Althea

Here’s a Grateful Dead song that I loved as a teenager.

As with many things I loved as a teenager, I did not know why this spoke to me. Now I do, so I get to share that knowledge with you.

“Althea” is a so-so Dead song based on an exquisite groove. The main riff is harmonically simple: Bm, A and E. Rhythmically, however, it’s subtle and intricate. Here’s my transcription of the version from “Without A Net”, which I consider to be canonical:

I was able to figure out the notes and chords in this riff in a few minutes, but getting the rhythm down took me years. It’s subtle! It has a light sixteenth note swing that is not easy to dialed in just right. Jerry’s ghost notes and laid-back phrasing are similarly challenging. I have a heard a couple of attempts at cover versions, and people always play it too fast. The groove needs to just saunter casually along. It isn’t really a rock song; it’s more like funky country.

Let’s look at the riff more technically. It’s four measures long, with the first and second measures acting as a call and the third and fourth as a response. The call and response both begin with identical phrases, Bm to A to Asus4 to A7 to E7. The call ends on A, making a kind of harmonic question mark. The response ends on E, the harmonic equivalent of a sentence-ending period. However, as soon as Jerry resolves the E, he immediately begins the chromatic walkup from G-sharp to the B that begins the next cycle through the riff.

Here’s a very simplified version of the riff in circular MIDI view, showing the chord changes where you would naively expect them to go:

And here’s the actual riff in circular MIDI view. You can see from the more oblique angles that the harmonic rhythm is unpredictable; the chords are changing on all kinds of weak and surprising offbeat subdivisions.

What key is this riff in? E Mixolydian? B Dorian? A major? What even is the difference? Bm is in the metrically strong position, but it’s not the most stable-sounding chord. It feels to me like the A is mildly unstable, and that the E7 is a more stable destination. The melody supports the idea that E7 is home base, but there’s plenty of ambivalence, as is customary for a Jerry Garcia modal tune.

The first half of the verse is sung over a simplified form of the riff:

||: Bm A | E7 A | Bm A | E7 A7 E7 :||

But then the second half of the verse (“I told Althea that treachery…”) has some new chord changes:

| A   | C#m | D    | A  |
| C#m | E   | Bm A | E7 |

The first four bars of this are clearly in A major. But the second four bars feel more like we’re back in E Mixolydian. The first C#m chord feels like the iii chord in A, but the second one feels like the vi chord in E. Pretty cool! That said, I find it to be an anticlimax that this section ends on the main riff; it seems like something else should go there.

The song also has a bridge (“There are things you can replace…”), with more new chords:

| D | G | E7 | E7 |
| D | G | E7 | E7 |
| Bm A | E7 |

The D and G feel kind of like I and IV in D major, and kind of like IV and bVII in A Mixolydian. But then is that E7 supposed to sound like a return to E Mixolydian? Or the V chord in A? Or V/V in D? It’s ambiguous. Jerry tacks one cycle of the main riff on the end, yet again defeating any sense of harmonic departure. This was probably intended, but then why have any departure from the main riff at all? Maybe the whole tune would be better if it just repeated the main riff all the way through. You might think that would be too simple and repetitive, but some of Jerry’s best loved tunes are three-chord Mixolydian grooves without variation: “Fire on the Mountain”, “Franklin’s Tower.”

I guess I should talk about the lyrics? They reference Hamlet, that’s mildly interesting. The narrator of the song seems like he would have been a difficult person to be in a relationship with. I don’t know much about Robert Hunter’s personal life, so I can’t tell you how autobiographical it is. I do know that Jerry could probably relate to the narrator’s relationship problems, given his own checkered marital history. As a high school kid, this all sounded world-weary and exotic to me. Now it just sounds like the story of a guy who has trouble owning his feelings. The groove is so great though!

Bonus: here’s a remix I did of “Althea” that also includes samples of “Friend of the Devil” and other Dead tunes, enjoy: