Dead Songs in Depth

    
Lazy River Road
w: Hunter m: Garcia
AGDL: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/lazr.html
LASF: http://www.whitegum.com/songfile/LAZYRIVE.HTM
  

    
Lazy River Road 
Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Jerry Garcia

Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

Way down upon Sycamore Slough
A white man sings the blues
selling roses of paper mache
with flecks of starlight dew
I swiped a bunch and threw it your way
where hazy moonlight glowed
Way down down along Lazy River Road

Way down upon Shadowfall Ward
End of the avenue
Run, hide, seek in your own backyard
Mama's backyard won't do
All night long I sang Love's Sweet Song
down where the water flowed
Way down down along Lazy River Road

Moonlight wails as hound dogs bay
but never quite catch the tune
Stars fall down in buckets like rain
till there ain't no standing room
Bright blue boxcars train by train
clatter where dreams unfold
Way down down along Lazy River Road

Way down upon Seminole Square
belly of the river tide
call for me and I will be there
for the price of a taxi ride
Night double-clutches into today
like a truck downshifting its load
Way down down along Lazy River Road

Thread the needle
right through the eye
The thread that runs so true
All the others I let pass by
I only wanted you
Never cared for careless love
but how your bright eyes glowed
Way down down along Lazy River Road
  

    
I love any song in the key of G. This is an all-American traditional
song and I loved the way Jerry sang it as a country song.
  

    
Yeah, it has such a nice lilting beat to it.  It sounded old-timey,
brand-new out of the box.
  

    

Feels like Stephen Foster to me.
  

    
Maybe that's why I liked it so much the 1st time I heard it. :-)
  

    
One of the things I've always loved about this song are the place
names sprinkled through it:  Sycamore Slough, Shadowford Ward,
Seminiole Square, and of course old Lazy River Road itself.  Do we know
if any or all of these are real places, or are were they chosen for
the richness of sound, the way the vowels & consonants fill the mouth
as they're sung?
  

    
ShadowFALL Ward. Even better!
  

    
Little typo, there!

And yes.  The way the vowels flow through those words is just
heavenly.
  

    

It has become one of my favorite Dead songs to perform.
  

    <scribbled by shmo Sat 13 Sep 03 00:54>
  

    

I love how you describe LLR as a Grateful Dead song for people who don't
like the Grateful Dead.
  

    
Heh.  I sometimes say, "...for people who think they don't like the Grateful
Dead."
  

    
I love the way it makes me feel. I love the way I can hear it in my head 
being sung by an old blues guitarist. Or even Satchmo. Plus I got to learn 
two new chords when I learned how to play it!
  

    
The late performances and studio version had me hoping that the "last
album" would be a return to Workingman's form.
  

    
John, which 2 new chords?
  

    
I had a great time arranging it for solo fingerpicked guitar.  The intro has
a nice chromatic descending chord thing, and at the end of each refrain is a
diminished chord whose fingering was a splendid challenge.

(BTW, I owe it ti <zenrose>, wife of <unkljohn>.  I was visiting them in NC a
few tours ago, and when Beth and I sat down to sing a few songs together, she
started playing "Lazy River Road."  After that, I couldn't get it out of my
head, and now it's a mainstay of my repertoire.)
  

    
Regarding the place names, I opined in the annotated lyrics that they are
fictional: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/lazr.html#fictitious. But
wonderful and evocative nevertheless!
  

    

I think of it as a New Orleans of the mind's heart.
  

    
That's a line of poetry in itself, David!
  

    
> John, which 2 new chords?


D/F#       and        A7-9
  

    
Here is something on Sycamore Slough...

http://www.jackwilliamsranches.com/JwrLocationLocation0303.html
  

    
This is truly one of my all-time favorite songs.
  

    
OK, new news. The Sycamore Slough String Band was founded in January
2012: David Gans - guitar and vocals David Thom - mandolin, guitar and
vocals; Fiddle Dave Muhlethaler - fiddle, mandolin and vocals; Roger
Sideman - bass and vocals. 

AND an update on the location of Sycamore Slough:
http://www.lat-long.com/Latitude-Longitude-235932-California-Sycamore_Slough.h
tml
  

    
Thanks, David!

The band can be found at <http://s3b.us> or
<http://www.sycamoresloughstringband.com>

We play the music of the Grateful Dead and a few other odds and ends.  Our
CD/download "First Rehearsals" will be released in a matter of hours.
  

    
Now we need a volunteer to go out there and see, take photographs,
report!