Dead Songs in Depth

    
Althea 
w: Hunter m: Garcia
AGDL: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/althea.html
LASF: http://www.whitegum.com/songfile/ALTHEA.HTM
  

    
Althea 
Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Jerry Garcia

Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

I told Althea I was feeling lost
Lacking in some direction
Althea told me upon scrutiny
That my back might need protection
I told Althea that treachery
Was tearing me limb from limb
Althea told me, now cool down boy
Settle back easy, Jim

You may be Saturday's child all grown
Moving with a pinch of grace
You may be a clown in the burying ground
Or just another pretty face
You may be the fate of Ophelia
Sleeping and perchance to dream
Honest to the point of recklessness
Self-centred to the extreme

Ain't nobody messin' with you but you
Your friends are getting most concerned
Loose with the truth, maybe its your fire
Baby I hope you don't get burned
When the smoke has cleared, she said
That's what she said to me
You're gonna want a bed to lay your head
And a little sympathy

There are things you can replace
And others you cannot
The time has come to weigh those things
This space is gettin' hot
You know this space is gettin' hot

I told Althea, I'm a roving sign
That I was born to be a bachelor
Althea told me, OK that's fine
So now I'm trying to catch her
Can't talk to you without talking to me
We're guilty of the same old things
Thinking a lot about less and less
And forgetting the love we bring
  

    
I've always heard Althea, in part, as Hunter's concerned message to
Jerry: "Ain't nobody messin' with you but you."
  

    
That's for sure.  I think a lot of Hunter's GD lyrics can be read as letters
to the band or from the scene.
  

    
Your friends are getting most concerned!
Absolutely.
  

    
Yup.

Not a tune performed by the GD, but Hunter's "Last Flash of Rock and
Roll" has that line; "you messed up the lyrics and called it the
blues".

When I heard that first, back in 75(?), it gave me a clue to look for
more such messages tossed over the transom to the band and Garcia, but
still wide open to other interpretations and for minds/ears that had
never heard of the Grateful Dead.
  

    

>you messed up the lyrics and called it the blues

"You blew the words and called it soul
But we all fall a little short of rock'n'roll."


That's a grat song.
  

    
A great one, too.
  

    
Thanks for the "fact checking" ;-)
  

    
doesn't scully make a fairly good case (even considering the source)
that althea kind of addresses the "big chief burning moccasin" phase of
jerry's earthly existence? though i realize "maybe it's your
fire/[but] baby, [i hope you] don't get burned" is not intended - for
the most part - literally.
  

    



Emily Odom writes:


How fitting, reading your earlier responses, that “Althea” could be taken as
advice for Jerry, considering “Althea” means healer, and truth.  A fitting
role for Hunter to take in advising Jerry. 
  

    
Messages across the void in music, rhyme and rhythm. I can't think of
too many songs that seem so directly aimed at Garcia from Hunter. That
Garcia made them his own seems to reinforce his complex but essential
honesty in his art.
  

    
Fire on the Mountain seems similar in that regard. There's at least
one other that can be read that way - let me rack my brain some
  

    

I think there are any number of Hunter lyrics that can be read as reports
from Deadland, and/or messages to Garcia.

"Foolish Heart" strikes me as one such.
  

    
Messages to Garcia!
http://www.birdsnest.com/garcia.htm
  

    
Ah, so that is the source of the phrase!
  

    
Wow!
  

    
David D you are a Charles Fort of GD arcana. Bless you!
  

    
Just in case that reference makes anyone wonder:

Charles Fort (1874-1932) fancied himself a true Skeptic, one who opposes all
forms of dogmatism, believes nothing, and does not take a position on
anything. He claimed to be an "intermediatist," one who believes nothing is
real and nothing is unreal, that "all phenomena are approximations one way
or the other between realness and unrealness." Actually, he was an anti-
dogmatist who collected weird and bizarre stories.

Fort spent a good part of his adult life in the New York City public library
examining newspapers, magazines, and scientific journals. He was looking for
accounts of anything weird or mysterious which didn't fit with current
scientific theories.
  

    
I believe that Whole Earth pubs has a great little book, "The Fortian
Times" that gives an great insighgt into Fort's stuff.

I believe? Can I say that in connection to anything Fortien ;-)
  

    
I thknk it's spelled "Fortean."
  

    
Yes. Thanks.
  

    
'for two, it-is'-ly  this time spellin played protein vs procrustean
obscurin nawt the meanin, fortune ate lee.
  

    
Who was Lee? Poor Lee!
  

    
Inspector Lee, of the Nova Police, thawed Jimmy Joys. I quartersawed
it diffidently.
  

    
Last week on dead.net, I posted about "Althea." It's been quite a
conversation in the comments. Worth a read! 
http://www.dead.net/features/greatest-stories-ever-told/greatest-stories-ever-
told-althea