Grateful Dead

Released: July 12, 1989

Songwriter: Bob Dylan

Producer: Grateful Dead

When you're lost in the rain
In Juarez and it's Easter time too
When you're gravity's down
And negativity won't pull you through
Don't you put on any airs
When you're down on Rue Morgue Avenue
They got some hungry creatures there
Surely make a mess out of you

Well, if you see St. Annie
Please tell her, "thanks a lot"
My hair was twisted
And my stocks, woo-hoo, are all in a knot
I don't even have the strength
To get up and crawl across the floor for another shot
And my best friend, my drummer
Won't even tell me, what it was that I dropped

Yeah, sweet Melinda
The peasants call her the Goddess of Gloom
She has, speaks good English
As she invites you up into her room
And you, you were so kinda conscientious
Not to go to her too soon
But she steals your voice
And leaves you howling at the moon

[Instrumental break]

Up on Housing Project Hill
It's either fortune or fame
You must choose one or the other
But neither are to be what they claim
If you're looking to get silly
You better get back to from where you came
Because the cops don't need you ever
And they expect the same

I started out on Heineken
But I soon hit the harder stuff
Everybody swore they stand beside me
When the game got rough
But the joke was on me
There wasn't even anybody there to bluff
I'm goin' back to New York City
I do believe I've had enough

Amidst the growing counter-culture scene in the San Francisco Bay Area, The Grateful Dead were founded by lead guitarist/vocalist Jerry Garcia, bass player Phil Lesh, rhythm guitarist Bob Weir, keyboardist Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, and drummer Bill Kreutzmann in Palo Alto in 1965, originally as The Warlocks. Percussionist Mickey Hart later joined the group in 1967 and other members cycled through the group in following years as the core remained intact. Their eclectic music formed the archetype for the “Jam Band” genre, combining elements from rock, blues, folk, country, bluegrass, and psychedelic music into improvisational performances.

Over the years the Dead released 22 recorded albums, although they were most famous for their improvisational jams at concerts, earning them a cult-like following of self-proclaimed “Dead Heads” who would follow the band from concert-to-concert throughout the band’s career.

The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and they’ve sold more than 40 million albums in total; all that with only one top 40 hit (“Truckin”), and one Top 10 hit (“Touch of Grey”) that came near the end of the band’s run, shortly before Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995. Grateful Dead was also ranked 57th in Rolling Stone’s “The Greatest Artists of All Time” issue in 2004 and 2005. Since then, various incarnations of the Dead have continued to tour, although a 2015 farewell tour was said to be the band’s last.

more tracks from the album

Postcards of the Hanging

From the album

Postcards of the Hanging (2002)

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Postcards of the Hanging