Dead Songs in Depth

    
The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)
w&m: Grateful Dead
AGDL: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/goldroad.html
LASF: http://www.whitegum.com/songfile/GOLDENRD.HTM
  

    
The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion) 
Lyrics: Grateful Dead
Music: Grateful Dead

Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

See that girl barefooting along
Whistling and singing, she's a-carrying on
Got laughing in her eyes
Dancing in her feet
She's a neon diamond
She can live on the street

Chorus
Hey, hey, come right away
Come and join the party
Every day
Hey, hey, come right away
Come and join the party every day

Well, everybody's dancing in a ring around the sun
Nobody's finished, we ain't even begun
So take off your shoes, child
And take off your hat
Try on your wings
And find out where it's at

[chorus]

Take a vacation, fall out for a while
Summer's coming in and it's going out in style
Well, lie down smoking, honey
Have yourself a ball
'Cause your mother's down in Memphis
Won't be back till the fall

[chorus]
  

    


   http://www.flickr.com/photos/unkljohn/153278476/
  

    
Harrrrrrgh, great shot, John!

Lo many year ago, the band of my employ ressurected "Golden Road", and
JA's "Plastic Fantastic Lover". It was around 1980, and the local
crowd was mainly new-wavers and punks. They seemed to respond to
something in those tunes, and we didn't ruin the experience by telling
them that it was their parents that wrote made them.

I stood fast at the lighting board, watching the girls with purple and
pink hair slamming into each other, loving every moment of it until
the management kicked us all out onto the street. Good, clean fun.
  

    
Did you see any girls barefootin' along?
  

    
No girls, but I saw about 18 (no kidding) alligators! Hey.......that gives 
me an idea!
  

    
I did see that girl, a dozen of 'em, in fact, dancin' in a circle
'round the Sun. I trust and hope that they are still smiling so, today.
It was a very good night.
  

    
here's to Vince Welnick who wanted the Dead to revive this song and
made it live with his own side bands (both the Affordables and later
outfits)... and yes I realize that Phil and the unGrateful Dead have
since played it as well.
  

    

I've got a cool Affordables performanceof The Golden Road that I'm going to
play on KPFA this week (June 21).
  

    

Bringing an argument from the "lyric daisy chain" topic over here where it
belongs.

I don't believe that line is "Lie down smoking, honey, have yourself a ball"
- doesn't make sense to me.  I think it's "Light out smoking" - in the same
sense as the phrase "I lit out from Reno" in Friend of the Devil.
  

    
I agree that "Light out smoking" seems to make more sense but it sure does
sound like "Lie down smoking" and the published version in the Grateful Dead
Anthology does have "Lie down smokin'" as the lyric.
  

    
Being that I'm the one who started the mini-fracas by posting "Lie
down smoking," I'm actually pretty agnostic about it.

After all, as utterly cool as the song is (and I do love it dearly),
in this case it ain't the lyrics that make it what it is!

Still, I love the line "'Cause your mother's down in Memphis, won't be
back 'til the fall."
  

    
surely the Dead organization never allowed any errors to creep into
their publishing!
  

    
Heh!  No kidding!!
  

    
Right. When Alan Trist and I put together the flap copy for the lyrics book,
we temporized with something like "Settle a bar bet. Or not."
  

    

Friend last night told that for years she and her boyfriend thought the line
was "Ball a honey every day."
  

    
"She come runnin' and we ball all night..."
  

    

When I was a teenager having my first sexual experiences, "ball" was one of
the most popular verbs.