Dead Songs in Depth

    
It Must Have Been The Roses
w&m: Hunter
AGDL: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/must.html
LASF: http://www.whitegum.com/songfile/ITMUSTHA.HTM
  

    
It Must Have Been The Roses 
Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Robert Hunter

Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

Annie laid her head down in the roses
She had ribbons, ribbons, ribbons in her long brown hair
I don't know, maybe it was the roses
All I know, I could not leave her there

Chorus
I don't know, it must have been the roses
The roses or the ribbons in her long brown hair
I don't know, maybe it was the roses
All I know, I could not leave her there

Ten years the waves rolled the ships home from the sea
Thinking well how it may blow in all good company
If I tell another what your own lips told to me
Let me lay 'neath the roses and my eyes no longer see

[chorus]

One pane of glass in the window
No one is complaining, though, come in and shut the door
Faded is the crimson from the ribbons that she wore
And it's strange how no one comes round any more

[chorus]
  

    

From Jim Kirk:


Man who went to sea and his love died while he was away at sea.

Came back and he is in a mauseleum looking thru the window of the casket at
his lost love (in days before embalming caskets had windows so people could
see their loved ones without smelling them) apparently somebody came in while
he was there and he tells them the story.

One of my favorite Dead tunes. Lost love, corruption of the body, sailors.
What made them different. What rock and roll band writes a song like that?
  

    

"Faded is the color of the ribbons that she wore" - how Jerry sang it
2/22/74, first public performance.
  

    
The most beautiful sad song ever.  I can't listen to it without
sobbing.