Sugaree

Sugaree

I love this version of Sugaree, by Jerry Garcia and made popular by The Grateful Dead. It’s sung by the great Jorma Kaukonen on Dear Jerry: Celebrating the Music of Jerry Garcia (Live)

Like most Dead songs the lyrics have deep, nested meanings.

I find the Jubilee reference a great commentary on our society. It never ceases to amaze me, how religious people twist the Bible to what they want to believe, or, how they’re so adamant about one verse but completely ignore others, such as the concept of Jubilee.

3 Jubilee
If that Jubilee don’t come
Maybe I’ll meet you on the run

In ancient Jewish times, Jubilee held every forty-nine years, was a ritualized way of giving everyone a clean slate. The tradition is outlined in the Bible in Leviticus 25:1 0:

And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

The basic tenet of jubilee is that all debts should be forgiven. This included indenture and mortgage of person and property. Thus the concept was readily embraced by America’s slave population and entered our folklore.

From The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics 50th Anniversary Edition – a must have for any Deadhead.

Sugaree

The title is reminiscent of the Elizabeth Gotten song “I’ve Cot a Secret (Shake Sugaree).” Fred Neil recorded the tune in aversion in which he reworked the melody somewhat.

From Hunter’s liner notes for the reissue of Garcia in the box set All Good Things:

Sugaree was written soon after I moved from the Garcia household to China Camp.

People assume the idea was cadged from Elizabeth Cotten’s “Sugaree,” but, in fact, the song was originally titled “Stingaree,” which is a poisonous South Sea manta. The phrase “Just don’t tell them that you know me” was prompted by something said by an associate in my pre-Dead days, when my destitute circumstances found me fraternizing with a gang of minor criminals. What he said when departing was: “Hold your mud and don’t mention my name.”

Why change the title to “Sugaree”? Just thought it sounded better that way, made the addressee seem more hard-bitten to bear a sugarcoated name. The song, as I imagined it, is addressed to a pimp. And yes, I knew Libba’s song and did indeed borrow the new name from her, suggested by the “Shake it” refrain.

It has further been suggested that the use of “Sugaree” by Gotten was derived ultimately from shivaree:

shivaree n. Midwestern & Western U.S. A noisy mock serenade for newlyweds. Also called regionally charivari, belling, horning, serenade.
[Alteration of charivari.]

Regional Note: Shivaree is the most common American regional form of charivari, a French word meaning “a noisy mock serenade for

1971 suqaree 159

newlyweds” and probably deriving in turn from a Late Latin word meaning “headache.” The term, most likely borrowed from French traders and settlers along the Mississippi River, was well established in the United States by 1805; an account dating from that year describes a shivaree in New Orleans: “The house is mobbed by thousands of the people of the town, vociferating and shouting with loud acclaim. . . . [M]any [are] in disguises and masks; and all have some kind of discordant and noisy music, such as old kettles, and shovels, and tongs. … All civil authority and rule seems laid aside” (JohnF, Watson).

The word shivaree is especially common along and west of the Mississippi River. Its use thus forms a dialect boundary running north-south, dividing western usage from eastern. This is unusual in that most dialect boundaries run east-west, dividing the country into Northern and Southern dialect regions. Some regional equivalents are belling, used in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan; homing, from upstate New York, northern Pennsylvania, and western New England; and serenade, a term used chiefly in the South Atlantic states. (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language)

Sugaree was also the name of a town in Liberia. A map in Mitchell’s School Atlas: Comprising the Maps and Tables Designed to Accompany Mitchell’s School
and Family Geography (Thomas, Cowperthwait & Co, 1 853) shows Sugaree on the northern coast, in the region called Ohio.

2 Shake it

Shake it! inter], (1 900s-1990s) a cry of encouragement to a dancer, usually a dancing woman. Shaken., v. (1900s-1930s) an Oriental dance

(Chorus)

Shake it, shake it, Sugaree

just don’t tell them that you know me

Shake it, shake it, Sugaree

Just dont tell ’em that you know me

Style done in sensuous jazz terms; to dance erotically; shaking added to Oriental dance motions.

3 Jubilee

If that Jubilee don’t come
Maybe Til meet you on the run

In ancient Jewish times, Jubilee held every forty-nine years, was a ritualized way of giving everyone a clean slate. The tradition is outlined in the Bible in Leviticus 25:1 0:

And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

The basic tenet of jubilee is that all debts should be forgiven. This included indenture and mortgage of person and property. Thus the concept was readily embraced by America’s slave population and entered our folklore.

4 If that

A formulation commonly known from ‘The Mocking Bird Song” (Sharp, #234): “If that mocking bird don’t sing. . .

Notes:

Studio recording: Garcia (January 1972).

First performance: July31, 1971, at the Yale Bowl, Yale
University, New Haven, Connecticut. The song remained in
the repertoire thereafter.