• https://www.dead.net/features/greatest-stories-ever-told/greatest-stories-ever-told-black-muddy-river
    Greatest Stories Ever Told - "Black Muddy River"

    By David Dodd

    Here’s the plan—each week, I will blog about a different song, focusing, usually, on the lyrics, but also on some other aspects of the song, including its overall impact—a truly subjective thing. Therefore, the best part, I would hope, would not be anything in particular that I might have to say, but rather, the conversation that may happen via the comments over the course of time—and since all the posts will stay up, you can feel free to weigh in any time on any of the songs! With Grateful Dead lyrics, there’s always a new and different take on what they bring up for each listener, it seems. (I’ll consider requests for particular songs—just private message me!)

    "Black Muddy River"

    This Jacob guy keeps turning up. So I’m following him from “My Brother Esau,” where he appeared in a Barlow lyric (who also included him in “Victim or the Crime”) into the Robert Hunter-penned “Black Muddy River.” Here the allusion is more, well, allusive (elusive?), deriving from the inferred reference to Jacob’s use of stones as pillows during his flight from the wrath of Esau upon being found out as the deceiver who stole Isaac’s blessing. It’s also not a central allusion to the song, except in the sense that it conveys the deep sadness that is the territory of “Black Muddy River.”

    Sadness tinged with hope, or, at least, tempered by some kind of hard-won wisdom.

    Hunter wrote these lyrics as he approached his own mid-point in life. Somehow I wind up thinking of Dante’s Divine Comedy, which begins with the poet wandering, at the mid-point of his life’s journey, in a dark wood. Here’s what he told Rolling Stone in a 1987 interview:

    “Black Muddy River is about the perspective of age and making a decision about the necessity of living in spite of a rough time, and the ravages of anything else that's going to come at you. When I wrote it, I was writing about how I felt about being 45 years old and what I've been through. And then when I was done with it, obviously it was for the Dead.”

    “Making a decision about the necessity of living…”

    I can’t listen to this song without doing a lot of free-associating, so please pardon my stream of consciousness, non-disciplined ramblings in advance.

    “Black Muddy river” throws a number of images, references (external and internal to the Dead), and hints our way. We start the song with a rose, the quintessential icon of the band, along with the skull and lightning. If you look at the actual appearance of roses within Grateful Dead lyrics over the course of their career, they are not necessarily “pretty flower” references—they are used by Hunter as an ongoing and ever-expanding metaphor for life itself—as he himself made clear:

    "I've got this one spirit that's laying roses on me. Roses, roses, can't get enough of those bloody roses. The rose is the most prominent image in the human brain, as to delicacy, beauty, short-livedness, thorniness. It's a whole. There is no better allegory for, dare I say it, life, than roses."

    And here, in the first line of the song, he also directly alludes to a fellow lyricist, Thomas Moore (1779-1852), who, in 1805, wrote “The Last Rose of Summer,” which was set to music by Sir John Stevenson (1761-1833):

    'Tis the last rose of summer,
    Left blooming all alone,
    All her lovely companions
    Are faded and gone.
    No flower of her kindred,
    No rose bud is nigh,
    To reflect back her blushes,
    Or give sigh for sigh.

    I'll not leave thee, thou lone one,
    To pine on the stem;
    Since the lovely are sleeping,
    Go sleep thou with them;
    'Thus kindly I scatter
    Thy leaves o'er the bed
    Where thy mates of the garden
    Lie scentless and dead.

    So soon may I follow
    When friendships decay,
    And from love's shining circle
    The gems drop away!
    When true hearts lie withered
    And fond ones are flown
    Oh! who would inhabit
    This bleak world alone?

    Thomas Moore.

    Aside from the similarity in subject matter, hinted at by Hunter’s use of the Moore song’s title in his opening line, there’s even some melodic similarity between the settings of the two poems into song—so much so that the Wikipedia article for the Thomas Moore song states that the Grateful Dead sing “Black Muddy River” to Stevenson’s tune!

    (By the way, there are quite a number of excellent cover versions of “Black Muddy River,” with several of them by British Isles and Celtic and Celtic-influenced artists—there seems to be a natural affinity among those musicians for the song. I would especially note Norma Waterson’s version, which she recorded with guitarist Martin Carthy.)

    In “Black Muddy River,” the singer seems weighed down. The “muddiness” of the river, the stone / pillow confusion, the stones falling from his eyes—all literally heavy motifs, combine with the darkness (the night that will seemingly last forever…) or impending darkness (the last bolt of lightning), and the moaning of the ripples, to convey an atmosphere of sadness and hopelessness.

    But the singer counteracts that with…song. “Sing me a song of my own.” This lines hearkens back to “Eyes of the World,” with the line: “sometimes the songs that we hear are just songs of our own.” Hunter talked about this concept as something literal—the songs that each of us might sing, which spring from nowhere and are not necessarily anything we would want to sing to others, but which are intrinsic to us in some way. (I myself have a melody I have hummed to myself repeatedly over the years—one I don’t particularly care for, not one which I am ever able to remember when I try to remember it, but which appears, seemingly, out of nowhere and unsummoned, usually when I am walking somewhere).

    And he also counteracts it with dreaming. Singing and dreaming, or, possibly some combination of the two.

    In an article by Paul Liberatore in the Marin Independent Journal on May 14, 1991, Hunter discussed his method of dealing with the death of his teenaged son in the late 1980s. His response was to write his heart out, and the result was the book of poetry, Night Cadre.

    The heartbreaking episode, Hunter says, "threw me into an introverted place. It made me think about life and my philosophy. You have to have a great deal of faith that time is a healer. There was nothing I wanted more than to have years pass. Now I can look at pictures and videos. The healing has happened." While in mourning, Hunter says, "I did the only thing I knew how to do. I wrote." Over the past two-plus decades, he has written the words to classic songs like "Friend of the Devil," "Uncle John's Band," "Ripple" and "Dark Star". But he hasn't written a song in years. Instead, almost as a form of creative therapy, he wrote a collection of poems, titled "Night Cadre," that has just been published by Viking.
    "It does tend to be dark, with edges of hopefulness," he says of the book. "The examinations are about as close to the bone as poetry gets."

    “Dark, with edges of hopefulness.”

    “Black Muddy River” was performed as the first of two encores at the Dead’s final concert on July 9, 1995, at Soldier Field in Chicago. I have been told that, if you listen carefully, you will hear Garcia sing “last muddy river” at one point in the performance, as if he knew, as if he was quite conscious of what he was singing. I can’t bring myself to listen to it for myself right now, but maybe I will.

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  • deadgeek
    9 years 2 months ago
    Death as final freedom
    I am a newbie and I've just begun listening to it so not an expert in any way. I can only bring my own life experiences to it. While the overtones feel sad, the undertones feel like a welcoming for what may be beyond, however muddy it seems from this side. Perhaps a loss of the beauty experienced in life but also a lifting of weights that can only come in death. I find it both mournful and hopeful. The river "rolls on forever" if you believe that death is not the end. Dream me a dream of my own Sing me a song of my own A couple of Jerry's quotes really hit home for me after hearing it...I mourn because they gave me joy and it put me in a place to remember that. Whatever kills you, kills you, and your death is authentic no matter how you die. Don’t be sad because it’s over – be glad ‘cause it happened.
  • Strider 808808
    9 years 9 months ago
    Water of Life
    As many of you who read this were at the first performance of Black Muddy River in December 1986 in Oakland you understand how powerful a song it is. The harmonies are like a celestial quire. The mood of the piece feels like dark shades of blue and purple. The harmonies like a ray of sunlight through storm clouds. I revere the symbol of the river as an allegory of life's journey. I just read that the Ganges River in south Asia was named for the Hindu Goddess Ganga. The Sadhus are also onto something. If my memory serves me well some of the ashes of Jerry Garcia were offered to the Ganges and some to the Pacific Ocean at Stinson Beach. Powerful concept. Whenever I travel south from my place of work and arrive at my home in southwest New Mexico I try to remember to walk the quarter mile to the Gila River to give thanks and bless myself with the water. Try to go a few days without food you will be OK. Try to go a few days without water and you're a gonner. This time of year the birds that summer on the river start to sing big time at 4:30 AM. Listening to their songs at that time is analogous to the Amazon. It's dawn bursting with the joy of life. So all the overlapping references within the songs of the Grateful Dead to rivers, roses, bird songs, high cold mountains, outlaws, in-laws, and the rest spring from the well of the Water of Life. Also along with the references in their songs from the Old Testament and New Testament its quite possible to find connections to Buddhism, Hinduism, Nature worship, Islam, and to be equal opportunity atheism.
  • Charbroiled
    9 years 9 months ago
    Com'on Children Down to the River of Goodness
    This was one of those songs that Jerry always seemed to add that little extra emotional feel to. First saw it 3/24/87 after a second set opener of Gimme Some Loving which was weird, luckily it found it's home as an encore shortly after this. Listen to the ripples moan. Black Muddy River Roll
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14 years 11 months

By David Dodd

Here’s the plan—each week, I will blog about a different song, focusing, usually, on the lyrics, but also on some other aspects of the song, including its overall impact—a truly subjective thing. Therefore, the best part, I would hope, would not be anything in particular that I might have to say, but rather, the conversation that may happen via the comments over the course of time—and since all the posts will stay up, you can feel free to weigh in any time on any of the songs! With Grateful Dead lyrics, there’s always a new and different take on what they bring up for each listener, it seems. (I’ll consider requests for particular songs—just private message me!)

"Black Muddy River"

This Jacob guy keeps turning up. So I’m following him from “My Brother Esau,” where he appeared in a Barlow lyric (who also included him in “Victim or the Crime”) into the Robert Hunter-penned “Black Muddy River.” Here the allusion is more, well, allusive (elusive?), deriving from the inferred reference to Jacob’s use of stones as pillows during his flight from the wrath of Esau upon being found out as the deceiver who stole Isaac’s blessing. It’s also not a central allusion to the song, except in the sense that it conveys the deep sadness that is the territory of “Black Muddy River.”

Sadness tinged with hope, or, at least, tempered by some kind of hard-won wisdom.

Hunter wrote these lyrics as he approached his own mid-point in life. Somehow I wind up thinking of Dante’s Divine Comedy, which begins with the poet wandering, at the mid-point of his life’s journey, in a dark wood. Here’s what he told Rolling Stone in a 1987 interview:

“Black Muddy River is about the perspective of age and making a decision about the necessity of living in spite of a rough time, and the ravages of anything else that's going to come at you. When I wrote it, I was writing about how I felt about being 45 years old and what I've been through. And then when I was done with it, obviously it was for the Dead.”

“Making a decision about the necessity of living…”

I can’t listen to this song without doing a lot of free-associating, so please pardon my stream of consciousness, non-disciplined ramblings in advance.

“Black Muddy river” throws a number of images, references (external and internal to the Dead), and hints our way. We start the song with a rose, the quintessential icon of the band, along with the skull and lightning. If you look at the actual appearance of roses within Grateful Dead lyrics over the course of their career, they are not necessarily “pretty flower” references—they are used by Hunter as an ongoing and ever-expanding metaphor for life itself—as he himself made clear:

"I've got this one spirit that's laying roses on me. Roses, roses, can't get enough of those bloody roses. The rose is the most prominent image in the human brain, as to delicacy, beauty, short-livedness, thorniness. It's a whole. There is no better allegory for, dare I say it, life, than roses."

And here, in the first line of the song, he also directly alludes to a fellow lyricist, Thomas Moore (1779-1852), who, in 1805, wrote “The Last Rose of Summer,” which was set to music by Sir John Stevenson (1761-1833):

'Tis the last rose of summer,
Left blooming all alone,
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone.
No flower of her kindred,
No rose bud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
Or give sigh for sigh.

I'll not leave thee, thou lone one,
To pine on the stem;
Since the lovely are sleeping,
Go sleep thou with them;
'Thus kindly I scatter
Thy leaves o'er the bed
Where thy mates of the garden
Lie scentless and dead.

So soon may I follow
When friendships decay,
And from love's shining circle
The gems drop away!
When true hearts lie withered
And fond ones are flown
Oh! who would inhabit
This bleak world alone?

Thomas Moore.

Aside from the similarity in subject matter, hinted at by Hunter’s use of the Moore song’s title in his opening line, there’s even some melodic similarity between the settings of the two poems into song—so much so that the Wikipedia article for the Thomas Moore song states that the Grateful Dead sing “Black Muddy River” to Stevenson’s tune!

(By the way, there are quite a number of excellent cover versions of “Black Muddy River,” with several of them by British Isles and Celtic and Celtic-influenced artists—there seems to be a natural affinity among those musicians for the song. I would especially note Norma Waterson’s version, which she recorded with guitarist Martin Carthy.)

In “Black Muddy River,” the singer seems weighed down. The “muddiness” of the river, the stone / pillow confusion, the stones falling from his eyes—all literally heavy motifs, combine with the darkness (the night that will seemingly last forever…) or impending darkness (the last bolt of lightning), and the moaning of the ripples, to convey an atmosphere of sadness and hopelessness.

But the singer counteracts that with…song. “Sing me a song of my own.” This lines hearkens back to “Eyes of the World,” with the line: “sometimes the songs that we hear are just songs of our own.” Hunter talked about this concept as something literal—the songs that each of us might sing, which spring from nowhere and are not necessarily anything we would want to sing to others, but which are intrinsic to us in some way. (I myself have a melody I have hummed to myself repeatedly over the years—one I don’t particularly care for, not one which I am ever able to remember when I try to remember it, but which appears, seemingly, out of nowhere and unsummoned, usually when I am walking somewhere).

And he also counteracts it with dreaming. Singing and dreaming, or, possibly some combination of the two.

In an article by Paul Liberatore in the Marin Independent Journal on May 14, 1991, Hunter discussed his method of dealing with the death of his teenaged son in the late 1980s. His response was to write his heart out, and the result was the book of poetry, Night Cadre.

The heartbreaking episode, Hunter says, "threw me into an introverted place. It made me think about life and my philosophy. You have to have a great deal of faith that time is a healer. There was nothing I wanted more than to have years pass. Now I can look at pictures and videos. The healing has happened." While in mourning, Hunter says, "I did the only thing I knew how to do. I wrote." Over the past two-plus decades, he has written the words to classic songs like "Friend of the Devil," "Uncle John's Band," "Ripple" and "Dark Star". But he hasn't written a song in years. Instead, almost as a form of creative therapy, he wrote a collection of poems, titled "Night Cadre," that has just been published by Viking.
"It does tend to be dark, with edges of hopefulness," he says of the book. "The examinations are about as close to the bone as poetry gets."

“Dark, with edges of hopefulness.”

“Black Muddy River” was performed as the first of two encores at the Dead’s final concert on July 9, 1995, at Soldier Field in Chicago. I have been told that, if you listen carefully, you will hear Garcia sing “last muddy river” at one point in the performance, as if he knew, as if he was quite conscious of what he was singing. I can’t bring myself to listen to it for myself right now, but maybe I will.

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This Jacob guy keeps turning up. So I’m following him from “My Brother Esau,” where he appeared in a Barlow lyric (who also included him in “Victim or the Crime”) into the Robert Hunter-penned “Black Muddy River.”
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Greatest Stories Ever Told - "Black Muddy River"
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This Jacob guy keeps turning up. So I’m following him from “My Brother Esau,” where he appeared in a Barlow lyric (who also included him in “Victim or the Crime”) into the Robert Hunter-penned “Black Muddy River.”
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This Jacob guy keeps turning up. So I’m following him from “My Brother Esau,” where he appeared in a Barlow lyric (who also included him in “Victim or the Crime”) into the Robert Hunter-penned “Black Muddy River.”

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I really enjoy listening to this song, if only for the lilting tone of it rather than the meaning of the words. I love the idea of walking along by yourself and singing a song of your own. But then the lyrics creep in and I dwell on Hunter's admonition that the Black Muddy River represents death. How can you be so carefree and sing a little ditty while death roils and boils right next to you? I remember when I turned 50 and the incredible waves of depression that almost literally staggered me for a day or two. I felt that life until then had been getting better and better and now it would get worse and worse, ending in death. This was my time for really looking at the Black Muddy River. But then I heard the "ripples" moaning in it and "watched the river roll, roll, roll" and started to feel better. Now I feel great about being on the far side of life, seriously! Besides these American Beauty references, note the reference to the River Jordan ("deep and wide"), like in Michael Row the Boat Ashore. The other side of the river is probably there, but "I don't care ... if you got another side." For now I'm on this side. I may be alone and there may be apocalyptic signs, but what the fuck, I’m singing my song. David, thanks for the intel about Thomas Moore and the Waterson-Carthy cover. I always thought the "last rose of summer" line sounded familiar and that must be it!
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That line always reminds me of the chorus to a Merle Haggard song that the Dead covered: Sing me back home A song I used to hear Make my old memories Come alive Sing me away Turn back the years Sing me back home Before I die
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Thank you David for your regular contributions to our Dead world. Because of your tip I just listened to the 7/9/95 BMR. Jerry did indeed sing "last" at the song's beginning. To add to the eventual coincidence the concert's final song was Phil's rendition of Box of Rain. Thanks to a previous "Greatest" the song's origin/intent made it a perfect followup to BMR and the best possible final song (unless you want to engage in a loving battle over "The Music Never Stopped" for that title). Once one enters this musical river there is no other side.
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There are Songs and then there isThe Song. Black Muddy River is One of Many that Reference "The Song" at least for me "...listen to the river sing sweet Songs to rock my soul..." "...in the End there's still That Song..." and Yes- What a perfect final song for dear old Jerry to sing as well as Box of Rain being perfect as the last one he played. Black Muddy River may be a Dark Song...but I Believe...there's a Marvelous Light Shining on the other side... "and I Know we'll Be There Soon"
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....drowned in the Trinity River. The lyric likely resonated with Garcia in that regard. I can't see how he'd have avoided it.
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Alpine 87, roaming the fields, streams, and woods "in the dark". We were the Black Mumble River. Anyway, I listened to last River, I don't hear "last", I hear "lack" but who cares..sing..dream..me a song.. As a "songsmith" for 30+ years I am deep green with envy of Jerry's ability to write songs...songs that touch so many souls so deeply. As Mr. Dylan said, something like- Jerry is the heart of black muddy soul of the earth, or something like that. I took it as everything is a mess,but I will walk alone; in spite of impending doom; and sing me a song of my own. Deep stuff. Jimmy Page speaks of dynamics in songs. Without light there is no dark, without a slow riff, you won't appreciate a fast one.So the ambiguity of the song and the deep lyrics calls one back. For some reason I thought of Cold Jordan- Look at that cold Jordan, look at its deep water, look at that wide river, oh hear the mighty billows roll. You better take Jesus with you, he's a true companion, and I'm sure without him, you'll never make it home. Thanks for the forum, and I look forward to next weeks song.
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"I Don't Care How Deep or WideIF You've Got Another Side" Williworx said it Well this Song Resonates Deeply like a Good Gospel Song. IF you Believe the Gospel is True(as I do) then You have the Blessing of Everlasting Life. IF you Believe the Gospel's a Myth then Perhaps there's More Concern about the Deep Unreal. IF there is Life after Death then can we not help but be Grateful to the One who Created such things (IF there really is a Creator...which there IS) I'm not here to Preach but I am inclined to Follow David's Lead and Flow in my Stream of Consciousness after meditating on all the Allusions this Song Holds. "In the End there's Still That Song....(and)... it Seems like all this Life was just a Dream" You know Jacob used a Rock for a Pillow and had a Dream of the Ladder reaching up to Heaven and the LORD above with Angels Ascending and Descending. IF there really is such a Ladder then I want to Climb It. Or IF its a Deep Wide River then I'm willing to try to Swim Across it...hoping there is the Divine Other Side. "Black Muddy River" seems to flow with "Ripple" and how they both beckon us to the Mysterious Path that leads "Home" "and If You Go" there's always a choice to "Come on Along or go Alone" "IF I knew the Way" there's always that undeniable uncertainty " Would You Hear My Voice Come Through the Music..." "When I Can't Hear the Song for the Singing.." where the meaning of it all remains so Elusive sort of like having "Two Good Eyes That Still Don't See" Well...the thoughts are broken...thought I'd something more to say...if you get confused just listen to the Music Play! "There is a Road ( or is it a River) between the Dawn and the Dark of Night" "Ripple" meets us at the beginning of the Journey and "Black Muddy River" waits at the end of "That Path (which) is For Your Steps Alone" well...I don't know if I'm making any sense to anyone...but those are some of the thoughts that stir in my heart as I meditate on the Black Muddy River. May You "Roll On Forever"
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Got to hand it to Jerry (again!) on the arrangement/melody of this one. The way the melody line opens the song is like flipping open the cover of a old leather-bound book. The way there is no instrumental solo, but two trips through the melody, expresses so well the feeling from the verses that all is lost, but now is found. Then the melody closes the book ... until that redemptive walk up from the E to the big A. When he would hit that right-goosebumps. Roll on forever! https://archive.org/details/gd1987-07-08.sbd.miller.90146.sbeok.flac16
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Garrison Keillor recited Moore's "The Last Rose Of Summer" on his Poet's Almanac show this morning. I always knew he was a Deadhead! Hey, maybe one of you guys is Garrison Keillor. Wait, maybe I'm Garrison Keillor!
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the details fade into oblivion, but I seem to recall that he sang at least one Hunter song on PHC. Someone with a better memory probably has more info...
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Google's a marvelous thing. I see several references to Garrison performing Ripple on PHC, once with an orchestra, once with Laurie Lewis, once with Sarah Watkins, etc. He also did Attics many times (once in one of his "cowboy" skits), and Brokedown Palace once with Adrienne Young (I put a link to a YouTube of her great cover in the thread on that song). He also performed Duquesne Whistle (by Hunter and Dylan), Sandy Ford (by Hunter and Jim Lauderdale), and probably a lot of other stuff. I think it more and more likely that he's in this discussion group.
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he could do worse!
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living in his neck of the woods, I have enjoyed listening to PHC for years and you never know when it's going to happen, but quite often there will be a humorous reference to being at a GD concert. I love his voice and his mellow, yet sly, demeanor. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he was a head.
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This was one of those songs that Jerry always seemed to add that little extra emotional feel to. First saw it 3/24/87 after a second set opener of Gimme Some Loving which was weird, luckily it found it's home as an encore shortly after this. Listen to the ripples moan. Black Muddy River Roll
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As many of you who read this were at the first performance of Black Muddy River in December 1986 in Oakland you understand how powerful a song it is. The harmonies are like a celestial quire. The mood of the piece feels like dark shades of blue and purple. The harmonies like a ray of sunlight through storm clouds. I revere the symbol of the river as an allegory of life's journey. I just read that the Ganges River in south Asia was named for the Hindu Goddess Ganga. The Sadhus are also onto something. If my memory serves me well some of the ashes of Jerry Garcia were offered to the Ganges and some to the Pacific Ocean at Stinson Beach. Powerful concept. Whenever I travel south from my place of work and arrive at my home in southwest New Mexico I try to remember to walk the quarter mile to the Gila River to give thanks and bless myself with the water. Try to go a few days without food you will be OK. Try to go a few days without water and you're a gonner. This time of year the birds that summer on the river start to sing big time at 4:30 AM. Listening to their songs at that time is analogous to the Amazon. It's dawn bursting with the joy of life. So all the overlapping references within the songs of the Grateful Dead to rivers, roses, bird songs, high cold mountains, outlaws, in-laws, and the rest spring from the well of the Water of Life. Also along with the references in their songs from the Old Testament and New Testament its quite possible to find connections to Buddhism, Hinduism, Nature worship, Islam, and to be equal opportunity atheism.
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I am a newbie and I've just begun listening to it so not an expert in any way. I can only bring my own life experiences to it. While the overtones feel sad, the undertones feel like a welcoming for what may be beyond, however muddy it seems from this side. Perhaps a loss of the beauty experienced in life but also a lifting of weights that can only come in death. I find it both mournful and hopeful. The river "rolls on forever" if you believe that death is not the end. Dream me a dream of my own Sing me a song of my own A couple of Jerry's quotes really hit home for me after hearing it...I mourn because they gave me joy and it put me in a place to remember that. Whatever kills you, kills you, and your death is authentic no matter how you die. Don’t be sad because it’s over – be glad ‘cause it happened.
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I have heard and been listening to BMR as of late. Looking for sweet covers and best versions, etc.... Then it hit me.... The imagery produced by the lyrics is the time tested broken person tastes redemption recipe that has helped many a song and story stand the test of time. We bond with the song as we see reflection of self in the lyrics. Hunter talks about being 45 when he wrote this and how a man mid-life begins to look back upon his. For me I become more aware of my mortality while remembering or dwelling a bit more on the pains I have caused others. While I refuse to have regrets I do still have a conscience. I wonder if hunter did this on purpose....(?) I digress So Hunter writes this when he is 45. I'm in my early 20's when I first hear it. So he offers up the PRICELESS GIFT OF WISDOM to fans who are more likely willing to let that beautiful Lady Wisdom in. For me, she got in. Though I did not see it at the time. Still, I am only 49 and while I will happily admit that I DO NOT KNOW IT ALL knowing I have just a hint of wisdom gives me the confidence to say I KNOW WHAT I KNOW! This is one of those Grateful Dead Gifts. The kind you can't explain. Just like the people who can't "get the dead" and/or don't understand why WE do... I am very grateful to be a Grateful Dead Head. The music, the vibration, the frequency, fueled by the high electric energy of the crowed. The songs, the lyrics, connecting us like a patchwork quilt. We were given a glimpse of utopia. We know that true happiness and freedom exists. It may leave when the show is over but it is too late the imprint has been made. I will return to that place as often as I can until I am finally asked to stay. When I get there??? The Music Never Stops.
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Well said sweendog, spot on! So spot on I had to say it twice...
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I am here on Nov. 13, 2017 because I was trying to find some evidence of Garrison Keillor singing BMR on PHC. When I first heard it live in 1987 my impression was that it could have been written 100 years ago. It was an "instant classic" in that sense. And I recollect hearing GK sing it shortly after it came out, as if he thought the same. .. who knows. But would love to nail it down.
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For some reason hereabouts lately or linked to a Hunter interview back to.. I forget, but, it keeps popping up that at Soldier Field that sad day Garcia sang “last muddy” rather than “black.” Just had a listen.. is this still believed anywhere? Asking for a friend.