Black Peter.
Sorry Gans (who gives me shit about that) but I know I'm not alone here! There's a little giggle story about that associated with this year's KPFA GD Marathon.
I think Estimated might have been a pee song sometimes, too. but never, ever out of the hall for Stella Blue, Mexicali Blues, or anything that featured Brent.
For me, since I started going to shows only in '93... it would be Easy Answers. I've been to a bunch of shows but unfortunately had to see this one too many times. I would probably have to say the same for Eternity and for Way To Go Home.
Don't get me wrong, I used to dig watching them beat the tar out of the skins, but it was an opportune time in my opinion for a piss and a beer or whatever.
I would often leave for the same reasons during a first-set FOTD, CC Rider, Minglewood, Jack a Roe, Me and My Uncle, Mexicali. Only if need be, mind you.
I (we'd) also leave the show early if Day Job notes were struck for the encore to beat the squeeze out to the lot.
But to each their own!!!
Anyhoo to answer the question:
For years, I really didnt have one, wanted to see and hear EVERYTHING. Every little note in Minglewood, Rooster, Des Row, CC Rider, Push, Walkin Blues..you name it, I would not miss it. Even Day Job~~~~
Drumz when I could hold no longer...but really it was the intro of songs like
Wave to the Wind & Corrina when I decided...oh man, pee break songs.
“The Omnipotent Grateful Dead!”
Boy, whenever the boys started to drift into Dark Star, I just had to duck out.
IMHO, this question deserves nothing more than such a sarcastic, ridiculous response.
Maybe my view is distorted because I stopped seeing shows in about 1983. Did things get so bad that "just about everybody" had at least one song they despised hearing? I recall there were some songs that I didn't love, and after hearing 40 or 50 "drums," I sometimes got a little bored, but never did me or any of my group of deadheads want to be anyplace else. Wow.
pomo1, when ya gotta go, ya gotta go! sooner or later, I'd have to hit the head, so having a pee-song was like a scheduled break. I don't like Black Peter still, never have really, and it was a good time to get out and do whatever else I had to do. I don't know anyone who stepped out for Dark Star though!
think it's a matter of despising or even disliking some tunes, just picking an opportune time to dash to the restroom if need be. Going at half-time when everybody else is doing the same thing was a drag, IMO. Dashing out during a tune was usually a lot more efficient in minimizing missing anything.
I agree that when you gotta go, you gotta go. Believe me I understand, no one makes more "rest stops" than my wife. Also, I'm sure that I missed a song or two when nature called. But that is not how I interpreted the initial post. In fact, the language "the perfect opportunity, in short, to be anywhere but in the hall listening to the tune" certainly connotes something more than just nature calling.
Maybe some folks really did duck out just to avoid a song they don't like. To each - their own. I still call Black Peter my pee song because it was pretty much a given with my friends... and when a band plays it to this day, there I go, getting in line for the head.
...that while there were definite non-fans of, say, "Ship of Fools" in our little group, non-fans who would groan at the opening notes, all too often those same non-fans would have to admit that the actual rendition was pretty darn great, when they stuck around.
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Posted: June 21, 2007 - 8:33am
Okay, it wasn't ALL roses...
One of the subjects that came up behind the scenes the other day was how just about everybody had a particular song (usually found in the second set) that they regarded as the perfect opportunity to beat the restroom crowds, purchase another overpriced water bottle, or decide whether they just had to have that T-shirt. The perfect opportunity, in short, to be anywhere but in the hall listening to the tune.
In classic Deadhead fashion, it also came out that the same tune that sent one person running for the exits was the show's high point for another. So it goes. What's your experience?