Dragaera

Grateful Dead in Fenario

Fri Feb 7 16:15:14 PST 2003

>
>Another hit on the map of Fenario in _Brokedown Palace_, whose place
>names are all Hungarian translations of Grateful Dead titles or lyrics
>or such:
>
>Koldus Sirbolt -- "koldus" = "beggar, pauper"; "sirbolt" (with acute
>accent on the 'i') = "sepulchral vault", according to SZTAKI's
>Hungarian-English Dictionary (http://dict.sztaki.hu/english-hungarian).
>That would be the line "I live in a silver mine and I call it beggar's
>tomb", from "Uncle John's Band".

Ohhh, ohhh, ohhhh, allow me to add my thoughts to this if I may. On the map 
of Fenario:

"Beggars tomb," I agree, definitely "Uncle Johns Band"

Here's some of of my other thoughts:

Fenario: I've seen posted on-line somewhere that the Grateful Dead has a 
song named "Fennario" and that Fenario (the place) is straight from the 
title of the song. While I can't say that the Dead never played a song 
called Fennario, I am not sure this is an accurate statement. Fennario is a 
traditional folk song, as far as I knew, could ascertain, and in my opinion, 
(up until I read that statement), the version the Dead did was based on the 
version done by Joan Baez. I am not even sure if they ever recorded it (and 
if they did, it's probably on some Dicks Picks album which are live 
recordings of the best parts of concerts anyway...usually good albums, but 
not always a good thing). Unless the author specifically stated that he 
obtained Fenario from "Fennario" I am more inclined to believe Fennario 
comes from "Dire Wolf" wherein the opening lines are "in the timbers of 
Fennario..." and later "In the backwash of Fennario, the black and bloody 
mire, the dire wolf collects his dues while the boys play 'round the fire, 
don't murder me, I beg of you..." great song! :) Anyway, "Dire Wolf" also 
has several lines in it which may, or may not fit the author (i.e. the 
narrator of the ballad sits down to his dinner of whisky, he and the dire 
wolf play cards together -- gambling with the devil? {I wonder if Mr. Brust 
has a deck of cards that is nothing but the queen of spades just for fun :) 
or if he is given poor hands all the time...which is how I interpret this 
part of the song).


Broke Down Palace: Now, (as if this were not obvious) this *is* a Dead song, 
recorded on American Beauty it is beautiful, but then that entire album is 
excellent.

Terrapin: Terrapin is recorded on Terrapin Station, another album. In my 
opinion it has a disco feel to it and isn't spectacular...but then, I'm not 
a real fan of the days when Donna Godchaux started to act as more than a 
back-up singer (though Keith was okay), or where the Dead started to go into 
their disco phase (i.e. Terrapin, Without a Net, Shakedown Street).


The Great Marsh and Marsh Lake: From "Mountains of the Moon"(?) ("Down by 
the water the Marsh Kings daughter...clothed in tatters, always will be down 
there, Tom where did you go?" -- I think that's how it goes. I haven't 
listened to Aoxomoxia in awhile, the "..." is the part I forgot as I am 
trying to do this from the top of my head.)


That's all I can think of for now... I think I'll try translating the rest 
of the map from the link Mark provided (or if I really get bored call my 
grandpa) and compare more, as I was just sent home sick and now am bored at 
home, which is a million gazillion times worse than being bored at work.

~Holly~

(P.S. If there are major syntax or grammatical errors in the above, I didn't 
have the patience to check it, so my apologies)

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