We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Jerry And The Mick

from Voices From The Right Brain by Rob Siegel

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1 USD  or more

     

about

In the summer of 1995, Jerry Garcia and Mickey Mantle passed away within three days of each other. It was clearly a generational event. I was so surprised I didn't read about anyone else writing about it that way.

lyrics

born October 20th 1931
the pride of Oklahoma
Spavinaw’s favorite son
with his onomatopoeic name
he shouldered young boy’s dreams
Branch Rickey said that Mickey Mantle
was the best he’d ever seen

the last iconic Yankee
talk about big shoes
he switch-hit record homers
he paid record dues
helping out DiMaggio
his spikes caught in a drain
he tore out his tendons
and he never was the same

during Mantle’s final season
as I watched my father die
spring of 1968
the pregnancy of time
his body beat by cancer
nearly jumped out of his chair
“mantle beat out a bunt… and with his legs!”
I remember it so clearly
‘cause most things he didn’t care

Whitey Ford and Billy Martin
always liquor always fun
it must be hard on athletes
‘cause when you’re done you’re done
without the game to ground him
he drank a river down
cancer got his second liver
and by summer he was gone

but oh Mickey
the way you took that final base
the greatness of your flaws
your Okie aw shucks grace
you might have pounded 80 homers
if you hadn’t gotten hurt
you were superman in pinstripes
but you landed in the dirt

I first heard the music
must’ve been 1972
Jerome John Garcia’s band
and the windows they slipped through
the universal constant
that would never sound the same
connecting to that place
of shared experience and pain

songs that flowed like storm clouds
no direction just like me
let’s all get there together
wherever that might be
a light that stood for where you could
belong like others lost
the ripple from left field
that kept the faith and shared the cost

oh Jerry
I miss your reedy voice
the big tent of your smile
your angular sweet noise
pied paper father Christmas
to those who followed you around
but the years of smack and cigarettes
put you in the ground

nothing much in common
nothing here to see
just Mantle and Garcia
tangled up in me
August 1995
somewhere out on the road
the radio played ripple
and in the darkness I just drove

obituaries big time
for the Mick and Jerry who?
as if dying’s always
the most important thing we do
the mantle of redemption
crucifixion for the freak
yeah death to those damned 60’s
it was just a lucky streak

I thought about my father
I thought about that bunt
transcendent grit and muscle
or just an acrobatic stunt
I thought about the times
that I played dead songs all night long
feeling part of something
and knowing it was gone

oh people
just a druggie and a drunk
the error in the bone
like gemstones in the junk
like the flaws that make us human
like the heroes that we pick
I’ll say goodbye to Jerry and the Mick

credits

from Voices From The Right Brain, released December 15, 2004

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Rob Siegel Boston, Massachusetts

Rob Siegel is well-known in Boston folk music circles as an innovative songwriter who draws from his idyllic yet stressed- out middle-class suburban existence and produces memorable, intelligent, well-crafted songs.

His first new CD in 14 years, "A Landscape of Ghosts," will be out in April, with a CD release show at Club Passim on Monday April 30th.
... more

contact / help

Contact Rob Siegel

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Rob Siegel, you may also like: