OPENING
- originally posted to Flickr as Promontory Rider
THERE IS ONLY ONE STORY LINE THIS WEEK FOR ANY DEADHEAD: THE DEATH OF
Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.The announcement Monday night cast a pall over the entire week. Not since the death of Jerry Garcia did it truly feel like the proverbial end of an era. This loss was as incalculable.
Which is not to slight the recent death of John Perry Barlow, who was one of my favorite figures associated with The Dead. A true "Cosmic Cowboy" and Renaissance Man, Barlow's lyrical association with his lifelong friend Bob Weir was not as numerically prolific as the Garcia/Hunter pairing. Barlow/Weir songs were a deserved staple of a Grateful Dead show("Weather Report," "Mexicali Blues," "Lost Sailor">"Saint of Circumstance," etc), but the duo didn't seem to achieve the same community status with which Garcia/Hunter had become revered.
Barlow didn't draw from the same erudite well as Hunter's which may also explain this lack of critical intensity. Hunter, a poet, was deeply and widely read. He could evoke the work of Rilke as well as use layers upon layers of symbolism. He could cite astronomy as well as astrology. The vernacular could be Elizabethan or "down home American." It isn't any coincidence that Hunter and Bob Dylan began collaborating on lyrics beginning in 1988 with the song"Silvio," a relationship which continued for decades until Hunter's death. Who else but Dylan had been mining the same subterranean terrains and for nearly as long?
ESSENTIAL READING
The finest exposition on Robert Hunter's lyrical style and concerns as well as the nature and history of his groundbreaking collaborations with Garica was written by Hunter himself, which serves as the foreward to David Dodd's The Complete Anotated Grateful Dead Lyrics. More than a dozen pages it is a lengthy but illuminating preamble to an invaluable volume. Wordy, thoughtful and ultimately elegant and resourceful, this primary recollection is something more than just a behind-the-scenes of how Song X was written. It's a stunning remembrance, warts and all.
THE "DILEMMA"
The easiest thing for any Dead blogger or social media user it to simply proceed with a list of your favorite Hunter lyrics. What better way to honor his memory--and craft? Such a decision is both practical yet impersonal. Yet how else should you proceed? Few of us can give some personal testimony of interactions with the man. Truthfully for many of us he existed less as a human being and more as a "Storyteller." Garcia's partner. A more rock 'n' roll counter to the similar duo of Elton John and Bernie Taupin.
I acknowledge Robert Hunter as a human being. I express condolences to his friends and family. And I posthumously thank him for his work and for what it has meant to me. There is no more to be said on that front.
I'll limit myself to 14 songs. Originally I was aiming for 10. Ten is a reasonable number. A holy one, in fact. But I didn't have the will power.
Jerry Garcia didn't seem to hand out very compliments to anyone, just wasn't his style. Even Robert Hunter, who knew him longer and better than most, could be made insecure by this facet of his character. Even though their collaborations were long and prolific, he reveals in the preface to David Dodd's book, Garcia's silence--as well as the band collectively--was unnerving. Everyone has a need for reassurance.
But one day in 1987 Garcia called Hunter and told him, "Your lyrics never once stuck in my throat." Hunter's response, at least to us readers, is understated, if you don't read between the lines.
Without further ado here are ten essential Hunter lyrics in chronological order;
1."DARK STAR"(1967).--Only three verses and two choruses, but maybe the most "poetic" Hunter ever committed to record. Despite the cosmological pretext to the song there is a real bluesy ache to the existentialist question it postulates, which notches the end like a note feedbacking from a guitar amp.
2."BLACK PETER"(1969)--A haunting ballad about dying with grace and gratitude. Hunter was only 25 years old when he penned this, yet it shares the elegiac observations of Samuel Beckett when he was writing about dying old men.
3."FRIEND OF THE DEVIL"(1970)--One of the greatest "outlaw" songs of all time. It both romanticizes and deconstructs the romanticism of the Old West and the gunslinger. The chorus is a national treasure. One of the most covered Grateful Dead songs and all it takes is one listen to understand why.
4."CANDYMAN"(1970)--Both Hunter and Garcia were students of the blues, upon which this template is most certainly built. "Candy" was a Black Southern euphemism for both the fairer sex and cocaine, and the "candyman" a Black Southern euphemism for a Casanova rounder long before Hunter picked up a pen and Garcia a guitar. Reverend Gary Davis, who counted Bob Weir as one of his disciples, was celebrated for his "Candyman" (and "Cocaine Blues") folkloric version, which every aspiring white blues player studied in the 1960s. There's no "cultural appropriation" nonsense to the Dead version. If the Blues are truly an American tapestry and not just an African-American one then the form is open to all creative Americans to incorporate into their forms and mosaics. "Candyman" is proof of this--and it's a great pity that it was never discovered by the last wave of Black Delta musicians(of which Buddy Guy is the lone survivor). Imagine what Muddy Waters , B.B. King or John Lee Hooker could have done with this song!
5."BROKEDOWN PALACE"(1970)--The great American anthem of friendship. Before Garcia explicitly sang "I will survive" this song had already said it for him, with more humility, emotion and luminosity. A secular hymn Walt Whitman might have recognized.
6."WHARF RAT"(1971)--Hunter wrote often of "losers," the downtrodden among us, with great sympathy/empathy.And as with many of those songs, there is a visible sliver of transcendental aspiration which buttresses the human condition. This is the most powerful case study in the Grateful Dead songbook.
7."COMES A TIME"(1971)--Simply beautiful.
8."STELLA BLUE"(1974)--Normally I'm very ambivalent about rock stars writing songs about the road, their existential malaise, etc. But I'm a sucker for this well-constructed character study of such a type.
9."EYES OF THE WORLD"(1973)--A cheat. I probably love the song far more than I love the music. It's one of my Dead desert island essentials. I can forgive the hackneyed chorus because I love the music and performance so much.
10."SCARLET BEGONIAS"(1974)--Autobiographical or not, this is a riveting encounter of a fleeting unconsummated romantic encounter in London which always races my pulse. Thank God Hollywood never made a movie out of it.
11."IF I HAD THE WORLD TO GIVE"(1978)--To paraphrase George Harrison, isn't it a pity this was never used for a James Bond movie?
12."TERRAPIN STATION(SUITE)(1977)--In a more just world this epic which paces if not out rivals Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" would have been a FM radio smash just like it. Granted the studio version from the eponymous album is too stiff(whereas the numerous live versions soar like the wings of the phoenix--or dragons), yet lyrically it evokes the ancient world of European folk tales with an unmatched lucid clarity. Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were ardent readers of J.R.R. Tolkein. There's no "Middle Earth" to "Terrapin" that I detect, but it stretches as far back as the ancient Greeks and as forward as Rilke and T.S. Eliot. Hunter may be referencing himself as the "Storyteller." If so it's a richly deserved Hitchcockian cameo.
13."STANDING ON THE MOON"(1989)--Another Hunter/Garcia ballad which Garcia always sung beautifully.
14."SO MANY ROADS"(1992)--Layer upon layer of Americana folkoric references penned by one of her greatest Americian lyrical poets. Surely written about Garcia's failing constitution, never does it wallow in pity nor voyeuristic grotesqueness. Instead Hunter lit a candle of optimism no matter how faint for any wayward souls, a hope of transcendence no matter the bleakness of circumstances, elevating "So Many Roads" to an eloquent summation.
I acknowledge Robert Hunter as a human being. I express condolences to his friends and family. And I posthumously thank him for his work and for what it has meant to me. There is no more to be said on that front.
A PLAYLIST
Subjective. Restrictive. Not definitive.I'll limit myself to 14 songs. Originally I was aiming for 10. Ten is a reasonable number. A holy one, in fact. But I didn't have the will power.
Jerry Garcia didn't seem to hand out very compliments to anyone, just wasn't his style. Even Robert Hunter, who knew him longer and better than most, could be made insecure by this facet of his character. Even though their collaborations were long and prolific, he reveals in the preface to David Dodd's book, Garcia's silence--as well as the band collectively--was unnerving. Everyone has a need for reassurance.
But one day in 1987 Garcia called Hunter and told him, "Your lyrics never once stuck in my throat." Hunter's response, at least to us readers, is understated, if you don't read between the lines.
Without further ado here are ten essential Hunter lyrics in chronological order;
1."DARK STAR"(1967).--Only three verses and two choruses, but maybe the most "poetic" Hunter ever committed to record. Despite the cosmological pretext to the song there is a real bluesy ache to the existentialist question it postulates, which notches the end like a note feedbacking from a guitar amp.
2."BLACK PETER"(1969)--A haunting ballad about dying with grace and gratitude. Hunter was only 25 years old when he penned this, yet it shares the elegiac observations of Samuel Beckett when he was writing about dying old men.
3."FRIEND OF THE DEVIL"(1970)--One of the greatest "outlaw" songs of all time. It both romanticizes and deconstructs the romanticism of the Old West and the gunslinger. The chorus is a national treasure. One of the most covered Grateful Dead songs and all it takes is one listen to understand why.
4."CANDYMAN"(1970)--Both Hunter and Garcia were students of the blues, upon which this template is most certainly built. "Candy" was a Black Southern euphemism for both the fairer sex and cocaine, and the "candyman" a Black Southern euphemism for a Casanova rounder long before Hunter picked up a pen and Garcia a guitar. Reverend Gary Davis, who counted Bob Weir as one of his disciples, was celebrated for his "Candyman" (and "Cocaine Blues") folkloric version, which every aspiring white blues player studied in the 1960s. There's no "cultural appropriation" nonsense to the Dead version. If the Blues are truly an American tapestry and not just an African-American one then the form is open to all creative Americans to incorporate into their forms and mosaics. "Candyman" is proof of this--and it's a great pity that it was never discovered by the last wave of Black Delta musicians(of which Buddy Guy is the lone survivor). Imagine what Muddy Waters , B.B. King or John Lee Hooker could have done with this song!
5."BROKEDOWN PALACE"(1970)--The great American anthem of friendship. Before Garcia explicitly sang "I will survive" this song had already said it for him, with more humility, emotion and luminosity. A secular hymn Walt Whitman might have recognized.
6."WHARF RAT"(1971)--Hunter wrote often of "losers," the downtrodden among us, with great sympathy/empathy.And as with many of those songs, there is a visible sliver of transcendental aspiration which buttresses the human condition. This is the most powerful case study in the Grateful Dead songbook.
7."COMES A TIME"(1971)--Simply beautiful.
8."STELLA BLUE"(1974)--Normally I'm very ambivalent about rock stars writing songs about the road, their existential malaise, etc. But I'm a sucker for this well-constructed character study of such a type.
9."EYES OF THE WORLD"(1973)--A cheat. I probably love the song far more than I love the music. It's one of my Dead desert island essentials. I can forgive the hackneyed chorus because I love the music and performance so much.
10."SCARLET BEGONIAS"(1974)--Autobiographical or not, this is a riveting encounter of a fleeting unconsummated romantic encounter in London which always races my pulse. Thank God Hollywood never made a movie out of it.
11."IF I HAD THE WORLD TO GIVE"(1978)--To paraphrase George Harrison, isn't it a pity this was never used for a James Bond movie?
12."TERRAPIN STATION(SUITE)(1977)--In a more just world this epic which paces if not out rivals Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" would have been a FM radio smash just like it. Granted the studio version from the eponymous album is too stiff(whereas the numerous live versions soar like the wings of the phoenix--or dragons), yet lyrically it evokes the ancient world of European folk tales with an unmatched lucid clarity. Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were ardent readers of J.R.R. Tolkein. There's no "Middle Earth" to "Terrapin" that I detect, but it stretches as far back as the ancient Greeks and as forward as Rilke and T.S. Eliot. Hunter may be referencing himself as the "Storyteller." If so it's a richly deserved Hitchcockian cameo.
13."STANDING ON THE MOON"(1989)--Another Hunter/Garcia ballad which Garcia always sung beautifully.
14."SO MANY ROADS"(1992)--Layer upon layer of Americana folkoric references penned by one of her greatest Americian lyrical poets. Surely written about Garcia's failing constitution, never does it wallow in pity nor voyeuristic grotesqueness. Instead Hunter lit a candle of optimism no matter how faint for any wayward souls, a hope of transcendence no matter the bleakness of circumstances, elevating "So Many Roads" to an eloquent summation.
