Charts

Six ways of looking at the same fifty songs. Every mark is a song: point at it for the sleeve, select it for the case.

Fig. 1Where the song lives

Left to right: how much was written before anyone played. Bottom to top: how much the record is the work. The Index runs corner to corner, and the interesting songs are in the other two corners.

Grateful DeadThe BeatlesGLI under 4545–55Over 55

What it shows. Most songs sit near the diagonal. Revolution 9 and Tomorrow Never Knows are alone at top left: nobody wrote them and nobody can play them. Twist and Shout is alone at the bottom: a fixed song whose record is one take. Ripple, Yesterday and Attics of My Life sit low on the right: finished on paper and free of their recordings.

Fig. 2Two bands, by year

Each song at its release year. The Beatles stopped touring in 1966. The Dead never stopped.

Grateful DeadThe BeatlesGLI under 4545–55Over 55

What it shows. The Dead songs released up to 1969 average 33. The 9 from 1970, the year of Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty, average 74. The Beatles go the other way at the end: from January 1969 they were playing live in a room again, and Get Back, Don’t Let Me Down and Dig It all land under 50.

Fig. 3The songs that disagree with themselves

For each song, a bar from its lowest dimension to its highest, with its GLI marked. A long bar means the five questions gave very different answers. The number on the right is the gap.

Grateful DeadThe BeatlesGLI under 4545–55Over 55

What it shows. A GLI near 50 can mean two different things. Wharf Rat is at 50 because every dimension is near the middle. Revolution 9 is at 51 because its dimensions are as far apart as the scale allows.

Fig. 4Does playing a song more move it?

Grateful Dead songs only: how many times the band is documented playing each one, against where it sits. Counts come from the source named on each song page.

GLI under 4545–55Over 55

What it shows. Not in a straight line. The five most-played songs here have a median GLI of 45 and range from The Other One to Sugar Magnolia. What the chart does show is that the top right corner is empty: no song played more than 400 times scores above 60. The most Lennon Dead songs are the ones they played least.

Fig. 5By songwriting credit

One strip per credit, a mark per song, a bar at the median. Credits are as printed; Lennon–McCartney covers songs written by either or both.

Garcia / HunterGrateful Dead · 14 songs

Weir songswith Hunter, Barlow, Kreutzmann · 4 songs

Other Dead creditsLesh, Hart, shared and group · 6 songs

Lennon–McCartneyThe Beatles · 20 songs

HarrisonThe Beatles · 2 songs

All four BeatlesGroup credit · 2 songs

CoversWritten by others · 2 songs

0 Garcia50Lennon 100

median

What it shows. The Garcia / Hunter songs alone span almost the whole scale, from Dark Star to Attics of My Life. The same two people wrote both.

Fig. 6Fingerprints

All fifty songs, Garcia to Lennon, with their five dimension scores. Red cells lean Garcia, blue lean Lennon, pale cells sit near the middle. A row that changes colour is a song worth reading about.

Song	Structure	Performance	Predetermined	Development	Recording	GLI
Dark StarDead	5	3	4	2	6	4
The Other OneDead	12	8	10	6	12	10
Dig ItBeatles	10	12	8	6	40	14
Playing in the BandDead	22	12	20	14	18	18
Bird SongDead	28	18	26	18	32	24
Fire on the MountainDead	28	22	28	20	38	27
Yer BluesBeatles	45	28	35	22	25	31
Eyes of the WorldDead	40	30	36	28	32	34
Scarlet BegoniasDead	44	32	40	30	44	38
FlyingBeatles	40	40	30	30	66	39
Get BackBeatles	52	36	42	30	48	41
Shakedown StreetDead	50	38	44	36	48	43
I Want You (She's So Heavy)Beatles	46	36	42	40	62	44
China Cat SunflowerDead	52	40	48	38	46	45
Morning DewDead	60	40	50	36	44	46
Don't Let Me DownBeatles	60	44	52	38	40	47
Estimated ProphetDead	56	44	52	40	46	48
Twist and ShoutBeatles	70	60	58	46	8	49
Wharf RatDead	62	46	54	44	40	50
Revolution 9Beatles	35	70	25	40	100	51
Helter SkelterBeatles	58	34	56	50	62	52
Truckin'Dead	60	52	58	48	50	55
Revolution 1Beatles	58	50	60	52	66	57
St. StephenDead	68	52	62	54	52	58
Sugar MagnoliaDead	62	56	66	58	52	60
Tomorrow Never KnowsBeatles	55	60	50	52	96	61
Hey JudeBeatles	58	66	70	60	62	64
Uncle John's BandDead	68	62	70	64	58	66
The EndBeatles	78	66	62	56	80	67
Friend of the DevilDead	78	58	80	72	50	70
While My Guitar Gently WeepsBeatles	80	60	76	66	72	71
Casey JonesDead	80	70	76	74	62	73
Help on the WayDead	84	76	80	70	56	74
Come TogetherBeatles	80	68	74	70	84	75
Touch of GreyDead	84	76	80	76	66	77
Terrapin StationDead	88	78	84	80	60	79
RippleDead	90	84	88	86	45	81
Within You Without YouBeatles	84	80	82	78	92	83
Brokedown PalaceDead	92	86	90	88	52	84
Box of RainDead	92	88	90	90	55	85
A Day in the LifeBeatles	92	88	80	84	95	87
Attics of My LifeDead	95	90	94	94	58	88
In My LifeBeatles	94	86	90	90	84	89
I Am the WalrusBeatles	92	90	86	90	96	90
RainBeatles	90	90	88	90	98	91
Happiness Is a Warm GunBeatles	96	90	92	92	90	92
YesterdayBeatles	98	90	96	96	82	93
Strawberry Fields ForeverBeatles	94	92	92	94	100	94
BecauseBeatles	98	94	96	96	92	95
Eleanor RigbyBeatles	98	97	98	98	92	97

A number is where the argument starts.

How the dimensions are scored