Dead Songs in Depth

    
Touch Of Grey
w: Hunter m: Garcia
AGDL: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/touc.html
LASF: http://www.whitegum.com/songfile/TOUCHOFG.HTM
  

    
Touch Of Grey 
Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Jerry Garcia

Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

It must be getting early
Clocks are running late
Paint by numbers morning sky
Looks so phony

Dawn is breaking everywhere
Light a candle, curse the glare
Draw the curtains, I don't care
'Cause it's alright

I will get by
I will get by
I will get by
I will survive

I see you got your list out
Say your piece and get out
Yes I got the gist of it
But it's alright

Sorry that you feel that way
The only thing there is to say
Every silver lining's got a
Touch of grey

It's a lesson to me
The Ables and the Bakers and the C's
The A B C's
We all must face
And try to keep a little grace

I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright

Cows are giving kerosene
The kid can't read at seventeen
The words he knows are all obscene
But it's alright

I will get by
I will get by
I will get by
I will survive

It's a lesson to me
The Deltas and the East and the Freeze
The A B C's
We all think of
And try to keep a little love

The shoe is on the hand it fits
There's really nothing much to it
Whistle through your teeth and split
'Cause it's alright

Oh well a touch of grey
Kind of suits you anyway
That was all I had to say
And it's alright

I will get by
I will get by
I will get by
I will survive

We will get by
We will get by
We will get by
We will survive
  

    
Heard this the other day on the background music speakers at Staples,
believe it or not.  First I noticed that the guitar and bass sounded
awfully familiar, then realized it was the Dead -- it couldn't be
anyone else.  Staples, playing the Dead.  Right.  Anyway, Staples was
about to close, so I roamed the aisles until the song was almost over
but then had to leave.  It rang on after I left.

I wasn't familiar with the song, but "we will get by" was pretty clear
and was surely Jerry.  Googled it, and sure 'nuff.  Wow.
  

    
It is a pity that the mainstreaming of aspects of authentic outrider
culture does not have greater impact on the kindness of the dominant
reality determinants. And of course the outriders can lose so much in
this encounter. 
  

    
better when eep hour is used in a cher perfume commercial
  

    
My favorite thing about Michael's post about hearing the song in Staples is
that it was unfamiliar to him--I like that! We tend to think of Touch of
Grey as "the hit", and here it is, faded nicely back into obscurity...
  

    
I can hear one or two notes of a dead tune and know what's coming.
Sometimes it's weird where it's coming from. I'm pretty sure it doesn't
come from Muzak.

I think that Hunter was asked to sign off on licensing his tunes with
Garcia for elevator distratction and his answer was "NO".

Must have been somebody in the Staples store that plugged in that tape
or CD, I guess. 
  

    
Posted on behalf of Benjamin Johnson:

A line from Touch of Grey:

Cows are giving Kerosene.

For poor farmers, attaining kerosene or having electricity (city luxuries)
was not an option, so instead they used cow dung, which containes methane
gas and could be used as a fuel.  It could be alluded that cow dung could be
seen as a replacement for kerosene, especially in rural areas.

It can be assumed that this part of the song is about a not so well off
family since the previous verse has this line in it: "i know the rent is in
arrears"

Benjamin Johnson
Archive Preservation Associate
Massachusetts Historical Society
1154 Boylston Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02215
617.646.0551
http://www.masshist.org
  

    
For some reason I always thought that line was talking about the
environment.
  

    

I think it goes well with an illiterate teenaged child, an unfed dog, and
unpaid rent.  Sounds like a poor farmer to me!
  

    



Corey Kaplan writes:



My brother just died recently and while alive he spoke much through music.
Touch of Grey was one of his favorites.  There is a comment about the line
"Cows giving Kerosene" about being about poor farmers.  I just wanted
opinions about my take of this line which follows:

Milk is essential and the life sustaining fluid for new-born mammals.  So if
cows are giving kerosene (instead of milk, not through converted dung),
everything will eventually come to an end because nothing new can survive.  I
would appreciate peoples input and I thank you in advance.

Corey Kaplan
  

    
I'm with you, Corey. Plus echoes of "I ask for water, she gives me
gasoline".
  

    
When I worked for Ace Hardware, Touch of Grey would play every once in
a while. It was just one song on a CD Ace put out, it was like a top
40s type thing. It was the one song I would always listen for. It
seemed to clear the air when it did play. I was always tempted to go
out to the car and bring in a live CD to play, but I never did.
  

    
Here's an early version performed by Hunter with slightly different
lyrics...

http://www.archive.org/download/rh1980-08-21.sbd.unk.flac16/rh1980-08-21.sbd.u
nk.flac16.d01t02.mp3
  

    
David

I see that you mention that "Light a candle, curse the glare" is a
play on the saying, coined by Adlai Stevenson in 1962 in reference to
the death of Eleanor Roosevelt, that: "She would rather light a candle
than curse the darkness..."

It looks as if that saying goes back to before Adlai Stevenson. It
appears to have been used by Peter Benenson, the founder of Amnesty
International, in 1961 (and is why Amnesty's logo is a candle wrapped
in barbed wire). Amnesty's website refers to it as an ancient Chinese
proverb, but other sites (eg Wiktionary) attribute it to a 1907 sermon
by W L Watkinson.
  

    
Cool! The "ancient Chinese saying" thing will always get you through
in a pinch...
  

    

I heard John Mayer sing "I see you've got your fists out..." on the 7/23/16
Dead and COmpany recording. I like that.
  

    
Great! I like that, too. Would like to hear him make sense of
Alabama Getaway, now.