Fare you well, Mr. Hunter. We love you more than words can tell...
For a man who provided us with so many meaningful words, the soundtrack to our lives, he's left us a bit speechless with his passing. For more than 50 years, since his first lyrical contributions to the Grateful Dead in 1967, Robert Hunter has been just as integral a part of the legacy of the Grateful Dead as those who recorded the music to accompany his words, those who walked out on stage to bring his words to life. More than 2,000 times 1967-1995, these six (or five or seven) proud walkers on the jingle bell rainbow, plus countless thousands of times since then by other performers, the Grateful Dead have brought Hunter's words to life in front of all of us as their witness. Not a single day has gone by since 1984 that Hunter's words haven't been a part of my world; I've heard Jerry, Bob and others sing his words literally every day for the past 35 years.
When the final Fare Thee Well show ended in Chicago in 2015, Mickey Hart famously sent us on our way by asking us to "please, be kind," and that lesson along with its lyrical brethren written by Hunter, "ain't no time to hate," and "are you kind?" are some of the truest words to live by. No matter what meaning, solace, lesson you find in Hunter's lyrics, please go out and do some good with them.
David Lemieux
dead comment
Robert Hunter RIP
Sleep in the stars Mr. Hunter and thank you for your wonderful words of wisdom. Those words will last many lifetimes.
Wrote some of the best lyrics in modern music today. A huge loss to the community......RIP.
I was lucky enough to see Hunter play as an opening act at Shoreline, though I can't locate a reference. I remember that he played Rueben and Cherise and broke a string while re-tuning his guitar in the hot sun. He certainly was the primal documentarian of the psychedelic stream of consciousness writing style, and we are all richer for it forever. It was an odd weekend all around, too, leading up to the equinox. I was driving out to Nevada Friday night and saw a very large mountain lion amble across NV 95 as I headed up into sagebrush country. Coming back on Sunday afternoon, I realized David Gans was broadcasting his part of Tales From the Golden Road from a new dispensary on 395 in New Washoe City, and since I was already heading north on 395, I decided to drive in, instead of call in. I re-introduced myself after the show (we'd met in Sutter Creek, CA some years ago), and also met Annette, who worked in the Grateful Dead and Ice Nine offices for decades - it was a cheerful meet-up. Monday night (the equinox) I was online learning of a friend's experience on Saturday in the Canadian north woods (Fenario?) howling at the moon with a shaman and her two wolves while holding sacred space, and I later explained the difference between Kesey's Further bus and the Pranksters, vis a vis Wavy Gravy and the Diggers at Woodstock. And in the midst of all this, unbeknownst to me, Robert Hunter was departing on the far journey. Fare Thee Well, Mr. Hunter, we love you more than words can tell.
Well, our writer has excited stage left to join the rest of the boys and finish Go To Heaven (live) lol. It is bittersweet and just that he went on Autumn Equinox. It's funny now that I am 50 and texting Roberts death to my son who is 20. He knows the lyrics like I do but never got see him or meet him. So i guess I will just have to help him visualize with what hunter gave us.
“While the fire lights aglow, strange shadows from the flames will grow till things we’ve never seen will seem familiar.”