [4] Both songs are similar to "Any Dream Will Do" from the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat , which was first performed in 1968, and recorded in 1969. [5] [6]
A number of essays have been written analyzing and annotating this song. [3]
The 1985 drama film Mask , with Cher and Eric Stoltz, features this song. [7]
The song is played during the last scene of the television series Freaks and Geeks .[ citation needed ]
In 2021, Rolling Stone ranked the song at number 334 in their updated list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber, is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass.
American Beauty is the fifth studio album by American rock band the Grateful Dead. Released in November 1970, by Warner Bros. Records, the album continued the folk rock and country music style of their previous album Workingman's Dead, released earlier in the year.
Robert C. Christie Hunter was an American lyricist, singer-songwriter, translator and poet, best known for his work with the Grateful Dead. Born near San Luis Obispo, California, Hunter spent some time during his childhood in foster homes as a result of his father abandoning his family, and took refuge in reading and writing. He attended the University of Connecticut for a year before returning to Palo Alto, where he became friends with musician Jerry Garcia. Hunter and Garcia began a collaboration that lasted through the remainder of Garcia's life.
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a sung-through musical with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the character of Joseph from the Bible's Book of Genesis. This was the first Lloyd Webber and Rice musical to be performed publicly; their first collaboration, The Likes of Us, written in 1965, was not performed until 2005. Its family-friendly retelling of Joseph, familiar themes, and catchy music have resulted in numerous stagings. According to the owner of the copyright, the Really Useful Group, by 2008 more than 20,000 schools and amateur theatre groups had staged productions.
Workingman's Dead is the fourth studio album by American rock band Grateful Dead. It was recorded in February 1970 and originally released on June 14, 1970. The album and its studio follow-up, American Beauty, were recorded back-to-back using a similar style, eschewing the psychedelic experimentation of previous albums in favor of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter's Americana-styled songcraft.
Michael Damian Weir is an American actor, recording artist, and producer, best known for his role as Danny Romalotti on the soap opera The Young and the Restless, which he played from 1981 to 1998, 2002 to 2004, 2008, 2012 to 2013, and again from 2022 to 2024.
"José and his Amazing Technicolor Overcoat" is a comedy sketch first performed for Gift Grub on Ireland's Today FM.
Blues for Allah is the eighth studio album by the Grateful Dead. It was released on September 1, 1975, and was the band's third album released through their own Grateful Dead Records label. The album was recorded between February and May of 1975 during an extended hiatus from touring. Recorded at rhythm guitarist and vocalist Bob Weir's home studio, the music on Blues for Allah further showcases the jazz fusion influence shown on the band's previous two records while also having a more experimental sound influenced by Middle Eastern scales and musical styles, which is also reflected in the album's lyrical content.
"Dark Star" is a song released as a single by the Grateful Dead on Warner Bros. Records in 1968. It was written by lyricist Robert Hunter and composed by lead guitarist Jerry Garcia; however, compositional credit is sometimes extended to include Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, and Bob Weir. "Dark Star" was an early Grateful Dead classic, which the group often used as a vehicle for extended jam sessions during live performances. One such performance, lasting 23 minutes, was included on the Dead's breakthrough 1969 album Live/Dead and is the best-known version of the song. "Dark Star" is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list and was ranked at number 57 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time.
"Truckin'" is a song by the Grateful Dead, which first appeared on their 1970 album American Beauty. It was recognized by the United States Library of Congress in 1997 as a national treasure.
"Uncle John's Band" is a song by the Grateful Dead that first appeared in their concert setlists in late 1969. The band recorded it for their 1970 album Workingman's Dead. Written by guitarist Jerry Garcia and lyricist Robert Hunter, "Uncle John's Band" presents the Dead in an acoustic and musically concise mode, with close harmony singing.
"Any Dream Will Do" is a popular song written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice for the 1968 musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It is generally the beginning and the concluding song of the musical, sung by the title character of Joseph.
Linzi Hateley is an English stage actress. At the age of 21, in 1992, she became one of the youngest nominees for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance as the Narrator in the West End revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
"Shakedown Street" is a song by the Grateful Dead. It was written by lyricist Robert Hunter and composed by guitarist Jerry Garcia. It was released as the title track on the album Shakedown Street in November 1978. The song was first performed live on August 31, 1978, at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre, in Morrison, Colorado. The song "From the Heart of Me" was also played for the first time during the performance. The album Shakedown Street reached number 41 on the Billboard Top 200 for 1979.
"Sugaree" is a song with lyrics by long-time Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter and music by guitarist Jerry Garcia. It was written for Jerry Garcia's first solo album Garcia, which was released in January 1972. As with the songs on the rest of the album, Garcia plays every instrument himself except drums, played by Bill Kreutzmann, including acoustic guitar, bass guitar, and an electric guitar played through a Leslie speaker. Released as a single from the Garcia album, "Sugaree" peaked at #94 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1972 and was Garcia's only single ever on that chart.
"Close Every Door" is a song from the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. It is the penultimate song of the first act of the musical, sung by Joseph while imprisoned for his supposed relationship with Mrs. Potiphar. Along with "Any Dream Will Do", it is one of the most popular songs from the musical.
Lee Stephen Mead is an English musical theatre, television actor and occasional singer, best known for winning the title role in the 2007 West End revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat through the BBC TV casting show Any Dream Will Do. As well as subsequent West End roles in Wicked, Legally Blonde: The Musical and The West End Men, Mead has pursued a music career, releasing four solo albums and undertaking concert tours in the UK and Japan.
"Casey Jones" is a song by the American rock band the Grateful Dead.
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a 1999 British musical comedy-drama film. It is an adaptation of the 1972 Andrew Lloyd Webber musical of the same name. It is a sung-through musical film on PolyGram Visual Programming Home Entertainment.
"Dire Wolf" is a ballad by the Grateful Dead, released as the third track on their 1970 album Workingman's Dead. The lyrics were written by Robert Hunter after watching a film adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles. The music, containing elements of country and folk music, was composed by Jerry Garcia on the same day. The song tells the story of a man who plays cards with a "dire wolf" on a cold winter's night in "Fennario"; the lyrics have been variously interpreted. The piece became a staple of the Grateful Dead's performances, and was played more than two hundred times between 1969 and 1995.