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"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. The song, one of the band's most well-known, is one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. In 2001 it was named 321st (of 365) in the Songs of the Century project list. ==Music and lyrics== "Uncle John's Band" has one of the Dead's most immediately accessible and memorable melodies, set against a bluegrass-inspired folk arrangement with acoustic guitars. The song's close harmony singing was inspired in part by Crosby, Stills and Nash. Both the music and the lyrics summon up the Dead's feel for Americana, with the song making allusions to both past — Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band" — and present — the fate of the American counterculture at the turn of the decade.〔(Allmusic song review by William Ruhlmann )〕 In particular, at the end of the tumultuous sixties, when the hopes and dreams for an Age of Aquarius with its Summer of Love became undermined with the hard edges of reality illustrated by the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the stabbing death at Altamont, the lyrics encapsulate the core concern of those who survived with the line, "Whoa-oh, what I want to know is are you kind?" Robert Hunter's lyrics ("It's a buck dancer's choice my friend; better take my advice") may have been influenced by James Dickey's 1965 poem/poetry collection "Buckdancer's Choice." The identity of "Uncle John" has led to several theories: Blues musician Mississippi John Hurt, who was an influence on the Grateful Dead, was nicknamed "Uncle John". Another possibility is that Uncle John's Band refers to the New Lost City Ramblers as Uncle John was a nickname for John Cohen. Also, Uncle John may be a biblical reference to John the Baptist, who baptized in a river. Such an explanation may correlate to the lyrics "He's come to take his children home." According to the biography Dark Star by Robert Greenfield, Uncle John could also refer to Jerome John Garcia as it was felt by many that Jerry heavily influenced and "ran" the band. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Uncle John's Band」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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