Dead Songs in Depth

    
Cassidy 
w: Barlow m: Weir
AGDL: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/cassidy.html
LASF: http://www.whitegum.com/songfile/CASSIDY.HTM
  

    
Cassidy 
Lyrics: John Barlow
Music: Bob Weir

Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

I have seen where the wolf has slept by the silver stream
I can tell by the mark he left, you were in his dream
Ah child of countless trees
Ah child of boundless seas
What you are, what you're meant to be
Speaks his name, though you were born to me
Born to me, Cassidy

Lost now on the country miles on his Cadillac
I can tell by the way you smile, he is rolling back
Come wash the night-time clean
Come grow the scorched ground green
Blow the horn, tap the tambourine
Close the gap of the dark years in between
You and me, Cassidy

Quick beats in an icy heart
Catch colt draws a coffin cart
There he goes and now here she starts
Hear her cry

Flight of the seabirds
Scattered like lost words
Wheel to the storm and fly

Faring thee well now
Let your life proceed by its own designs
Nothing to tell now
Let the words be yours, I'm done with mine
  

    
this was the one that made me give the dead a fresh listen in the
early 80s...and, for my money, one of <barlow>'s best lyrics
  

    
a friend played the "reckoning" live recording for me, and this song
just knocked me out -- when they come out of the jam into "flight of
the seabirds" and the crowd reacts...just magic
  

    
Yeah, that track kind of "proved" they could access the x-factor magic
in acoustic form, no problem-o.
  

    
And the line "catch colt draws a coffin cart" should be *hell* to
sing, with all those hard c's, but boy, does it sound fine when Bobby
nails it.
  

    


Ed F. writes:



I always thought that "child of countless trees" referred to when Neil died
while trying to count the number of railroad tied between two locations in
Mexico.  A bet that he made with Kesey or somebody.  He was apparently very
high on speed at the time and the hot sun was too much for his heart.

EdF
  

    
Or it could just refer to the countless "family trees" from which we
all are descended; a bit of humility to the fact that we are not the
original fathers of even "our own" children.
  

    
Or it could be a reference to reincarnation. Many trees - many births.  As
in, a tree is planted in Israel when a child is born.  Countless lives. That
fits well to me with boundless seas.
  

    




Hello-

I always thought of "Cassidy" as a tribute to Neal Cassady.  The
lyrics: "lost now on the country miles in his Cadillac," and "wheel to
the storm and fly" are especially reminiscent of Kerouac's
recollections of the long road trips with Cassady in "On The Road."
Kerouac even tells the story of their trip to Chicago in a Cadillac
which incidentally got stuck in the mud on a country road.

Maybe I'm just stating the obvious...what do you guys think?

-Sean Rourke
  

    

Yes, Sean, it's been made explicit many times.  Bobby was working on the song
while Eileen Law was preparing to give birth in the home they shared, and
Barlow wrote the lyric with the death of Neal Cassady and the birth of
Cassidy Law in mind.
  

    
Ooooh... more GD lyrical ambiquity.
  

    
"There he goes and now here she starts
Hear her cry"
  

    

I found a rare thing: a "Cassidy" that connects to another song!


10/3/94 Boston Garden, second set:

BOX OF RAIN
SHAKEDOWN STREET
CASSIDY->
GOIN' DOWN THE ROAD FEELING BAD->


etc
  

    
Interesting! 

https://archive.org/details/gd94-10-03.pmb.pujol.15112.sbeok.shnf/gd1994-10-03
d2t04.shn