Dead Songs in Depth

    
Black Throated Wind 
w: Barlow m: Weir
AGDL: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/btwi.html
LASF: http://www.whitegum.com/songfile/BLACKTHR.HTM
  

    
Black Throated Wind 
Lyrics: John Barlow
Music: Bob Weir

Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

Bringing me down, I'm running aground
Blind in the light of the interstate cars
Passing me by, the buses and semis
Plunging like stones from a slingshot on Mars

But I'm here by the road, bound to the load
That I picked up in ten thousand cafes and bars
Alone with the rush of the drivers who won't pick me up
The highway, the moon, the clouds, and the stars

The black throated wind keeps on pouring in
With its words of a life where nothing is new
Ah, Mother American Night, I'm lost from the light
Oh I'm drowning in you

I left Saint Louis, City of Blues
In the midst of a storm I'd rather forget
I tried to pretend it came to an end
'Cause you weren't the woman I once thought I'd met

But I can't deny, that times have gone by
Where I never had doubts or thoughts of regrets
And I was a man when all this began
Who wouldn't think twice about being there yet

The black throated wind whispering sin,
And it speaks of a life that passes like dew
It forced me to see
That you've done better by me
Better by me than I've done by you

Now what's to found, racing around
You carry your pain wherever you go
Full of the blues, and trying to lose
You ain't going to learn what you don't want to know

So I give you my eyes, and all of their lies
Please help them to learn as well as to see
And capture a glance, whoa and make it a dance
Of looking at you looking at me

The black throated wind keeps on pouring in
With its words of a life that could almost be true
Ah, Mother American Night, here comes the light
I'm turning around that's what I'm going to do
Going back home that's what I'm gonna do
  

    
I was listening to the Veneta show from 8/27/72 today and it sounds
like Weir sings "running around, this cloverleaf town".
  

    

Yes, that was the first version of that lyric.
  

    
Hands down, my favorite Weir tune.
  

    
"Slingshot on Mars" - echoes of gravitational slingshots used to
accelerate spacecraft? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_assist
  

    
Mariner 10, in Feb '74 was the first spacecraft to use one planet as
a gravitational slingshot to another. As astute observer would could
hear about plans for Mariner 10 at least a couple of years in
advance. 

The question is, when was the "like stones from a slingshot on mars"
put to paper? I keep hearing "correlation is not causation", so it
could just be a poetic metaphor for "fast as hell" that fit well. 

The whole song is top notch, and one of my favorite Weir songs from
that period. Heck, favorite Weir songs period. 
  

    
Would have been written no later than the winter 
  

    
Of 1972
  

    
Thanks, David. I imagine the "slingshot" plans for Mariner 10 were
being discussed in the pop science press by the winter of '72. fwiw 
  

    
Well before 1972, there was Blows Against the Empire, specifically,
Starship, which includes:

And the planetary whip of the sun
Will carry you well past Gideon
  

    

9/17/72, after "Sugaree" they start that E groove, Jerry plays his
"Jack Straw" lick, and then the proper intro to BTW. I heard this on SiriusXM
just now; would love to have seen how this was dealt with onstage.