Wednesday, 25 September 2019
Robert Hunter RIP
Sorry to hear of another Grateful Dead death – lyricist Robert Hunter, who died on Monday, aged 78. Hunter (who, according to Wikipedia, was born Robert Burns) wrote lyrics that were sometimes not easily distinguishable from drug-soused drivel (did Dark Star really need words, let alone those ones?). But – and it's a big but – on the other hand – and it's a big hand – Hunter gifted the world the glorious Ripple, and Brokedown Palace, Box of Rain, Casey Jones, Friend of the Devil, Sugar Magnolia, Uncle John's Band, and this anthem of its strange times...
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Truckin' - that takes me back
ReplyDeleteYes indeed – 50 years back. Eheu fugaces...
ReplyDeleteMany years ago, during a blizzard, I walked home across part of Washington, DC. In a bar where I stopped in to warm up, or maybe just to have a beer, I found myself at the bar next to a large bald Deadhead, who was greatly interested in what Hunter's lyrics might mean. My own view was that they were good lyrics for good songs. I quoted or misquoted the heroine in Persuasion who suggested to the susceptible Naval type that he might introduce more prose into his reading. The Deadhead's answer was (nearly verbatim), "Well, Jane's got a good rap, but it's not my rap."
ReplyDeleteBrilliant – thanks George!
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