It wasn’t until David Gans published an interview with Robert Hunter in BAM magazine, which included the lyrics to “China Cat Sunflower,” that I had any real inkling what was being sung. My transcription didn’t get very far using this method. I couldn’t believe the intricacy! I couldn’t fathom how it was being done.Īnd I don’t think I actually understood very many of the words-they were more like part of the instrumentation, like the poetry of HD Moe that I later came to love because he used words in this way to create a stained-glass verbal image.įirst, I started in the time-honored method of lifting the needle from the groove and setting it back just a bit to try to catch the words. I lay on the floor of their living room, and stared at the cottage-cheese ceiling, and watched the patterns form and re-form there, to the music that was playing-such a delicate constellation of intertwined guitar notes. And that night, I put it on my parents’ record player-an old Magnavox console-when they were somewhere out and about, and listened. She told me I should buy the triple Europe ’72 album, so I did. She was a huge Deadhead, and I was a neophyte. I was home for Christmas break from college, and a friend and I went shopping for records. I relish each new dive into this song.Īnd I’m not sure why this is. I don’t tire of the interplay between the words and the music. I don’t tire of it musically, or lyrically. And I have spent many hours with it over the years, never getting tired of it. This song opened my ears to the band in a big way. And in particular the Europe ’72 recording. I mean, if I had to whittle it all down to just one song I could bring with me, this would be it.
Celebrating the start of a new year seems like an appropriate occasion, so let’s look at what is probably my number one desert-island song. I wasn’t sure exactly why, but I had been saving “China Cat Sunflower” for a special occasion.
(I’ll consider requests for particular songs-just private message me!)
China cat sunflower instruction free#
Therefore, the best part, I would hope, would not be anything in particular that I might have to say, but rather, the conversation that may happen via the comments over the course of time-and since all the posts will stay up, you can feel free to weigh in any time on any of the songs! With Grateful Dead lyrics, there’s always a new and different take on what they bring up for each listener, it seems. Here’s the plan-each week, I will blog about a different song, focusing, usually, on the lyrics, but also on some other aspects of the song, including its overall impact-a truly subjective thing.
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