Dead Songs in Depth

    
Easy Answers
w: Hunter, Weir m: Weir, Hart, Wlenick
LASF: http://www.whitegum.com/songfile/EASYANS.HTM
  

    
Easy Answers 
Lyrics: Robert Hunter, Bob Weir
Music: Weir, Bralove, Wasserman, Welnick

Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

Promises made in the dark dissolve by light of day
Easy answers
Ain't no saying what will be, it's always been that way
Only thing I know for sure, someone got to pay
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Ain't no easy answers, is what I got to say

Easy answers
I don't wanna hear
Ain't nobody cares
C'mon let's go
I don't wanna know
I don't wanna know
I don't wanna know
I don't wanna know
I don't wanna know

Love is an easy word to say, roll's right off the tongue
Easy answers
Seems to crop up like a weed, in every song that's sung
It always sounds so easy, the way it falls upon the ear
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Plenty easy answers now, listen to me here
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Find 'em anywhere
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Easy answers
Easy answers
Easy answers
I don't wanna know
I don't wanna know

Shut your eyes and listen to the colours of your mind
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Give yourself a breath of air, let your soul unwind
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You don't have to say a word, you got dick to say
'Cause no-one ever said there's gonna be an easy way
Easy answers

Find them anywhere
Easy answers
Ain't nobody care
Easy answers
I don't wanna know

Easy answers
I don't wanna know
Easy answers
I don't wanna know
I don't wanna know
Promises made in the dark dissolve by light of day
Easy answers
Ain't no saying what we'll be, it's always been that way
Only thing I know for sure, someone got to pay
Easy answers
Ain't no easy answers, that's all I got to say
Easy answers

Easy answers
I don't wanna hear
Easy answers
Easy answers
Ain't nobody there
Easy answers
Easy answers
C'mon now, let's go
I don't wanna know
I don't wanna know
I don't wanna know

Easy answers
Easy answers
Feel alright
Easy answers
Easy answers
Feel alright
Easy answers
Easy answers
  

    
From interview with Bob Weir in the liner notes to "Weir Here":

"I had some lyrics that Hunter had given me for that, but there
weren't enough of them to make a whole song out of. So Neil [Young]
said, "Let me see what you've got. It needs one more verse." We got tw
verses in, and I sang the first verse again. Neil says, "Shut your eyes
and listen to the colors of your mind." He throws his head back and
says, "Get yourself a breath of air, let your soul unwind. You don't
have to say a word ..." and he was thinking, and I said, "If you've got
dick to say?" And he said, "'Cause no one ever said there's going to
be an easy way." And we had the song."

I've always thought this was one of the worst verses in any GD lyric!
Now we know where it came from. And Neil Young doesn't even get a
writing credit ...
  

    
That's bizarre! I never cared much for those lyrics either.
  

    
Don't do the rythme if you can't do the time
  

    
Fascinating! It's a whole subset of GD lyric scholarship, like the fact that
David Gans contributed a line or two (David? confirm?) to Throwing Stones.
Uncredited songwriter contributions. New topic?
  

    
Heh.  Sure.  I contributed two lines to "Throwing Stones: and half a line to
"Hell in a Bucket."  And Weir explained to me on 3/2 that Hunter started "One
More Saturday Night" but only that phrase remained from his original lyric,
so it was credited solely to Weir.
  

    
What's the critical mass to rate a credit? (And what was the phrase in One
More Saturday Night?)
  

    

> (And what was the phrase in One More Saturday Night?)

The title line.


> What's the critical mass to rate a credit?

I don't know.  I have never discussed it with Alan Trist.
  

    
My research into Bobby Petersen implied that he contributed a little
bit to Alligator.

I've always liked that verse and I just knew it had to be the one Neil
had a hand in, though I always thought "if you ain't got dick to say"
was Neil's line. Bob must have been in a Neil mood, and Neil was
reaching for that synesthesia thing.