![]() This cat took him to all these cat places and that along with the LSD that he dropped, became the essence of this song. ![]() Hunter said that he was in a rather hypersensitive state when he wrote this, and he followed this cat out to what he believed to be the planet Neptune, where there were rainbows across Neptune, and cats marching across the rainbow. Hunter said that ‘China Cat’ took him a long time to write and that it was originally inspired by Dame Edith Sitwell, who had a way with words utilizing assonance and alliteration. In mid-1967, Hunter mailed the lyrics to the Dead, along with the lyrics for another song ‘The Eleven’ and by September 1967, he was working with the band in Rio Nido. The significance of this song, is that it helped Hunter land a job as being the band’s lyricist. In this song, Hunter tells a story of mind-altering situations including words coming out from out a silk trombone and ringing a silent bell, and I don’t think that he ever wanted anybody to know what these lyrics were about. Hunter was asked about the song by BAM: The California Music Magazine, and he gave an interesting answer that was published in 1978 and included in the American musician, songwriter, and music journalist David Gans’ Conversations With the Dead: The Grateful Dead Interview Book in 2002. Up until November 1977, Robert Hunter said that nobody ever asked him about the meaning of this song. Excluding drums and space music only 6 songs were played more times than ‘China Cat Sunflower’, those being ‘Playing in the Band’, ‘Not Fade Away’, ‘Me and My Uncle’, ‘Sugar Magnolia’, ‘I Know You Rider’ and ‘The Other One’. The two songs segued together perfectly, with ‘China Cat Sunflower’ almost always preceding ‘I Know You Rider’ and the Grateful Dead performed this combination well over 500 times. The Grateful Dead first performed ‘China Cat Sunflower’ on Januand it was recorded on their 1969 studio album Aoxomoxo a, and later released on the triple live album Europe ’72 , played as a suite with the John A Lomax & Alan Lomax traditional blues tune ‘I Know You Rider’. ‘China Cat Sunflower’ and ‘The Eleven’ were the first lyrics that Robert Hunter wrote for the Grateful Dead and they were composed while he was on LSD. The Grateful Dead were known for never playing the same concert twice and most of their fans really paid attention to which songs they were playing, although a lot of real stoners did go to the shows. Well, at least I didn’t request that they play ‘Freebird’. My most embarrassing moment at a Grateful Dead concert came for me at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, when I yelled out ‘China Cat’ and all of these Deadheads looked at me and said, “They already played that song.” I was humiliated, but I can blame my blunder on the acid that I took. Remember, the weekly HOtW show is COMPLETELY RANDOMIZED.Robert Hunter the Grateful Dead lyricist said that the song ‘China Cat Sunflower’ came to him when he was visiting Mexico’s Lake Chapala and a cat decided that his belly looked like a comfortable place to take a nap. Jack Straw They Love Each Other Little Red Rooster Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues Ramble On Rose Black Throated Wind BerthaĬhina Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider Way To Go Home Corrina > Uncle John's Band > Drums > Space > The Wheel > All Along The Watchtower > Attics Of My Life > Not Fade Away Jerry sounds great in this Miller SBD!Īnd since I'm on an AUD kick of late, here's an FOB transferred in part by Mr. This week the Project gives us one from Fall 1993. The idea is to discuss the random weekly show (as well as dead related news, etc) and then air at least one set of the weekly show right after the discussion.Īlso we'll feature the best reddit comments so please make sure to drop your comments below!!Īnd here's the latest pod (but you can basically find us wherever podcasts are downloaded): Welcome to another installment of your weekly listening thread, Help on the Way*!!*īut first, u/donttouchthatknob, u/thegame310, and I are super thrilled to bring you the PODCAST portion of the HoTW project*!!*
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