David Crosby pens a poem for Jerry Garcia on what would have been his 70th Birthday!
David Crosby has written “Cause I’m Missing Jerry Tonight.” The full text of the poem is below.
Cause I’m missing him tonight
If I had to pick one of us to speak for us all
He would have done the job well
Coming from some crazy angle
He’d have known which story to tell
he’d tell the truth about real music
he knew the truth long before he fell
His fingers would touch his guitar neck
My axe would be pressed to my chest
A chord and a melody would walk in the door
Closely followed by all of the rest
Magic and tragic and triumph and storm
and all the things we had sought on our quest
You get your ego out of the way of your hearts
The whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts
A sort of field pops into existence
Everything lifts off the ground
You know that you’re doing what you were born to do
That you’re using the gift that you’ve found
To create some lift and break all the chains
with which all our people are bound
he did it for all the right reasons
and made all of our mistakes
a more human man you could not find
an accelerator without the brakes
but he had the brains and the heart and the spirit
Garcia really had what it takes
THAT’S AWESOME!!
Here’s a song I wrote a couple of years ago form my Memphis band FreeWorld that references 24 different Grateful Dead song titles in the lyrics… ENJOY! (And if you like the words, please feel free to digitally download a copy of the song from iTunes or Amazon.com, etc.)
TIME ON THE MOUNTAIN
Today it Looks Like Rain / Here On the Road Again
I’ve Been All Around this World / The Greatest Story Ever Told
Keeps spinning Round and Round / No time To Lay Me Down
The Wheel is turning fast / This day is Built to Last
Spend some Time on the Mountain
Spend a little time on the hill
Spend some Time on the Mountain
You¹ll feel better if you will
Sometimes Cold Rain and Snow / Obscure The Golden Road
You feel so all alone / Like a Lost Sailor, Throwing Stones
But Help is on the Way / Hope can Not Fade Away
You Feel Like a Stranger still / You don’t Need a Miracle
Spend some Time on the Mountain
Spend a little time on the hill
Spend some Time on the Mountain
You¹ll feel better if you will
Flying…
Gliding…
Hoping…
Floating… AWAY
Wrap up your Box of Rain / With an Unbroken Chain
In life there Comes a Time / To Let Your Lovelight Shine
There blows an Easy Wind / Just up around the bend
High Times are there for you / Walk in the Morning Dew
Spend some Time on the Mountain
Spend a little time on the hill
Spend some Time on the Mountain
You¹ll feel better if you will
You’ll feel better if you will
Spend a little Time on the Mountain!
© 2008
Lyrics & Music by Richard C. Cushing
______________________________________
To give you a bit of background on the song, I recently broke out my Grateful Dead songbook with the intention of learning to play “Box of Rain”. However, as I looked over the table of contents I casually noticed that many of The Grateful Dead’s song titles just happen to stand alone as very interesting phrases in their own right. So I started writing down individual song titles that piqued my interest, then started arranging them into lines that rhymed, then started trying to arrange the rhymed pairs of lines in a way that made some sort of sense, and before I knew it I had written several verses of lyrics for a brand new song that included specific references to 24 different Grateful Dead song titles – WOW!
Since I obviously couldn’t use a Grateful Dead song title for the chorus, I borrowed the phrase “Spend a little time on the mountain / Spend a little time on the hill” from “New Speedway Boogie” to use as the chorus lyrics for my new song. I then began writing the music to “Time on the Mountain” so as to make it sound something like a Grateful Dead song (it wound up sounding vaguely reminiscent of “Franklin’s Tower”), and then when my band FreeWorld recorded it, I had our guitarist use an “auto wah” tone for his guitar solo as a tribute to Jerry Garcia’s sound… and eureka — a cool new tribute song inspired by the catalog of The Grateful Dead was born! (In addition, to sweeten up the rhythm track I also had Brian use my brand new Taylor Grafted Walnut T5C2 Electric 12-String Guitar on the track, as well!)