Scarlet Begonias – Set in London’s Grosvenor Square and written after Hunter lived in London in the early 1970’s, the song references almost verbatim the British Lullaby, Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross. The old nursery rhyme goes like this, “Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross, To see a fine lady upon a white horse; Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, And she shall have music wherever she goes.”
New Speedway Boogie – This song is a rather blunt reference to the nightmare at Altamont and written as a reply to a scathing article by rock critic Ralph J. Gleason. Interestingly, Jerry Garcia actually said in a later interview that he felt the song was a bit of an overreaction, recognizing that, “There’s darkness and there’s light and it’s the interplay that represents the game that we’re allowed to play on this planet.”
Mission in the Rain – Mission in the Rain is an interesting lyrical song in that it always seems like the only person it could be written for in the first person would be Jerry Garcia. Well, in this case Jerry agreed, “Occasionally, Hunter writes me an autobiographical song, like ‘Mission in the Rain,’ which is a song that might be about me… it’s autobiographical, but I didn’t write it.”
Loser – Loser has a funny Garcia story behind it as well. While the lyrics are clearly written about a jerk and a loser, Jerry actually inhabited two different personas at different times when performing the song. “The lyrics have the guy an idiot, but the idiot’s version of himself is, ‘Hey, I’m great!’ I can ride that either way and there’s lots of shading in between those things at the same time. I love it when it’s ambiguous like that.”
Box of Rain – The song that Robert Hunter described as coming closest to writing itself was conceived by Phil Lesh as the song he wanted to sing to his dying father. Hunter said Phil that composed every single piece of the song prior to the existence of the words, even down to vocal sounds where the lyrics would later fit. Knowing the heavy-hearted story behind the song, it’s not hard to figure out why the band tabled it for so song.
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Re: He’s Gone, it should be noted that Mickey’s father wasn’t “gone” by death; in fact he ran off with over $150,000 of the band’s money in 1970. So while the song is often used/looked at as a tribute to the fallen, in the original context of Lenny Hart it’s not.
The description of the song above does say that He’s Gone was about a living person at the time. Lenny Hart. I’ve read the story many times. What I didn’t know is that He’s Gone was about Lenny Hart. Now I feel bad for Mickey when he plays that during their sets. Steal Your Face is one of the most popular Dead phrases / iconic pictures. And it’s a popular song. Does anyone know how Mickey feels about playing it?
I still think Robert Burns most popular song is Auld Ange Syne. But what do I know?
In Hunter’s version of Lady of Carlisle, the only thing left to the listener is “you decide if he was wise.” The sailor gets the lady, “the lady fairly leapt at him. That’s how it stands today.”
A lot of Hunters lyrics had references to card games (mainly poker) using different poker hands he drew, as an analogy to life’s situations.
Very informative blog, I found it thru a Google search. I saved your site & I will absolutelyreturn! 🙂
~Very cool. I have always wondered about the “We can share the women, we can share the wine. Even in the era of free love it seemed a little…gross? And out-a place.cjf
I’m not sure how I got here but I’m glad I did. It’s not every day that I learn things I never knew about the Dead. For those interested in Terrapin lyrics, check out Robert Hunter’s Jack O’Roses album. It has the original and very long Terrapin, which links a number of other Dead songs into a larger story. A bit hard to find, though!
Dark Star also takes from a T.S. Eliot poem called “the love song of J. Alfred Prufrock” with the first line of dark star being “shall we go then, you and I”
I always thought that “He’s Gone” was about Pigpen or Neal Cassidy, and then grew to include others who’d fallen. I can believe it was about Lenny Hart though. I can also believe that the song kind of grew to have a life/death notion of its own. It has some healing qualities somehow.
I have been a Dead Head since I moved to southern Cal when I was 21 in early 70s. I learn something new every day about The Dead. So glad I found this site. Lots of leads! THANKS
In Jack Straw Shannon was a woman from a Womens Rights Group that ripped the Dead off back when they trusted too much. Hey you live and you learn. And they learned the hard way.Like with Lenny B. Hart too,among others.