The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics
Language: English
Pages: 512
ISBN: 1501123327
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the most popular and enduring band ever: “Even the most hardcore Deadheads will be impressed by this obsessively complete look at the Grateful Dead’s lyrics” (Publishers Weekly).
The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics is an authoritative text, providing standard versions of all the original songs you thought you knew forwards and backwards. These are some of the best-loved songs in the modern American songbook. They are hummed and spoken among thousands as counterculture code and recorded by musicians of all stripes for their inimitable singability and obscure accessibility. How do they do all this? To provide a context for this formidable body of work, of which his part is primary, Robert Hunter has written a foreword that goes to the heart of the matter. And the annotations on sources provide a gloss on the lyrics, which goes to the roots of Western culture as they are incorporated into them.
An avid Grateful Dead concertgoer for more than two decades, David Dodd is a librarian who brings to the work a detective’s love of following a clue as far as it will take him. Including essays by Dead lyricists Robert Hunter and John Perry and Jim Carpenter’s original illustrations, whimsical elements in the lyrics are brought to light, showcasing the American legend that is present in so many songs. A gorgeous keepsake edition of the Dead’s official annotated lyrics, The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics is an absolute must-have for the fiftieth anniversary—you won’t think of this cultural icon the same way again. In fact, founding band member Bob Weir said: “This book is great. Now I’ll never have to explain myself.”
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Dead show at the June 3, 1976, concert. Lazy Lightnin’ was the title of a 1926 silent Western, featuring Art Acord as Lance Lighton and Fay Wray as Lila Rogers. Directed by William Wyler, who also directed such classics as Ben Hur and Funny Girl. 2 reason Always an interesting topic in Grateful Dead songs, from “Dark Star” to “Playing in the Band.” Notes: Written in Mill Valley, California, October 1975. Studio recording by Kingfish, with Bob Weir, on Kingfish (1976). First performance:
a spiral? Not really. The planet, named for the Roman goddess, has long been associated with the goddess of love, who in the Greek pantheon was Aphrodite. The Greek poet Bion (ca. 100 B.C.E.) writes: Evening Star, gold light of Aphrodite born in the foam, Evening Star, holy diamond of the glass blue night, you are dimmer than the moon, brighter than another star. Hello, good friend! And William Blake’s “To the Evening Star”: Thou fair-hair’d angel of the evening, Now, whilst the sun
“Bail, Bail,” Perhaps Garcia changed the name in his singing, leading Hunter to alter his original name for the song’s representative of the law; bail could be short for “bailiff,” and hence be a nickname relating to the job. 5 gin fizz Blend: 5 oz gin 5 heaping teaspoons sugar juice of a lemon one egg one tablespoon Cointreau one teaspoon orange rind or one teaspoon orange flower water Add 4 ice cubes—mix till they’re gone Add equal amount of milk and mix Serve in chilled glasses. 82
Star Long as we got to be Long as we are I just wanna be One of them little stars One of them little stars That’d just be fine All you gotta do now Just hang up there and shine Hang up there and shine Hang up there and shine Hang up there and shine Hang up there and shine Words and music by Bob Weir Notes: No studio recording. First of three total performances with the Grateful Dead was on April 15, 1983, at Community War Memorial in Rochester, New York. AKA “Bob Star.” Hell in a
one doesn’t really know himself sometimes. Some stanza is suddenly there in your head and with it there sometimes is, as Dylan said, “a terrible roaring sound.” Someone once said to me that “art is what happens when God speaks through a human being.” I wouldn’t claim that I’ve been that sort of oracle very often, but Hunter has, and there is no question that there were many moments when God, or whatever you want to call the Holy Whoknows, would zap Its stunning meaningfulness at you through the
