GRATEFUL DEAD QUOTES and LYRICS |
| “The bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean” -Brown Eyed Women |
| Well there’s no need for you to be worryin’ about all those people You never see those people anyway” -Morning Dew |
| “Before I have to hit him I hope he’s got the sense to run” -Alabama Getaway |
| “Say what I mean and I don’t give a damn, I do believe and I am who I am.” -Liberty |
| I think if people value democracy, they had damn well better get out and exercise their right to vote while their vote still means something. Bob Weir |
| If the thunder don’t get ya then the lightning will. Jerry Garcia |
| To get really high is to forget yourself. And to forget yourself is to see everything else. And to see everything else is to become an understanding molecule in evolution, a conscious tool of the universe. Jerry Garcia |
| Let us put men and women together, see which one is smarter, Some say men, but I say no, women got the men like a puppet show.” | Man Smart, Woman Smarter |
| “Only you and me at the edge of an endless sea And remember that the only time is now” -The Only Time Is Now |
| There’s a lot there to enlarge you. That’s part of the value of being in an extended family is that it enlarges you. It makes you bigger. It makes you more. Jerry Garcia |
| Certain kinds of people just can’t live life taking risks with adventure. Bob Weir |
| Just discovered The Other One: The Long Strange Trip of Bob Weir on Netflix. I’m watching it now. If you haven’t already I recommend it |
| “Even a blind man knows when the sun is shining.” -Good Lovin’ |
| I don’t get the stuff that I carry around in my head from TV, and especially I don’t get the stuff that I carry around in my heart from TV. Bob Weir |
| “Peaches in the summertime Apples in the fall If I can’t get the girl I love I don’t want none at all” -Shady Grove |
| The nature of what we’re doing is something, which is by its very nature, is non-formulaic. There’s no way that you can make it happen by intention alone. It’s something that you have to sort of allow it to happen, and you have to allow for it to happen. Jerry Garcia |
| “I’m still walkin’, so I’m sure that I can dance.” -Saint of Circumstance |
| I think that the revolution in music is over, and what’s left is a mop-up action. It’s a matter of the news getting out to everybody else. I think that the important changes have already happened, changes in consciousness. It’s mostly a matter of everything else catching up to that. Everything is traditionally slow – much faster than it ever has been on earth but still far, far too slow. Jerry Garcia |
| “When life looks like Easy Street there is danger at your door” -Uncle John’s Band |
| If you assume you haven’t learned anything yet, there’s no reason your playing can’t stay dynamic all your life. Jerry Garcia |
| Music is a universal language insofar as you don’t need to know anything else about a musician that you are playing with other than that they can play music. It doesn’t matter what their music is, you can find something that you can play together, with what their culture is. The dialect part of it comes into play, but nothing like the differentiation that language sets up, for example. Jerry Garcia |
| Each person makes their own decision about what it is that is happening, whether they like it or don’t like it, whether they want to lend their energy to it or not or what, you know. Jerry Garcia |
| It’s not enough to be the best at what you do. You must be perceived as the only one who does what you do. Jerry Garcia |
| “I’m Uncle Sam, that’s who I am Been hidin’ out, in a rock and roll band” -U.S. Blues |
| “We used to play for silver Now we play for life” -Jack Straw |
| What I like best about music is when time goes away. Bob Weir |
| “Don’t tell me your troubles, I’ve got enough of my own Be thankful you’re living, drink up and go home” -Drink Up and Go Home |
| If you are going to develop beast technology, you want to start by having cage technology. You want to make the rules first, you know. Jerry Garcia |
| More fun than a frog in a glass of milk. Bob Weir |
| “Sunshine, daydream, walking in the tall trees, going where the wind goes Blooming like a red rose” -Sugar Magnolia |
| “Trouble ahead, trouble behind And you know that notion just crossed my mind” -Casey Jones |
| “All the years combine they melt into a dream” -Stella Blue |
| That’s right! The women are smarter! Bob Weir |
| It’s pretty clear now that what looked like it might have been some kind of counterculture is, in reality, just the plain old chaos of undifferentiated weirdness. Jerry Garcia |
| “I will get by, I will get by I will get by, I will survive” -Touch of Grey |
| “I say, it’s the women today, smarter than the men in every way” -Man Smart Woman Smarter |
| The meetings can be a lot of fun or they can be frustrating. Bob Weir |
| “There are things you can replace and others you cannot. The time has come to weigh those things, this space is getting hot†| Althea |
| “Got a wife in Chino, babe And one in Cherokee First one says she’s got my child But it don’t look like me” -Friend of the Devil |
| What is life but being conscious? And good and evil are manifestations of consciousness. If you reject one, you’re not getting the whole thing that’s there to be had. Jerry Garcia |
| “I’m still walkin’, so I’m sure that I can dance.” -Saint of Circumstance |
| “The storyteller makes no choice soon you will not hear his voice his job is to shed light and not to master” -Terrapin Station |
| What if all tomorrow brings is ashes and glass, and I can’t tell you child, ‘this too shall pass.’ If all the world were windswept, cold and gray. And in the end there’s nothing left to say. Bob Weir |
| “Rainbow spirals round and round, They tremble and explodes” -That’s It For The Other One |
| And when you don’t have to talk to the person next to you, that’s real clean. Takes a certain thing not to try to keep anything up, not to have to entertain one another. Jerry Garcia |
| If you think of music as a universal language, it still has some very powerful dialects. Jerry Garcia |
| “Ain’t nobody messin’ with you but you” -Althea |
| To me, that’s the key thing, the pursuit of happiness. That’s the basic, ultimate freedom. Jerry Garcia |
| I have not made many conscious efforts to “re-imagine” songs. I just let them happen the way they’re going to happen. Bob Weir |
| “All you need, all you really need: good lovin’ Because you got to have lovin’ Everybody got to have lovin’†| Good Lovin† |
| “I don’t know what life will show me But I know what I’ve seen I can’t see where life will lead me But I know where I’ve been” |
| As a musician you fall into certain patterns that you’re not conscious of, unless you start listening to yourself on tape a lot. If you do that you start recognizing habits; then you have to try and break them. Jerry Garcia |
| We didn’t invent the Grateful Dead, the crowd invented the Grateful Dead. We were just in line to see what was going to happen. Jerry Garcia |
| “Goddamn, well I declare, have you seen the like? Their walls are built of cannonballs, their motto is Don’t Tread on Me” -Uncle John’s Band |
| “You cannot think of eternity Think of it like time You try to think, you try to count You just mess up your mind” -Eternity |
| We can have high times if you’ll abide, We can discover the wonder of nature rolling in the rushes down by the river side.” -Sugar Magnolia |
| “What is the secret of this tie that binds Two souls in communion, both body and mind Is it special magic or just the nature of things?” |
| Our strong suit is what we do, and our audience. Jerry Garcia |
| Sometimes it’s a huge amble, where you’re just on top, on the lid, and it’s not going anywhere, and sometimes you walk on the stage and from the first note, the afterburner kicks in and you can’t stop it. Bob Weir |
| “I’ll drink your health, share your wealth Run your life, steal your wife” -U.S. Blues |
| “If you get confused just listen to the music play” | Franklin’s Tower |
| I have always had this basic biological question in terms of evolution, if the drive to evolution is to like survive. An organism that survives well, there is really no need for consciousness in there. Jerry Garcia |
| “Don’t think about what you left behind The way you came or the way you go Let your tracks be lost in the dark and snow” -Till Morning Comes |
| “Don’t tell me this town ain’t got no heart When I can hear it beat out loud!” -Shakedown Street |
| We’re just inviting adventure into our life, and adventure carries a little baggage. Bob Weir |
| “To lie with you once more to lie with you with our dreams entwined together” -To Lay Me Down |
| “I told Althea I’m a roving sign That I was born to be a bachelor Althea told me: Ok that’s fine So now I’m out trying to catch her” -Althea |
| “California, a prophet on the burning shore California, I’ll be knocking on the golden door” -Estimated Prophet |
| I still retain a bit of a child’s focus on things, so we [with my sister] figure if we’re going to write books, our best shot is to write children’s books, because we relate pretty readily on that level. Bob Weir |
| “Walking in Jerusalem just like John I go walking in the valley of the shadow of death” -And We Bid You Goodnight |
| Live life expecting the worst, hoping for the best, and living for the future! Jerry Garcia |
| “We can share the women We can share the wine We can share what we got of yours ‘Cause we done shared all of mine” -Jack Straw |
| The world that you can go walk outside and walk around the block. That’s reality. The reality that’s being talked about is something else entirely. Jerry Garcia |
| Stuff that’s hidden and murky and ambiguous is scary because you don’t know what it does. Jerry Garcia |
| The point is there is more information now then you can pass along comfortably in an oral tradition, say a strictly speaking culture. That is a problem. Jerry Garcia |
| “Like an angel, standing in a shaft of light Rising up to paradise, I know I’m gonna shine†-Estimated Prophet |
| What’s been great about the human race gives you a sense of how great you might get, how far you can reach. Jerry Garcia |
| The great thing is the thing of being able to see things through many points of view. That’s enlarging. I mean, it saves you from ultimately from the boredom of having one point of view, like being locked in a room with nothing but your own point of view, your own references. Jerry Garcia |
| Sometimes the magic works and sometimes it doesn’t. Bob Weir |
| I don’t know why, it’s the same reason why you like some music and you don’t like others. There’s something about it that you like. Ultimately I don’t find it’s in my best interests to try and analyze it, since it’s fundamentally emotional. Jerry Garcia |
| “Long train running from coast to coast, bringing home the party where they need it the most” -Might As Well |
| If you think of music as a language, the space part is where you throw out all the syntax. Jerry Garcia |
| “When it’s good as it can be It gets better, wait and see” -France |
| I mean, whatever kills you kills you, and your death is authentic no matter how you die. Jerry Garcia |
| “All the others I let pass by I only wanted you Never cared for careless love but how your bright eyes glowed” -Lazy River Road |
| The pervasive attitude is that it’s crazy to invite more danger into your life. Bob Weir |
| I equate Deadheads to people that like black licorice. There aren’t many people that like black licorice, but the ones that do, REALLY REALLY like it! Or buttermilk, or whatever. Jerry Garcia |
| “I wanna love you night and day, you know my love not fade away.” -Not Fade Away |
| “Some rise, some fall, some climb, to get to Terrapin” -Terrapin Station |
| We’re involved in a society which is undergoing some really weird changes now. Jerry Garcia |
| “If I get home before daylight I just might get some sleep tonight” -Friend Of The Devil |
| I’m goin’ where the wind don’t blow so strange, maybe off on some high cold mountain chain. Jerry Garcia |
| “All you need, all you really need: good lovin'” -Good Lovin’ |
| There’s a need for a ritual and for real joy and real bliss. Real fun. Jerry Garcia |
| “Got a wife in Chino, babe And one in Cherokee First one says she’s got my child But it don’t look like me” -Friend of the Devil |
| “The winter was so hard and cold Froze ten feet ‘neath the ground” -Dire Wolf |
| “I will not forgive you if you will not take the chance” -Terrapin Station |
| “Well, I ain’t always right but I’ve never been wrong.” -Scarlet Begonias |
| “Tennessee, Tennessee There ain’t no place I’d rather be Baby won’t you carry me Back to Tennessee” -Tennessee Jed |
| “Ain’t no fog that’s thick enough to hide you Your daddy’s gonna be right here beside you” -I Will Take You Home |
| “Fare you well my honey Fare you well my only true one All the birds that were singing Have flown except you alone” -Brokedown Palace |
| You need music, I don’t know why. It’s probably one of those Joe Campbell questions, why we need ritual. We need magic, and bliss, and power, myth, and celebration and religion in our lives, and music is a good way to encapsulate a lot of it. Jerry Garcia |
| “Keep on rollin’, just a mile to go; Keep on rollin’ my old buddy, you’re movin’ much too slow.” -Jack Straw |
| “Set out runnin’ but I take my time A friend of the devil is a friend of mine” -Friend of the Devil |
| I Don’t Think There’s A Good Excuse For Being Unhappy. I’m Not Particularly Unhappy, But I Know What Pain Is. I think That Life Is Characterized By Pain, Partly. Part Of The Way You Can Tell You’re Alive Is By How Much Pain You’re Experiencing, Or How Little. Jerry Garcia |
| I think it’s real important that people understand where the music comes from. If you can see where the music comes from, you can also see the future. It gives you a trajectory. Bob Weir |
| Slowly you become your own man. Bob Weir |
| The rule is not written anywhere, it’s not etched in any  –  but, I mean, that’s the prevailing attitude of this entire society. Don’t have an adventure. Bob Weir |
| “Listen to the river sing sweet songs to rock my soul” Happy Birthday, Jerry! |
| “I ran into Charley Fog, He blacked my eye and he kicked my dog. My dog he turned to me and he said: Let’s head back to Tennessee, Jed” |
| “Standing on the moon With nothing else to do A lovely view of heaven But I’d rather be with you” -Standing on the Moon |
| We have cultural depth. We get all kinds of stuff to chew on, to live on. Bob Weir |
| “Watch each card you play and play it slow” -Deal |
| I mean, whatever kills you kills you, and your death is authentic no matter how you die. Jerry Garcia |
| “It was all night pouring, pouring rain But not a drop on me” -Bertha |
| “If you plant ice you’re gonna harvest wind” | Franklin’s Tower |
| “That’s why if you please I am on my bended knees Bertha don’t you come around here anymore” -Bertha |
| Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil. Jerry Garcia |
| “Taught me so well, I grabbed that gold And I left his dead ass there by the side of the road.” -Me and My Uncle |
| “Cherish well your thoughts, and keep a tight grip on your booze, ‘Cause thinkin’ and drinkin’ are all I have today†| Mexicali Blues |
| She don’t come and I don’t follow Waits backstage while I sing to you†-Sugar Magnolia |
| You do not merely want to be considered just the best of the best. You want to be considered the only one who does what you do. Jerry Garcia |
| “I lit up from Reno I was trailed by twenty hounds Didn’t get to sleep that night Till the morning came around” -Friend of the Devil |
| “When it’s good as it can be It gets better, wait and see” -France |
| “I can’t figure out if it’s an end or the beginning…” -Terrapin Station |
| Sometimes the lights all shining on me, other times I can barely see. Lately it occurs to me what a long strange trip it’s been. Jerry Garcia |
| “Iâ€d rather be a free man in my grave Than living as a puppet or a slave†| The Harder They Come |
| You can’t repeat things because each time is different. The universe has changed. Everything has changed. Jerry Garcia |
| “The bus came by and I got on That’s when it all began” -The Other One |
| “Some folks trust to reason Others trust to might I don’t trust to nothing But I know it come out right” -Playing in the Band |
| “Hand me my old guitar Pass the whiskey round Want you to tell everybody you meet the Candyman’s in town” -Candyman |
| “I work hard in the daytime, sure get stoned at night.” -Big Boss Man |
| “I know you, rider, gonna miss me when I’m gone; Gonna miss your baby, from rolling in your arms.” -I Know You Rider |
| “Dawn is breaking everywhere, light a candle, curse the glare Draw the curtains I don’t care ’cause it’s alright” -Touch of Grey |
| Too much of a good thing is just about right Jerry Garcia |
| “Cat on a tin roof Dogs in a pile Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile” -He’s Gone |
| “Don’t worry about tomorrow, Lord, you’ll know it when it comes, When the rock and roll music meets the risin’ sun” -One More Saturday Night |
| Somebody has to do something, and it’s just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us. Jerry Garcia |
| “Strangers stopped strangers just to shake their hand, Everybody’s playing in the Heart of Gold Band” -Scarlet Begonias |
| Music is more objective, I think, than a lot of art is, but a surprising amount of it is cultural. Jerry Garcia |
| “If you’re trying to find what’s true, just take a look at all of you” -You Don’t Have to Ask |
| The bulk of my input comes from my peers. Bob Weir |
| Hunter can write a melody and stuff like that, but his forte is lyrics. He can write a serviceable melody to hang his lyrics on, and sometimes he comes up with something really nice. Jerry Garcia |
| “Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings†-Truckin†|
| Sometimes you have to be clever. Jerry Garcia |
| “Wake now, discover that you are the song that the morning brings” -Eyes of the World |
| “I can tell the Queen of Diamonds by the way she shine” -Loser |
| We’re like licorice. Not everybody likes licorice, but the people who like licorice really like licorice. Jerry Garcia |
| “Reach out your hand if your cup be empty If your cup is full may it be again” -Ripple |
| “Just one thing I ask of you Just one thing for me Please forget you knew my name My darling, Sugaree” | Sugaree |
| Now there is no place you can go where you don’t hear certain types of music. Jerry Garcia |
| You ain’t gonna learn what you don’t wanna know. Jerry Garcia |
| Nothing left to do but smile. Jerry Garcia |
| “I can’t think of a place that’s more perfect For a person as perfect as you. ” -Hell in a Bucket |
| “All I know the sun don’t shine, the rain refuse to fall and you don’t seem to hear me when I call” -So Many Roads |
| In folk music, I’ve always been fond of the fragment. The song that has one verse. And you don’t know anything about the characters, you don’t know what they’re doing, but they’re doing something important. I love that. I’m really a sucker for that kind of song. Jerry Garcia |
| “The grass ain’t greener, the wine ain’t sweeter either side of the hill.” | Ramble on Rose |
| “One good ride from start to end I’d like to take that ride again” -Might as Well |
| “You gave all you got, why you wanna give more? The more that you give, the more it will take” -Fire on the Mountain |
| Such a long long time to be gone and a short time to be there” -Box of Rain |
| “Jack Straw from Wichita Cut his buddy down Dug for him a shallow grave And layed his body down” -Jack Straw |
| “Without love in the dream it’ll never come true” Help On The Way |
| We would all like to be able to live an uncluttered life, a simple life, a good life. Jerry Garcia |
| Run faster, jump higher, reach farther, and you’ll always win! Jerry Garcia |
| For me, the lame part of the Sixties was the political part, the social part. The real part was the spiritual part. Jerry Garcia |
| “Don’t tell me this town ain’t got no heart. When I can hear it beat out loud!” -Shakedown Street |
| She’s got everything I need. Takes the steering wheel when I’m seeing double, pays my tickets when I speed.” -Sugar Magnolia |
| The same song on a different day was a different song. Bob Weir |
| Done time in the lock-up, done time on the streets. Done time on the upswing, and time in defeat. I know what I’m askin’. I know it’s a lot. Just to say that I love you. Believe it or not. Jerry Garcia |
| The satisfaction of producing a work of art is the thing of getting off on it on some level. Jerry Garcia |
| “And I’ll call down thunder And speak the same And my word fills the sky with flame” -Estimated Prophet |
| You don’t want to be the best at what you do, you want to be the only one. Jerry Garcia |
| All I know is, if you listen to society, you’ll never get anywhere! Jerry Garcia |
| Bicycles are almost as good as guitars for meeting girls. Bob Weir |
| The roughest part for me when I’m writing a song is staring at a blank page. Where am I going from here? If you’re a songwriter, you have to do that every time you start a song. Bob Weir |
| Everybody has something to bring to the table. Bob Weir |
| If we had any nerve at all, if we had any real balls as a society, or whatever you need, whatever quality you need, real character, we would make an effort to really address the wrongs in this society, righteously. Jerry Garcia |
| Magic is what we do, music is how we do it. Jerry Garcia |
| Truth is something you stumble into when you think you’re going someplace else. Jerry Garcia |
| If you want to promote anything, all the work that you put into it is basically promoting the idea of it so that people will go for it. And if they don’t go for it, you can’t institute it. You can’t do it. Bob Weir |
| Leaving Texas Fourth day of July Sun so hot, clouds so low The eagles filled the sky” -Jack Straw |
| “I was losing time, I had nothing to do, no one to fight, I came to you.” -High Time |
| “In 1920 when he stepped to the bar he drank to the dregs of the whiskey jar” -Brown-Eyed Woman |
| If you’re able to enjoy something, to devote your life to it or a reasonable amount of time and energy, it will work out for you. Jerry Garcia |
| “Sunshine, daydream, walking in the tall trees, going where the wind goes Blooming like a red rose” -Sugar Magnolia |
| We have a society that’s trying to make sure that nobody gets any adventures because adventures are dangerous and danger is bad. Bob Weir |
| “I’ll drink your health, share your wealth, Run your life, steal your wife” -U.S. Blues |
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