In an interview with Revolutions Live back in May 2002, Umphrey’s McGee noted that several musicians were dying while they were on tour, and there was only one thing they could do in response: play one of the late artist’s songs.
RL: So, do you guys take into consideration where you are playing, as far as what songs you play?
Ryan: Yeah, when we were in L.A. we were like, “We’ve gotta do Guns-N-Roses (from Indiana) meets Motley Crue (from L.A.).” We did “Dr. Feelgood” into “Paradise City.”
Jake: L.A.’s the kind of town where you don’t want to play a lot of happier, hippier kind of stuff. You save that for San Francisco.
Ryan: But, if someone passes away or its someone’s birthday…
Jake: So, if you die, we will cover one of your songs.
Ryan: Well, we were in Seattle when they found Layne Staley, even though he had been dead for two weeks, so we played some Alice in Chains.
Brendan: And we gave out mad love to “Left Eye” Lopes, George Harrison, Waylon Jennings.
Ryan: Yeah, who’s next? We had a lot of people die on our last tour.
Brendan: People die though. If we had stayed home, they would have died too.
Joel: That’s true.
While Brendan is right, the artists certainly would have died had they stayed home – it is a bit eerie how the geography worked out as UM rolled into town for timely tributes to Nate Dogg (Los Angeles), Layne Staley (Seattle) and Owsley Stanley (San Francisco).
We’ve thrown together all the musical tributes for this week’s B List, complete with streaming audio embeds. For the later shows you can head over to umlive.net to purchase individual tracks for download – and for you musicians out there, maybe watch your step when UM comes next to your town.
1) George Harrison: Various
Download Here: 11/30/2001 – House of Blues – Chicago, IL
When George Harrison passed UM didn’t perform any one song in a musical tribute, but rather snippets of a number of appropriate passages. First they tagged the end of Roulette with the outro of The Beatles’ You Never Give Me Your Money and its appropriate lyrics, “1-2-3-4-5-6-7, all good children go to heaven.” At the end of the first set, Hurt Bird Bath had the end of another Harrison penned Beatles tune added on, this one the more well known Something.
Brendan worked the phrase “All Things Must Pass” twice into the lyrics of Hajimemashite, what would come to be a standard lyric in later years. And finally, Umphrey’s tackled the Beatles instrumental Flying, one of the few compositions credited to the entire band.
Roulette > You Never Give Me Your Money
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/harrison1.mp3]
Hurt Bird Bath > Something
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/harrison2.mp3]
Hajimemashite
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/harrison3.mp3]
Flying
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/harrison4.mp3]
2) Waylon Jennings: Good ‘ol Boys
2/17/2002 – 8×10 Club – Baltimore, MD
The first of several 2002 tributes came in the form of the song best known as the theme to the television program The Dukes of Hazard. Jennings not only penned the theme song but also filled the role of The Balladeer for the show. UM put Good Ol’ Boys in regular rotation starting in mid-2001 and the song has continued to be brought out ever since, despite the occasional year(s)-long gap between plays.
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/waylon.mp3]3) Layne Staley: Got Me Wrong
Download Here: 4/21/2002 – Tractor Tavern – Seattle, WA
The lead singer of Alice in Chains actually died on April 5 but wasn’t found in his Seattle home until April 19. Umphrey’s happened to be in Seattle making this tribute especially poignant. The band had been playing the song fairly regularly to that point but would only play it twice more that year before shelving it for good.
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/layne.mp3]4) Lisa Lopes: Waterfalls
Download Here: 4/26/2002 – The Barrymore – Madison, WI
Just five days later back in the Midwest at the Barrymore, UM was honoring Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes of the R&B group TLC, who died the previous day. The song dates back to the early Notre Dame years of the band, more often than not appearing in a jam during Front Porch. It was soon dropped after this version making it into only one more 2002 Front Porch. It was dropped into Front Porch last year on September 9 during the first encore at the Brooklyn Bowl in New York City.
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/lefteye.mp3]PAGE TWO = John Entwistle, Rick James and More
5) John Entwistle: Eminence Front
Download Here: 6/28/2002 – Terrace, University of Wisconsin – Madison, WI
The 2002 tributes continued again in Madison this time at the Terrace on the campus of the University of Wisconsin. The Who’s bassist had died of an apparent overdose in Las Vegas the night before. That night Pony sported a skeleton figurine (a nod to Entwhistle’s custom guitar strap) on his amp and this version, like the ones that followed, was just the song’s chorus. A proper full length take was debuted in March 2009 at Minglewood Hall in Memphis and has been in semi-regular rotation ever since.
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/entwhistle.mp3]
6) Johnny Cash & John Ritter:
Download Here: 9/12/2003 – Canopy Club, Urbana, IL
There was plenty of speculation prior to this show about whether UM would pay homage to the Man in Black. Another “Johnny Cash” version of Divisions which had been performed a few times earlier that year would have been equally fitting but this one-timer bust-out proved to be an even more special treat. The brief tribute to John Ritter, who had also died the day before, that came in the middle of a blistering Padgett’s was an unexpected but nicely done nod to the actor.
Padgett’s Profile > Three’s Company Theme
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/ritter.mp3]
Ring of Fire:
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/cash.mp3]
7) Rick James: Superfreak jam
Download Here: 8/6/2004 – Skyline Stage at Navy Pier – Chicago, IL
Like the high from a keybump of cocaine, some tributes are quite short, but still effective. Just a few seconds of Rick James’ Superfreak, made even more famous as the sampled groove on M.C. Hammer’s U Can’t Touch This, leads into a second-set opening Prowler. The timely jam – James died the morning of the show – came just as James had seen a resurgence in notoriety from his appearance that year on Dave Chappelle’s Chapelle’s Show.
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/rickjames.mp3]8) Dimebag Darrell: Cowboys From Hell
Download Here: 12/9/2004 – The Paradise – Boston, MA
The second set of this show at The Paradise starts with apologies from Joel Cummins for the extra-long wait to get into the show, but it was all in the name of safety as the the world of live music had been thrown into a state of shock when guitarist Dimebag Darrell and three others were fatally shot at a Pantera side-project show in Columbus, Ohio. This instrumental passage from Cowboys From Hell is a quick one before dropping into UM original Ringo.
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/dimebag.mp3]9) Joe Zawinul: Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
Download Here: 9/13/2007 – The Orpheum – Madison, WI
Jazz-fusion keyboardist Joe Zawinul had a legendary career working with Weather Report, Miles Davis and Cannonball Adderley, among others. One of his most popular songs was Mercy, Mercy, Mercy best known by its recording on Adderley’s live 1966 album Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Live at “The Club”. UM sped the tempo up somewhat significantly and threw a lengthy rendition of it in the middle of All In Time during the encore.
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/zawinul.mp3]PAGE THREE = Michael Jackson, Owsley Stanley and More
10) Michael Jackson: Billie Jean
Download Here: 6/25/2009 – Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden – Richmond, VA
All the stops were pulled out for the show following The King of Pop’s death, with jams on Smooth Criminal and Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin in addition to this full on performance of Billie Jean in the encore. It was a tribute that lingered as there was also a Jimmy Stewart with lyrics two days later which resembled The Way You Make Me Feel.
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/mj.mp3]11) Owsley Stanley: Kid Charlemagne jam
Download Here: 3/13/2011 – The Fillmore – San Francisco, CA
UM was set to play the second of two shows at San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore the day following the news of Bear’s death. Steely Dan’s Kid Charlemagne is a nod to Stanley’s work as a chemist making LSD with lines like, “Those test tubes and the scales” leaving little to the imagination.
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/owsley.mp3]12) Nate Dogg: Regulate
Download Here: 3/17/2011 – House of Blues, West Hollywood, CA
It’s always a treat when percussionist Andy Farag steps to the front of the stage for a rare vocal performance and often it’s for Warren G’s Regulate featuring Nate Dogg. Frequently played from 2000-2002, Regulate turned into more of a rarity – coming out roughly once a year and with no performances from 2005-2006. So it was an obvious choice after the news of Nate Dogg’s death and was coupled with UM’s Glory in the encore slot.
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/natedogg.mp3]13) Etta James: At Last
Download Here: 1/21/2012 – The Best Buy Theater – New York City, NY
Sometimes you need a little help and that’s when you call in Jennifer Hartswick to blow the doors off of Etta James’ At Last in New York City. The day after the legendary singer passed, UM made sure the vocals were spot on by bringing in JHA to belt out the classic.
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/ettajames.mp3]By Andy Kahn and David Onigman
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