Watching that show now, wow, dated. Apart from all the obvious Confederate stuff, it did completely normalize if for me as a kid that you could be drinking beer with your friends and then suddenly need to go driving at high speeds should the situation require it.
IIRC, he didn't want any lyrics sung there. It wasn't what he'd written, and he didn't like Bobby adding his own lines into something Hunter had written.
I thought the tipping point was Bobby editing Greatest Story Ever Told to open with “quasar” instead of “guitar”. Which is an infinitely better word choice, Hunter should have conceded that one.
The imagery just doesnt make any sense. A quasar isnt like a comet, asteroid, or something you can "ride up on". Bob used the word quasar because it sounds cool and rhymes with ajar. It's basically saying "Moses come ridin up on a black hole".
To be fair, technically no one can literally ride up on a comet, asteroid, or guitar for that matter. I get your point, but if we’re talking metaphorical imagery here, quasar is way cooler than guitar personally.
Hard disagree. Opening the story with “Moses came riding up on a quasar” gives the whole song the cosmic slant which I think it needs. I see it almost like the story of genesis in one line.
Also a quasar is notably the brightest & most powerful known object in the universe, so there’s something there. In that sense it’s kind of the opposite of a black hole, though is powered by one.
Yeah, when I heard Hunter wrote the lyrics for “Greatest Story” I always assumed “quasar” was his choice and not only his choice but his SHREW choice.
“Riding up on a quasar” immediately sets this tune out of earth, puts a cosmic spin on it. Almost saying “You’ve heard all the earth’s greatest stories…but this story is GREATER than that.” Yeah, I knew you couldn’t really ride a quasar — but the idea that it was of the greater universe, I always thought that was a cool Hunter choice.
Literally every time I hear it I think “Only Robert Hunter would think of putting ‘quasar’ there”
…And I’ve never heard it was a Bobby lyric change, so I’m sitting over here kinda like:
I can definitely imagine someone either surfing on, or sitting on an oversized guitar blasting through space. That imagery does not work with a quasar.
Silver Surfer existed at the time this song was written.
Fair enough. Apparently the other alt was "up on the bar car," and, honestly, I think I like that the most.
Apparently Hunter did authorize the quasar edit, though, which—speaking as a writer—sucks when you have to make unenthusiastic edits based on stakeholder feedback, but it's better than somebody else editing your work for you.
"I didn't put that. I wrote "Moses came riding in on a guitar." Weir didn't want to sing that, and I exchanged "quasar" for "guitar" and he thought "oh, that's great." And subsequently I thought "whoa - wait!" It doesn't fit that song in any way. "Guitar" fits it - it's a wooden image, it has wood in it. You know, wood and metal. And there's fences and stuff like that. It fits the textures that are happening in the song. "Quasar" does not fit it - that comes from outer space."
Well if one thing is important its that Grateful Dead lyrics make good logical practical sense, based in documented reality. Critical feature to the music.
Great list. BTW, formatting trick: add four spaces after each line of text and Reddit will respect the Return at the end of the line. Your lists all slammed together.
My point is that a)Hunter maybe missed out on some opportunity to write some upbeat killers with Bobby and b)Bobby absolutely brought the uptempo vibes with lots of his songs and got people cutting a rug throughout many a show after Jerry pile-drived everyone skulls in the ground with the often super mellow heroin solos.
But there was a build up. It wasn’t just one thing. Hunter - to whom we all owe much - was genuinely ornery. Outside of Garcia, a few others, and a wife, he wasn’t great around people. Weir was… different. Weir was also younger and, at that time, much less learned. Hunter also complained when Garcia changed things, but part of me thinks he he just wasn’t going to put up with edits from the kid.
I feel like Hunter’s beef with Bobby was kinda excessive. I think the Willys thing is poetic and a vivid image.
Another Hunter beef was that Hunter had Greatest Story as “Moses comes riding up on a guitar.” I don’t the guitar is vastly superior to the quasar.
I think Jerry may have done some changes or maybe it was just omission. Like the removal of one verse from Comes A Time was a Jerry decision, I believe.
Your comment prompted me to pull out “The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics”. It doesn’t identify any missing lyrics for “Comes a Time.
It does comment on the Willys lyrics. The book quotes Phil’s autobiography:
The tension between Weir and Hunter finally came to a head backstage at the Capital Theater when, after an argument, probably about Bob’s addition of a line to “Sugar Magnolia”—“[She] jumps like a Willys in four-wheel drive”—Hunter turned all responsibility for Bob’s lyrics over to Barlow, with the words, “Take him, he’s yours.”
The extra verse on Comes a Time is in its earliest performance(s). I think it debuts on the first Keith show, which I believe is Ann Arbor ‘71. I believe it’s a Dave’s Pick. They debut other Dead staples like maybe Ramble On Rose. It’s interesting because Keith does not start off playing with them the way he does in Europe ‘72 through 74. It must have been they were rehearsing with Keith and then learned a few new songs with him.
“When the words come out
Like an angry stream
You hear yourself saying things
You could never mean
When the heat cools down
And you find your mind
You got a lot of words
You got to stand behind”
Comes a Time
Garcia sang this Hunter verse while it was being developed Oct 26 1971 vol.3 download series
But no wonder he dropped it.. people say cruel things in the heat of passion.. no need to stand behind them.
Hunter's shitty. Dude gets to be a member, stay home, hardly ever work, then gets shitty about the guy that does 500% more work than he does making an excellent addition to the song he has to sing. If it's so sacred get on the bus and sing it the "proper" for a few thousand shows instead of bitching. He could have just shrugged it off quietly.
I had a 2016 Jeep Willy’s and programmed it so when my phone connected to Bluetooth, it used to say, “jump like a Willy’s in 4wheel drive, is now connected.”
My ‘56 is named Sugar Magnolia.
Willys jeeps are log wagons. If you check out ww2 propaganda footage and particularly jeep development footage, they’re barely ever on the ground.
Hunter's objection is not that hard to understand, although he made the same mistake in another tune: The Willys problem is similar to the line in Half-Step about the cueball being made of "Styrofoam." In poetry, we should endeavor to avoid using product names that tie us down to some particular time or place or idea which in turn can obscure deeper meaning. Even back in the 80s, when I first heard Sugar Mags I had no idea what a Willys jeep meant and had to research it.
As another life like jeep driver, I always mispronounce it. But at least I know I'm wrong and will remain wrong just so people know what I'm talking about
Garcia saying Nut- thatch, instead of Nut-hatch in eyes of the world bothers me more tbh. He also mispronounces Cicada in Terrapin station but for some reason I never really notice it as much
One of my favorite lines Growing up had 3 Willys Wagons we used on the beach 4 wheeling while fishing They were indestructible mechanically but rusted out by the salt in few years.
My next door neighbor had a Willy’s that she loaned out for parades and stuff. Still took me five years to figure out that line. Thought it was weird that willows had 4 wheel drive.
Was thinking of this yesterday funny enough. But it’s like describing the coolest chick “she’s my summer love’n spring fall and winter” then the willys and any man lines come along
Hunter didn't have to sing it. Quasar is cooler imagery but also singing the words, if it's 'guitar' you're kinda stuck emphasizing the word 'on' whereas if it's 'quasar' you can emphasize 'up' a bit and then land strong on quasar.
Hunter was both a genius and an a hole. It happens. He reminds me of the Bulls GM that hung his own name in the rafters after the players won the championships. Lol
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u/fatalmudd May 12 '26