Dead Songs in Depth

    
Sugar Magnolia (incl. Sunshine Daydream)
w: Hunter, Weir m: Weir
AGDL: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/smag.html
LASF: http://www.whitegum.com/songfile/SUGAR1MG.HTM
  

    
Sugar Magnolia 
Lyrics: Robert Hunter/Bob Weir
Music: Bob Weir

Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

Sugar Magnolia, blossoms blooming
Heads all empty and I don't care
Saw my baby down by the river
Knew she'd have to come up soon for air

Sweet blossom, come on under the willow
We can have high times if you'll abide
We can discover the wonders of nature
Wading in the rushes down by the riverside

She's got everything delightful
She's got everything I need
Takes the wheel when I'm seeing double
Pays my ticket when I speed

She comes skimming through rays of violet
She can wade in a drop of dew
She don't come and I don't follow
Waits backstage while I sing to you

She can dance a Cajun rhythm
Jump like a Willys in four wheel drive
She's a summer love in the spring, fall and winter
She can make happy any man alive

Sugar Magnolia
Ringing that bluebell
Caught up in sunlight
Come on out singing and I'll walk you in the sunshine
Come on honey, come along with me

She's got everything delightful
She's got everything I need
A breeze in the pines and the sun and bright moonlight
Lazing in the sunlight, yes indeed

Sometimes when the cuckoo's crying
When the moon is half way down
Sometimes when the night is dying
I take me out and I wander around
I wander round

Sunshine daydream
Walking in the tall trees
Going where the wind goes
Blooming like a red rose
Breathing more freely
Ride out singing, I'll walk you in the morning sunshine
Sunshine daydream
Sunshine daydream
Walking in the sunshine
[etc]
  

    
Oops. It should be "Rolling in the rushes ..." not "Wading in the
rushes." Thanks to Dan Franzen for spotting this.
  

    

"Take a great notion
Rollin' like the ocean"

- Sunshine Daydream 3/26/72
  

    
No! Really? that's wonderful!
  

    
Posted on behalf of Brandon Lorenc:

I just got off the phone with a Willys collector and I asked him about
the entry for Sugar Mags
 
"When the Willy's jeep first came out, there was some type of
maneuver, or trick, that an experienced driver could do to make the
vehicle actually "leap", jump, or catch air, somehow."
 
Being a car guy this has always bothered me, I just couldn't fathom
how this would be possible and believe me I am not unimaginative :)
Anywho, he said he knows as much about these Willys as probably anyone
in the country (and I believe him) and he has never heard of such a
"maneuver". He thought it was likely because the original press release
materials from the US army for the Willys showed pics and video of 2
guys jumping over stuff, basically a typical off road thing that looks
super cool. Any way, I guess I will have to look at that Smithsonian
article when I have a chance b/c it sounds like urban legend stuff to
me :)
 
Thanks for being so cool.


Brandon Lorenc
  

    
I would like to suggest that "Sweet Magnolia' is in fact, not a woman.
In the language of flowers, magnolia is, love of nature. I think, in
the context of this song, that 'sweet love of nature' makes perfect
sense. To further this argument:
        water willow = freedom
        rush = docility
        violet (is a bit ambiguous, but a purple violet) = you occupy my
thoughts
        bluebell = constancy
        pine tree = courage
        tree (of life) = age
        red rose = 'I love you'
                        http://home.comcast.net/~bryant.katherine/flowers.html
So, it's just a thought and I'd love to know what you think.
  

    
she takes the wheel when I'm seeing double

rolling in the rushes

she's my summer love

Sugar Magnolia's definitely a poignant overture to outdoor/natural
love, and perhaps it was written to convey what you suggest, but it's
hard to rule out Sugar Magnolia as a woman.

However, I do like your ambitious interpretations of how Hunter might
have been "gardening" with his flowers!!
  

    
Not nit picking but, its just,
   "takes the wheel when I'm seeing double
    pays my ticket when I speed"
and yeah I expected those two lines to be a problem, but I always had
a problem with this describing a girl (sucker).  So I was thinking,
this could be 'putting you trust in the fates' 'trusting it will all
work out'.
And it's,
   "We can discover the wonders of nature
    rolling in the rushes..."
And, the 'she's that are really there could be she, mother nature
(nature is always a she).
AND, thank you, my ambition will persist.
  

    
A few more point, verging on obsession.

I LOVE this song, who doesn't.
But I've always had a problem with this describing a woman, much less
a highly desirable woman: empty headed, paying for your mistakes, not
caring when you go out 'wandering round', cause we all know what
'wandering round' means in that context.
But if Sugar Magnolia is not really a woman...

And more on the empty headed, if describing nature, this could be,
that there's no thought behind nature, no designer, "but I don't care."

"She don't come, and I don't follow" 
If she's a woman, what is that? Is she some ditzy devoted fan
(girlfriend), waiting back stage? Or, is nature always there waiting,
even when your out of 'it', on stage, plugged in, basking in unnatural
light, enveloped by a concrete dome?

I mean granted Weir is Weir, but Hunter... maybe, just maybe, that's
the kind of joke Hunter would pull on Weir? Isn't this the song that
ended their writing relationship?
  

    
I always took it be the narrator's head that was all empty, as on a
beautiful summer day when you aren't thinking but just being.

There's definitely a woman ("Saw my baby down by the river") but that
doesn't mean her *name* is Sugar Mag.
  

    
I always come back to the "just a daydream" line--it's all fantasy,
not a real woman.
  

    
Ain't Hunter's lyrics great? So much fun and so many different ways to
hear the same few words. Fwiw, for me Sugar Mag is a young lady, a
bundle of trouble and even more fun. She made took me from being a boy
to being a young man and sent me on my way. I can't tell you her given
name. That's a secret that cannot be told.
  

    
Ya gots ta eat acid for this one.  Cosmic is as cosmic you duz.

*Snerk*  I feel a flashback comin' on!
  

    
I never thought of "Heads all empty and I don't care" first of all as
I wrote it, both heads, and then that they're relaxed and uncaring in
the relaxed warmth of a summer day, not having to engage with thwe
world, just being there then, and not feeling any regret about it.

My take on "She don't come and I don't follow" is that no one is
actually leading in the couple, that they go forward together, in a
state of equality.

I never got the idea that the lyrics were non-complimentary.
  

    
That's a nice take on it.  "She don't come [when I call]", as it were.
  

    
is it not "Head's all empty"?
  

    
That's how A Box of Rain puts it.  

Was that on purpose? 
  

    
No doubt RObert Hunter knows more than I do.  But everything is
somewhat subject to interpretation, I'd say.  Wouldn't be surprised if
his attitude was, If that's what you think, go with it.
  

    
As he said himself in the intro to Box Of Rain.  I don't have the book
at hand right now, but he's pretty clear that the printed lyrics are
*his* versions, and that others are also possible.
  

    
I love Hunter's lyrics.  There are songs of his that, once I started
playing them, I cannot imagine my life without them.
  

    
I like the plural "heads". It does make one think of even more
possible lines of interpretation, along with the "she don't come..."
ambiguity. Not to get too explicit.
  

    
Good Lord No! We wouldn't want to get too explicit ... ;^)
  

    
Sugar Magnolia was Frankie Weir
  

    
I was just re-watching The BBC TV documentary "Classic Albums: Anthem
To Beauty" and noticed that it includes a shot of what I assume are
Robert Hunter's handwritten lyrics to Sugar Magnolia. These are not in
Hunter's online list of handwritten lyrics, and are very different to
the final version - which is ironic given that they are shown during a
segment when Bob Weir is talking about how Hunter was writing the end
of the lyrics in the studio during the recording of the song, and Bob
took them and sang them straight off the paper.

I have to say that I love the final version we all know, which is a
great improvement over what I assume is an early draft:

Fallen Carolina hooker, Ave Marie
No I can't be taking you here with me
Don't want you there for my mama to see
But here's 10 to see you through Saturday
(Soon you wait down under the magnolia tree)

Sugar magnolia, the blossom is bare
Haven't got a thought about it, that's all I care
Chugging locomotive manicure my line
Wrote a note to tell you everything is fine

[the next two lines are crossed out - the question mark is Hunter's]
Only one thing that troubles my mind
? don't grow in the wintertime

Sugar magnolia
Remember I told you
You can't go casting notions
With no string on the line

Sugar magnolia
Recall what I said
You can't indulge your nation
If you ain't got no bread

Sugar magnolia, you better beware
One of these days you look I'm gonna be there
Kindly remember I meant what I said
Catch you foolin' round I'm gonna lay you down dead
  

    

Wow, that's a whole nother song!!