Bobby had long imagined Weather Report Suite as a multi-movement ensemble piece that would push the band in a new direction. Over the suite’s five-year gestation, it also became an ambitious attempt to synthesize folk songwriting, jazz orchestration, country textures, and progressive rock structure into a single piece.
By early September 1973, as the Grateful Dead began studio work on Wake of the Flood, Bobby had a clear sense of the music itself, recording a complete acoustic version of the entire suite. However, he only hummed the vocals to Part One because he did not yet have the lyrics (You can listen below or on the Beyond Description box set).
Two weeks later – still without the lyrics to Part One, which would not be finished until a late night session over a bottle of whiskey – Bobby and the band started to transition Weather Report Suite from the acoustic demo to the fully realized embodiment of the rich and layered ensemble piece that was in Weir’s head.
You can hear this studio evolution above from the Wake of the Flood Angel’s Share. Jerry and Phil offer suggestions at various points, but there is no doubt that Bobby is in charge: telling Billy exactly where to come in, stressing over pace, signaling for the bridge.
There was still so much more mixing and orchestration for Bobby and the band as they layered in instrumentation and vocals, not to mention the lyrics to Part One. It came together quickly, though. And the completed piece would, as we all know well, move from the intimacy of a singer-songwriter sort of intimate folk sound to a jazz-influenced arrangement and ensemble. Multiple horns and saxophones, including Martin Fierro and Joe Ellis, along with violin, Jerry on pedal steel, and Doug Sahm on bajo sexto would be included. And Sarah Fulcher, who had recently joined Jerry and Merl Saunders’s band, would add her voice to the backup vocals provided by Donna and the rest of the boys.
Listening to Weather Report Suite come together on the Wake of the Flood release, you cannot help appreciate that Bobby realized something ambitious and new, even magical. The suite builds on ideas the Dead had explored for years – transitions between songs, extended improvisational vehicles, recurring thematic movements across shows and even runs – but channels them into something more deliberately composed and orchestrated. In Weather Report Suite, Weir pushed the Dead toward a more sculpted and symphonic language and expanded the role that strings, horns, and ensemble arrangements could play in their music.
This is the third in a four-part series on Weather Report Suite. You can read the first and second installment. And the fourth is here.
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