Dr. Spasmodious is a yearly ritual, but there are the occasional subtle changes. It even was the subject of one of those Tim Truman comics, as I recall; I'll see if we've got it here.
does RH say that poem every year? Just wondering cause i have a copy of him doing the poem right before a new years show from back in the early eighties. I am not sure but i think it was 83into 84.
And he is amazing..He always plays the songs I wanted "The Dead" to play....
ROBERT ROCKS!!!!!
Dead to the Core
www.myspace.com/bongwizard
Counting up the things that count
on the fingers of one hand
Music, love, and friendship
and the rest of it be damned
This stanza is from See You Again written for the Rhythm Devils from Hunter's journals, 10/26/06. Kind of says it all.
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
Walt Whitman-Song of Myself
What can I say about Robert Hunter? His lyrics are rooted in the mythology and the deep spaces of American culture. The lyrics are weatherbeaten and yet still shiny. They are mysterious, yet still accessible. They speak, in equal parts, of joy and resigned despair, but the despair always wears a wink and a grin.
The characters in Hunter's songs are something akin to Faustian heroes. Sure, there are deals with the devil, hubris, bad choices, but there is (in the songs, music, and us fans) the constant striving and trying for something better, which is inevitably the heroes salvation, as well as our own. The characters are the denizens of Steinbeck's "Palace Flophouse," Kerouac's "one's who are mad, desirous of everything..." They are also the lonely and jaded wanderers along Hemingway's "Big Two-Hearted River." They are the existential heroes seeking authenticity and open to the unbelievable POSSIBILITY of it all.
I've always identified most with Robert Hunter. Possibly because I don't play a musical instrument (I'm sure air guitar doesn't count!), but I do play with the words. I discovered the Dead and the words of Robert Hunter around the same time I discovered Whitman, Joyce and Chekhov. At 14 I made no distinction between them all. Perhaps I was naive. But I don't think so. Thank you Robert.
BTW, Why isn't Hunter in the songwriter's hall of fame?
Yo Soy Boricua!
....is a genius.........and an amazing poet.
when one tried to comprehend the talent of Robert Hunter.
He sees a guy playing a harp in Barcelona, Spain and out comes Tenneessee Jed.
Writes Terrapin in one fell swoop.
Ummm, ok....and thats after all the epic songs on Workingman's and American Beauty.
And as SirX states, he is one hell of a nice guy. The most unpretentious dude ever.
I highly recommend the book "Box of Rain, the collected works of Robert Hunter".
Happy Belated Birthday, Robert.
And thank you for EVERYTHING.
"Let my inspiration flow...."
“The Omnipotent Grateful Dead!”
i met him years ago. he was so nice!
Locations
lives here:
http://www.dead.net/image/boxes-dr-spasmodiu