Matthews (1996)

Celebrate

Two step is undoubtedly one of the founding pillars of live DMB songs.

Since the very beginning, the song was established with a long extended celebratory jam. The early jams featured Peter Greisar's keyboards, Carter's drums, and Dave's salsa scatting. During 93-95, the song lost the salsa vibe and developed a more robust intro and outro.

In late 1995, during the studio sessions, the band reworked the song to end on the same minor key with which it begins. This started a gradual extension of the song outro that would evolve for years to come and would feature a extensive solo from Carter.

In terms of slotting, the song has proven worthy in all slots: opener, midset, closer, encore or 2nd encore.

1996 features by far the most performances played during any given year with the song being played a nearly every show. 2020 features the least amount with only 2 performances during the year. 9.19.2000 features the longest version ever clocking in at a whopping 27 minutes 34 seconds.

Lyrically, the song began featuring the famous alternating lyrical intro in the summer of 1996. The themes used in this intro have evolved over time and have even been used in new songs. Transcriptions of the intros are listed in alternate lyrics.

Another lyrical note is Dave's frequent mention of "Helena" (in place of 'my love' in the official lyrics). This is widely thought to be a reference to Helen of Troy, one of the more famously courted women/godesses in western history-mythology, in support of the theory of the song being framed in a courtship.

Studio personnel:
Tim Reynolds - guitar