Dead Songs in Depth

    
Playing In The Band
w: Hunter m: Weir, Hart
AGDL: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/playin.html
LASF: http://www.whitegum.com/songfile/PLAYING.HTM
  

    
Playing In The Band 
Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Bob Weir/Mickey Hart

Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

Some folks trust to reason, others trust to might
I don't trust to nothing, but I know it come out right
Say it once again now, whoa I hope you understand
When it's done and over, Lord, a man is just a man

Chorus
Playing, playing in the band
Daybreak, daybreak on the land

Some folks look for answers, others look for fights
Some folks up in tree tops, just looking for their kites
I can tell your future, whoa just look what's in your hand
I can't stop for nothing, I'm just playing in the band

[chorus]

Standing on a tower, world at my command
You just keep a-turning, while I'm playing in the band
If a man among you, got no sin upon his hand
Let him cast a stone at me for playing in the band

[chorus]
Playing, like a wave upon the sand
  

    



Ross Mooney writes:



I recently realized that the first two lines of the song are very similiar to
lines from Jeremiah 17:5.  "This is what the Lord says:  'Cursed is the one
who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart
turns away from from the Lord.'"  In verses 7 and 8 it goes on to say,
"'Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.  He
will be like a tree planted by the water that send out its roots by the
stream.  It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green.  It
has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.'"  This
seems a lot like the part of the song that says "I don't trust to nothing but
I know it come out right."               -SiKo
  

    
I hadn't until recently realised that four pages of hand-written
lyrics for Playing In The Band (well really fragments and scribbles)
were put up for auction in 2002. This was along with single pages
for I Heard You Singing, Uncle John's Band and Here Comes Sunshine. 

Jesse Jarnow kindly sent me a copy of the page from the catalogue.
I've put it on my website: www.whitegum.com/jauction.htm. You'll
need to download the image to enlarge it if you want to study it
closely. I'm not a hand-writing expert but I assume these are Robert
Hunter's.

<ddodd> already had the additional verse for Uncle John's Band, and
the pages for I Heard You Singing and Here Comes Sunshine show only
minor differences from the regular lyrics.

But the pages for Playing In The Band contain lyrics I'd never seen
before. The words are hard to make out (with lots of crossings out
etc). But these are the verses I can (partially) decipher, with
square brackets where I'm really not sure. If anyone can work out
the missing bits or spot corrections, please let me know.

Need a place [crossed out]
Place where you can stand
Place where you can wonder why
While playing in the band

Need some ground between us
Place where we can stand
Place where I can see you
While playing in the band

Open up your window
Fly on out your door
People been forgetting
Just what we come here for

Tell you once again now
Take you by the hand
Run down to the river
Got to get back in the band

Some folks play for [?]
Others play for gold
Some just play for [crossed out]

Everything you play for
Bound to turn to sand

You can take my window
Even take my door
[Put it down to bring you]
But please don't take my floor

Need a place to fall on
Place where I can stand
Tell you what's so [fine] about
Playing in the band

Standing in the [closet]
Waiting for the sun
Look at my position
I know it's time to run

I could tell your fortune
How it comes to [?]
Ain't no call to [waste the] time
[Judging] from the [past]

Only hope is [reason]
Take her by the hand
You can usually find her
Playing in the band
  

    
For some reason I can't get that link to work. I'll try again.
  

    
This should work: <http://www.whitegum.com/jauction.htm>
  

    
Wow--amazing! Sorry I missed that for the annotated lyrics book. 
  

    
I just listened the Wolf Bros 2-12-21 livestream and Weir said
something I've never heard anywhere. He said that David Crosby came
up with the key melody to PIITB at session at Mickey's barn. Crosby
left and Mickey said "make a song out of that"so Weir did. Someone
off stage says "are you shitting me? 27 years and I've never heard
you say that".
  

    
The livestream version of Playing is actually pretty cool. Greg
Leisz on pedal steel and a horn section with a UJB transition!
  

    
I was amazed, too, 'cause I had heard that Mickey gig that link from Alla
Rakha.

And I agree that that PITB was great!
  

    
Mickey GOT that LICK...
  

    
Well, remember that part of the music for "Playing in the Band" was
a short instrumental called "The Main Ten" which they played
occasionally in 1969 and 1970, so-named for it's ten-beat rhythm.  

Now I need to check out those additional Hunter lyrics.
  

    
And by the way, it's GREAT to be back here in The WELL.
  

    
WElcome back!
  

    
Thanks man!