Robert Hunter, Grateful Dead Collaborator and Lyricist, Dead at 78
Source: Rolling Stone
Robert Hunter, the poet and writer who provided the Grateful Dead with many of their vivid and enduring lyrics, died Monday night. He was 78. No cause of death was provided.
It is with great sadness we confirm our beloved Robert passed away yesterday night, Hunters family announced in a statement. He died peacefully at home in his bed, surrounded by love. His wife Maureen was by his side holding his hand. For his fans that have loved and supported him all these years, take comfort in knowing that his words are all around us, and in that way his is never truly gone. In this time of grief please celebrate him the way you all know how, by being together and listening to the music. Let there be songs to fill the air.
Considered one of rocks most ambitious and dazzling lyricists, Hunter was the literary counterpoint to the bands musical experimentation. His lyrics heard in everything from early Dead classics like Dark Star and China Cat Sunflower and proceeding through Uncle Johns Band, Box of Rain, Scarlet Begonias, and Touch of Gray were as much a part of the band as Jerry Garcias singing and guitar.
Born Robert Burns in California in 1941, Hunter met Garcia in 1961. Garcia asked Hunter to play in a jug band, but Hunter passed, instead seeing a future for himself as a writer. At Stanford, Hunter took part in early LSD experiments and dabbled in Scientology before leaving for the Southwest, where he battled drug issues. There, he sent several lyrics to the Dead in San Francisco before moving to the Bay Area to reunite with Garcia. When the band was working up an instrumental at a show north of San Francisco, Hunter listened and began writing lyrics to accompany the music; the result, Dark Star, was both a landmark for the band and also the official start of Hunters new role as the bands lyricist in residence.
Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/robert-hunter-grateful-dead-dead-889788/
What a huge loss.
Robert Hunter was a great lyricist and a fine musician.
RIP fine Sir!
One of my all time favorites:
berksdem
(595 posts)kas125
(2,472 posts)I'll always be grateful for the songs. They will live on.
Kid Berwyn
(14,950 posts)Hasta Siempre, Hermano!
2naSalit
(86,765 posts)My favorite member of the band.
Pluvious
(4,315 posts)Gone but never forgotten.
RIP
Yonnie3
(17,473 posts)phandancer917
(145 posts)His lyrics were the words I sang soooo many times at Dead shows in the early-mid 80s - course, most times I felt I was Living the music due to my friend Lucy (and her Sky Diamonds).
Odd that the band that took the touring mantle from the Dead (Phish) also has most of their lyrics penned by someone that does not play in the band -- Tom Marshall.
al bupp
(2,182 posts)LuckyCharms
(17,454 posts)Thank you for making my life better.
DinahMoeHum
(21,806 posts)Rest in Peace, Robert Hunter, and thanks for all the wonderful songs.
Say hi to John Perry Barlow for us
BlueWI
(1,736 posts)R.I.P., and thanks for the memories!!
jcgoldie
(11,638 posts)Fare you well my honey
Fare you well my only true one
All the birds that were singing
Have flown except you alone
Goin to leave this Broke-down Palace
On my hands and my knees I will roll roll roll
Make myself a bed by the waterside
In my time - in my time - I will roll roll roll
In a bed, in a bed
by the waterside I will lay my head
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
to rock my soul
River gonna take me
Sing me sweet and sleepy
Sing me sweet and sleepy
all the way back back home
It's a far gone lullaby
sung many years ago
Mama, Mama, many worlds I've come
since I first left home
Goin home, goin home
by the waterside I will rest my bones
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
to rock my soul
Goin to plant a weeping willow
On the banks green edge it will grow grow grow
Sing a lullaby beside the water
Lovers come and go - the river roll roll roll
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
to rock my soul
EarthFirst
(2,901 posts)Rest easy.
https://m.