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My favorite Tracy Nelson recording

Posted about 4 years ago
As a member of the rock group Mother Earth, Tracy Nelson provided the vocal, the piano playing, the music and (with Earthette Sylvia Caldwell) the lyrics of this song for the group’s first album Living with the Animals in 1968. This song was relegated to second-to-last on side B, more often than not where the worst cut ends up, and was given the unfortunate title “Goodnight Nelda Grebe, the Telephone Company Has Cut Us Off,” some idiot’s idea of whimsy. I hereby rename it “Why Do I Lie Awake Nights and Cry?” Martin Fierro plays the alto solo. The cover doesn’t say who did the arrangements, but this song has a great one, straddled between r & b and jazz.
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Comments (31)

  1. deadmandeadman
    deadmandeadman says I think I'm having a flashback. This track you posted was probably the closest they came to their own vision on the whole album. I probably could have said that better, let me try again. I think this is the kind of music they would have made a lot more of if they had their druthers. This track was always my favorite, though I was inevitably in the minority on that. Anywho, I haven't even ??thought?? about this in decades (ouch). Thanks, (I think).
    Permalink posted 04/18/2008
  2. Spike
    Spike says Whoa! Always your favorite? Another thing we have common!
    Permalink posted 04/18/2008
  3. Mike the Knife
    Mike the Knife says That's the stuff, Spike. As it happens, "Down So Low" was my key into Tracy's world. As a blues singer, she was always more appealing to me than Janis Joplin, but that's taste for ya.
    Permalink posted 04/18/2008
  4. Spike
    Spike says
    The great "Down So Low," her other original song on the album, was my key also. I seem to remember it got radio play and she performed it a lot. The rest of the tracks on the album I divide into (a): her vocals of cover versions (yes!) and (b): others' vocals (no!).
    Permalink posted 04/18/2008
  5. mousetrap
    mousetrap says Spike and deadman, your shared love of this tune opens a very telling window into your aberrant personalities. How? Most of the song is in 7/4 time! Now, everyone knows only oddballs like that kind of crazy, out-there music. Why, I bet you two are just the sort of goatee-sporting eggheads whose idea of a madcap evening is routing Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" through one channel of your oversized headphones and King Crimson's.....well okay, any King Crimson song through the other! And more power to ya, I guess. It is a great song, and an eye-opener. Mike, thanks for the historical note on "Down So Low," and Spike, thanks for adding it to the thread. I'm not too proud to confess that until tonight, the only version I'd heard of that song was Linda Ronstadt's, from her Hasten Down The Wind record. I still think that performance marks a high point of Linda's undeniable vocal powers, but now I know that many of her inflections and articulations came straight from Tracy. Hopefully, as the songwriter, Tracy was set up to benefit nicely from that album's runaway sales. Thanks for the great Friday night tunes, needle pops and all!
    Permalink posted 04/19/2008
  6. Spike
    Spike says Mousetrap, I'm seriously impressed by your revealing to us the 7/4 time signature. I just tried tapping my foot but got lost. I like how Mother Earth doesn't make the 7/4 sound like a gimmick, but instead sound like it's an integral necessity, but with a subtle oddness gives it freshness. I'm trying not to sound like Nichols and May here (see previous post). I'll try to check out Ronstadt's cover. Thanks for your characteristically pithy imput.
    Permalink posted 04/19/2008
  7. Jonh Ingham
    Jonh Ingham says One of those records I had at the time and wish I had kept. Lovely to hear again.
    Permalink posted 04/19/2008
  8. ivylander
    ivylander says Like several other respondents, I owned this album back in the day and played it nearly to death. Great call, Mike - I too thought Tracy had it all over Janis, and still do. What I remember almost as much as the music was the packaging - that tripped-out Gold Rush lettering, the gatefold (but with the bet-hedging flimsy cardboard flap), the group picture of the "commune" on the back. In my dotage I now understand all this as the workings of the marketer's dark art, but as a highly impressionable young teenager I detected in it the lofty scent of Eau de Haight, which was also the perfume of total freedom. Spike, you do many of us an immense service by exhuming this.
    Permalink posted 04/19/2008
  9. Spike
    Spike says Jonh, I wish I had kept it too. To save space, I taped the good cuts onto reel-to-reel, thus substituting hiss for treble, and a while back I finally found an affordable used copy (hence you hear somebody else's scratches). Just now I realize it was finally reissued in 2004. ivylander, it's fun how geezerhood inspires in us such satisfying cynicism toward packaging to replace earlier desperate fantasies. I read in a Tracy Nelson interview that Mother Earth's packaging (and the group's name) inspired strangers to show up at their house expecting to be able to crash at what they thought was supposed to be a welcoming commune.
    Permalink posted 04/19/2008
  10. ivylander
    ivylander says Had I known a friend with a reliable car I would probably have been one of them.
    Permalink posted 04/19/2008
  11. BerkeleyBob
    BerkeleyBob says Wow, another flashback. I don't recall Tracy playing the piano, think that was done by a junkie named Wayne who died early on. What I do recall is Janice was insecure enough to not want to perform before or after Tracy sang, or another local favorite, Linda Tillery. Both the latter were better as singers. Mother Earth live was a primal experience; none of their records caught the magic. BerkBob
    Permalink posted 04/19/2008
  12. Spike
    Spike says Berkeley Bob, it sounds as though you were at times in on the Mother Earth scene back in the day, which must have been exciting. According to the record cover, Tracy played piano on this track, but 17 people including a Wayne Talbert are thanked for their help and support. You must have seen Wayne play piano at some of their gigs, just as I also remember seeing her play piano at some of their gigs. Did you see Janis Joplin expressing this insecurity, or did just hear about it? Janis in public looked so extroverted and uninhibited, so your surprising anecdote makes me crave firsthand details.
    Permalink posted 04/19/2008
  13. BerkeleyBob
    BerkeleyBob says Well, if you remember the 60's you weren't there. I don't remember the details, but believe Big Brother and Mother Earth played a free noon concert at UC and the explanation for Big Brother not going on was Janice didn't think she could top Tracy's vocals. Saw several gigs by both groups. A big up for Linda Tillery, who continues to be active in the area and has a hair-raising life story which will not be repeated here. I can say that LInda did a gig at the old Oasis with Ray Obiedo, maybe Sheila E. and Vicki Randle and tore the roof off the sucker with some James Brown covers. This was sometime in the 90's. A great lady, a great talent. BerkBob
    Permalink posted 04/19/2008
  14. Spike
    Spike says Maybe the public excuse for Big Brother not going on was a flattering diplomatic cover story for some secret sordid embarrassing private debacle. Who knows?
    Permalink posted 04/19/2008
  15. Bartleby
    Bartleby says No flashback but rather an epiphany. The voice, the looks... I wish I could have Tracy back in the days and stand amazed with her incredible talents. -- I don't think I can anything to the very eloquent comments above. Thank you so much, Spike.
    Permalink posted 04/21/2008
  16. Spike
    Spike says Bartleby, thank you. I realize after reading the LP's cover more carefully that it does say who might have done the arrangement. It lists bandmember Martin Fierro as "Mother Earth Horn Section Leader, Arranger & Interpreter," and under "Production Credits" it has "Arrangements: Mark Naftalin [who played keyboard on other cuts and, like guest guitarist Makal Blumfeld on the song "Mother Earth," was an ex-Paul Butterfield bandmember]."
    Permalink posted 04/22/2008
  17. Cody B
    Cody B says I was not there but after reading this thread I have a taste of what it might have been like, although I wish I had y'alls stories instead of the reviews that made me seek this out ten years ago. I'm in the Knife's taste boat as far as the Janis comparison. Excellent thread and post on a great singer. Didn't she do a record with two other classic singers about 10 years ago? That wasn't too shabby either. Yup,this one
    Permalink posted 04/25/2008
  18. Spike
    Spike says Yes. I heard them perform together at New Orleans Jazzfest a few years ago, and they were wonderful.
    Permalink posted 04/26/2008
  19. Sturgell
    Sturgell says classy as classy can be.
    Permalink posted 04/27/2008
  20. uncle creepy
    uncle creepy says Great post Spike! I've been digging a few tracks sung by Tracy Nelson backed with sweet country soul sistah back-up vocals, on Bring Me Home, Mother Earth (1971): especially "Seven Bridges Roax". But my favorite Mother Earth recording is the actual soundtrack version of "Stranger In My Own Home Town"... which sounds a lot better to me than the version they put out on on the official REVOLUTION soundtrack LP... no one has the reel movie version digitized handy, unless maybe on dvd? All I have is the unedited 1968 film on hi-fi vhs, and damn, no way to convert my vast video vault... yet.
    Permalink posted 05/02/2008
  21. Spike
    Spike says Sorry I can't help you with that. There must be an easy way to convert it. I'd like to hear that version. Elvis's version sounds pretty good. Then there's always Percy Mayfield's original 1964 version, with Ray Charles on piano.
    Another song Tracy Nelson covers on Mother Earth's first album is "[It] Won't Be Long."
    Permalink posted 05/02/2008
  22. uncle creepy
    uncle creepy says Not everybody in the SF sixties scene was stoned all the time... some survivors can flashback with minimal embellishment. (yeah, right!) Anyways I asked ballroom veteran Cyril Jordan (Flamin Groovies gtr) - since he played on at least 1 bill with Mother Earth, and others with Big Brother - if it's true that Janis might have been reluctant to go onstage after an outstanding vocal performance by Tracy Nelson. He didn't see the show where that supposedly happened, but never saw one of the San Francisco bands (circa 1965-1972) decide not to perform when one of the earlier acts on the bill play an unbeatable set. It was more like, "Wow, you guys were great. Let's see what happens next!" The band that had to follow a stellar set would more likely be inspired than intimidated. That Tracy blowing Janis off the stage story makes for an interesting read, but doesn't ring true (based on my sources). Janis has gotten way too much hype as one of the top (female blues) singers of all time, and plenty of people today don't want to be a part of the tie die troopers that kiss the sky where the Dead once flew. I can dig it man. Tracy is under appreciated. But there was and is room for both... The Janis I love has little in common with the Janis that the devotees worship blindly. That goes double for the Dead. You rarely catch me listening to post-'70 GD, and even '69 tapes (that are as far back as most dead heads prefer to go) are usually too mellow for me to get excited over. I think the version Mother Earth plays of "Stranger In My Own Home Town" in the movie REVOLUTION is a live recording (as opposed to the studio version on the REVOLUTION soundtrack LP). Or it has minimal remixing and overdubs. In any case, the "live" version is like, bam blam blam, not tweet tweet, if you catch me daddy.
    Permalink posted 05/03/2008
  23. Spike
    Spike says uncle creepy, you're a valuable informant, and I agree with everything you said, though I'm not knowledgeable enough to agree with you about early vs. later Dead. Their stellar video smidgen above swings tightly, a trait my pre-MOG self was unaware of.
    Permalink posted 05/03/2008
  24. uncle creepy
    uncle creepy says Ithanks spike for the encouraging word. check out some more early Dead if you want- I added a few rare '66 (+ the rare orig. studio mix of St. Stephen) tracks to my playlist project, in the comments for A Fistful of Fuzz - http://mog.com/uncle_creepy/blog_post/159951
    Permalink posted 05/05/2008
  25. davidsophia
    davidsophia says I'm somewhat of a student of the late 60's psychedelic rock, and I'm amazed that I can always find more & more artists to discover! And here's another. I didn't know them before your post; happy to hear them! Very nice. In fact, searching for late 60's semi-obscure psychedelia & R&B/rock is the thing that got me into digital music in the first place, so this is like coming full circle for me... Very cool!
    Permalink posted 05/21/2008
  26. Spike
    Spike says Every generation should be allowed to think that their era was the best, but some eras somehow benefit from having more forces joining together than other eras do.
    Permalink posted 05/21/2008
  27. downhome
    downhome says This is great; I like your title much better, of course. Feel badly I missed Tracy, Angela Strehli and another "blues broad'' out my way this weekend. She/Mother Earth were great - (okay, let's face it, she was the group.) I don't think it does justice to either to play Tracy and Janis against each other - they were both beautiful souls in different, but related ways. Tracy was smart to get out of the Bay Area dope scene before she met the fate of JJ, and so many others). But I quibble - it's a beautiful cut. Thanks for passing it along.
    Permalink posted 05/26/2008
  28. Spike
    Spike says Thank you, downhome. As for dope scenes back then, was being away from the Bay Area different from not? I don't know the details of Nelson's life.
    Permalink posted 05/26/2008
  29. downhome
    downhome says "California was crazy, it made me so tired and lazy/I want to feel free and easy/ I'm going back to Tennessee.'' - "Tracy Goes Country.'' I don't/didn't know either of these ladies personally, tho I heard both of them play, but she seemed more grounded - lucky to avoid the kind of fame and fortune that can be a two-edged sword. Tracy's always been one of my favorites, and I appreciate your sharing her wonderful work. (By the way, dunno if you noticed in the obits of Robert Rauschenberg, but he came from Janis' home town, Port Arthur. I'm not sure, but I think it might have been one of the Mother Earth guys who originally drove Ms. J out to S.F.)
    Permalink posted 05/26/2008
  30. Spike
    Spike says downhome, what you say about Tracy Nelson makes sense. Her lyrics make a good clue. I did notice mention of Port Arthur in Rauschenburg's obit. I like some of his work from the Sixties. He had an interesting life. I should very my sentence structure here, but have to rush out to do an errand.
    Permalink posted 05/27/2008
  31. Spike
    Spike says

    10/17/08 I emailed Tracy Nelson via her website about this post, and she replied!  Here's what she emailed me back:

    "Glad you like that song. I've been thinking of re-working it. I have to point out, however, that I was the idiot who came up with the title. It was an inside reference to Tami Dean, whose picture is on the inside of the original record. She was killed by a hit-and-run driver the second day we were in the studio and was on our minds a lot. Nelda Grebe was the name she had her phone and library card in to give her some distance from the powers that be.
    Tracy"

    I asked her if I could insert her reply here, and she said "Sure."

    Permalink posted 11/09/2008

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