What’s in The Garden?
This page is under development ~ your input is welcome & appreciated! I would like to have pictures illustrating the page, links to all the songs, and mp3 links to some of our favorite Gardens. -DG
We’ll collect approaches to The Garden on this page; fan opinions and favorite versions of the song cycle also known as: The Garden Trilogy; The Garden Suite; The Garden Song Sequence…
Scroll down for:
- The comment form to post your input
- A window to the newest versions of The Garden available for mp3 and FLAC download on Archive.org
The Garden Triology: early history
Back in the day, “The Garden” was the name of one song that consisted of today’s G1 and G2. A common segue was The Garden > Precious Stone > Can You Guess It? This became known as “The Garden Trilogy.” It was three songs, but it was really four songs.
“The Garden” (original G1G2 version) was cleaved into its two distinct segments, which could be played independent of one another: G1 and G2. At this point fans began debating what the legendary “Garden Trilogy” consisted of, because it seemed to be 4 songs already.
The Garden (Part I)
“The Garden (Part I)” is the Trevor Garrod song with a chorus about “bones, them bones” – presumably the introduction to the song sequence. The Garden (Part I) is on the album Living In Between.
The Garden (Part II)
“The Garden (Part II)” is a searing instrumental with resonant lead guitar work by Josh Clark, that is regularly the musical peak of intensity at any concert where it’s played. G2 doesn’t have words, but it brings conflict and climax to the song story. (Today, G2 makes an equally fine segue G1>G2 with the bell tolling the count; G2>Precious Stone, a classic segue; or G2>G3 abruptly.) The Garden (Part II) is the last track on the album Living In Between.
Precious Stone
“Precious Stone” is another classic element of the Garden sequence. Early on it was a great segue out of Garden II and perfectly into Can You Guess It. A really classic segue is Pstone > Guess It, but the 2 songs are played independently as well.
Can You Guess It?
“Can You Guess It?” is the story of the salesman.
Jezebel
Josh Clark’s poster art illustrations of Jezebel show her hanging out by the wishing well in the garden.
Mistletoe or Mistletwo
Meanwhile fans inquired of the band, and they made various suggestive claims about the nature of The Garden, which expanded The Garden to include more songs. Josh said “Mistletwo” was part of The Garden, and that night in Fayetteville they opened with Mistletwo > G1 > G2 > Pstone > Can You Guess It. But kark identified a different song, “Mistletoe”, that was thought to be the actual Garden participant. These are two different instrumental songs with similar titles.
Moonshine
Trevor hinted, and fans’ reading of the song tends to agree, “Moonshine” is part of The Garden. Many times when other known Garden tunes are played, Moonshine is appended somewhere in the sequence.
Market Place
Plateface has indicated that Market Place is part of the Garden sequence.
Other songs
Some fans have theorized other songs belonging to The Garden, including “Beehive”, “Mosquito From Colusa”, “Backyard” (Watching Anna Fall?), and ______ (name more)
The Garden (Part III)
Then in early 2004 Trevor announced at a solo show: “When I play with the band Tea Leaf Green, we have a song that’s called Garden Part One, and Garden Part Two. But then on the sly I wrote a song called Garden Part Three and I never told them about it. This is probably the first time they’re hearing it. I think they’re here tonight. ” Shortly after Trevor played the first version of “The Garden (Part Three),” TLG picked up this catchy song – answering the fan anticipation with the inevitable version __________ where fans sang along for the first-time-played to a song they already knew from the Trevor tapes.
How big is The Garden?
The revelation of a G3 silenced earlier theories about the overstuffed Trilogy, and said to the world: The Garden is open-ended, more songs will be written. It also gave a new reference for the Trilogy, which might appear as G1 > G2 > G3, though the origins of the Trilogy was The Garden > Pstone > Can You Guess It.
Today it seems that different types of The Garden can grow anywhere, at any given show. They’ve played all the songs mentioned above in contiguous sets that suggest the songs’ mutual participation in a story cycle, but it may just be the visions in the mind of the listeners drawing connections.
Post your thoughts
Post your comments and views on The Garden here. Any ideas are welcome but ideas include:
- Post your ideal version of The Garden
- Post what you think is really in The Garden
- Post a real setlist where they played songs from The Garden
August 27th, 2008
2008-08-26 Minnesota State Fair setlist (night II)
Garden 1 > Garden 2 > Slept Thru Sunday > Garden 3
Perhaps this gives Slept Through Sunday a loose Garden affiliation. It’s like a wallet card that says “Supporting Member of The Garden.”
This is the first time for that. Slept hasn’t traditionally been associated with The Garden sequence. Lyrically it’s ambiguous enough that you can fit it into the Garden story if you want to (There’s an “I” character in the Garden that’s semi-fictional, semi-autobiographical Trevor… and the “I” who found God last Saturday night in Slept can be the same person in the story). But it wasn’t conceived to be there in the first place when Slept was written independently. Whenever a song is “planted” in the middle of the Garden in a setlist like this, it brings up the affiliation, and makes a unique Garden sequence that can be reimagined with the new element (if only for that one time).
October 17th, 2008
G3 was played the first night, out of a rapture segue to end the first set. i didnt think they repeated any garden songs those two days because there were some people who yelled for the garden between every single song.