In the Summer of 1970 a concert tour was held across Canada where the bands were transported from East to West via train called the Festival Express. If you want to get a feel or a flashback for for those times I recommend this movie which recently came out on video. It features Janis Joplin (just a couple months before she died), the Grateful Dead, the Band, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Delaney & Bonnie, the Buddy Guy Blues Band and several others. The concert footage is excellent, but what's really revealing are the scenes of the musicians partying and jamming in the bar car, especially one scene where Jerry Garcia tells Janis Joplin, "Janis, I've loved you ever since I first saw you!" Recent interviews with the performers tell a lot about what they were experiencing while traveling, especially what they said then and now about the gate crashers at each concert who demanded the concerts be held for free. At the end of the movie Janis is on stage and tells the audience that the tour was the best party she's ever been to and that even she couldn't have thrown a better party. Was this train ride the inspiration for the Grateful Dead's Casey Jones?
I absolutely loved Festival Express. I just saw it for the first time a couple weeks ago and I cant wait to see it again. I lvoe Janis and its great to have something from so near to her death. That scene where the Dead and Janis were squirting that Acid-laced liquor into their mouths was awesome. And then you saw them tripping- great.
saw it in a local theater, and then bought the dvd today. awesome film. and no, that song is based on a folkish type song along the same lines.
I just saw this at the movies last night. It BLEW me away..it's amazing. The music is so incredible - it just gave me chills (especially cry baby). Wow.
casey jones is based on an old folk song that is based on a true story. Casey Jones was a train conductor and saw something blocking the tracks or that the tracks were broken, but was not going to be able to stop the train in time. so he had all the passengers jump off and he crashed the train and died or something. He wasnt on cocaine though.
I actually started cryin man when Jerry was tellin janis how much he loved her, very cool! jerry singin that old gospel song setting on the trains window sill was sweet too. i miss Jer Bear!
