From the Mars Hotel 50: Money Money

Rich Mahan (0:05)

The Good Ol Grateful Deadcast, the official podcast of The Grateful Dead. I'm Rich Mahan with Jesse Jarnow, exploring the music and legacy of The Grateful Dead for The Committed And The Curious. Ladies and gentlemen, fellow Deadheads, welcome to season nine of The Good Ol Grateful Deadcast. I'm your co-host, Rich Mahan. Thank you very much for tuning in.

In this episode of The Good Ol Grateful Deadcast, we continue our deep dive into The Grateful Dead's 1974 studio album, From The Mars Hotel. In this episode, we shine a light on the Bobby Weird, John Perry, Barlow-penned Money Money.

It is the 50th anniversary of The Grateful Dead's From The Mars Hotel. And to celebrate this, Rhino has a grand 50th anniversary release in the works, which includes the original album, Remastered, some really cool early demos of songs from the album, and a previously unreleased live show you need to hear to believe, because it sounds fantastic. It's The Grateful Dead at the University of Nevada, Reno on May 12th, 1974 It was the first road show for The Wall of Sound, which debuted a couple weeks earlier in San Francisco at the Cow Palace. This audio was cleaned up and remastered by Grammy Award-winning engineer David Glasser with Plangent Processes tape restoration and speed correction, and was produced for release by David Lemieux.

All of the aforementioned are available as a 3 CD set, as well as digitally. There's standard black vinyl, dead.net exclusive custom vinyl, and a very cool heliotropic vinyl version that animates when you spin it on your turntable. More info and orders are happening now over at dead.net. Head on over to dead.net/deadcast and check out all of our past episodes, including the complete seasons one through eight, and you can link from there to your favorite podcasting platform so you can listen how, where, and when you like to listen. Please help this podcast by subscribing, share it with your friends on social media, hit that like button, call your mom and tell her about it, and if the spirit moves you, get your Aunt Edna to leave us a review. Thank you very much. We have transcripts for many of your favorite Deadcast episodes available for your reading pleasure. Head on over to dead.net/deadcastdashindex and check them out.

Well, folks, we're winding up this season, but we still have another episode coming. Do you have a story about seeing the Wall of Sound in action that you haven't shared with us yet? Well, get it in there now, and maybe we can use it in the last episode. Leave us a recorded message at stories.dead.net and tell us your story about experiencing the Wall of Sound. We want to hear from you. Sometimes we use them in the Deadcast when we get something that fits just right, so record your Wall of Sound tour story at stories.dead.net.

It's a catchy chorus to be sure, but the band only played it three times before dropping it from their live shows. We're about to get the full scoop from this episode's financial advisor, Jesse Jarnow.

Jesse Jarnow (3:51)

Today, we're jumping into the seventh song on From The Mars Hotel. Bobby Weir and John Perry Barlow's Money Money. As has probably come up if you've ever discussed this song, some of the lyrics haven't aged terribly well.

Grateful Dead Archivist and Legacy Manager, David Lemieux.

David Lemieux (4:20)

My opinion is that the song is meant as a tongue-in-cheek song, and I think it works in that regard. I can see why it rankled some people. I certainly can't understand that.

But I just, I think that I have a good enough sense of the Grateful Dead of Bob Weir, of John Barlow, to know where it was coming from. Because it's like over the top, I just think it's an incredibly fun and funny song. And when you have a song like China Doll, it's not a funny song.

No, and you've got Unbroken Chain. It's not a funny song. And so you kind of forget the dead. And you know, these are pranksters. Don't forget people. These are pranksters.

Musically, it's a rockin bluesy thing, and Jerry's just rippin it, Bob's guitar, Phil, Billy, it's a Keith ripper. And he's just having the time of his life playing this piano part.

Jesse Jarnow (5:36)

The Dead played it live only a few times at three consecutive shows in May, 1974, between the albums mixing early in the month and the albums release in June, before the Grateful Dead dropped it forever. I'm pretty sure Bobby Weir hasn't sung Money Money in the nearly 30 years since the Grateful Dead officially dissolved.

David Lemieux (5:54)

I don't look at this as a seven great song album and one that's just kind of mediocre. I look at it as seven great songs, all very different, just like a Grateful Dead show.