Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Jerry Garcia
Gone are the days when the ox fall down (note a)Notes
Take up the yoke and plow the fields around
Gone are the days when the ladies said "please
Gentle Jack Jones won't you come to me" (note b)
Chorus
Brown-eyed women and red grenadine
The bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean
Sound of the thunder with the rain pouring down
And it looks like the old man's getting on
Nineteen twenty when he stepped to the bar
Drank to the dregs of the whiskey jar
Nineteen thirty when the Wall caved in (note c)
He made his way selling red-eyed gin (note d)
[chorus]
Delilah Jones was the mother of twins
Two times over and the rest were sins
Raised eight boys, only I turned bad (note e)
Didn't get the lickings that the other ones had
[chorus]
Tumble-down shack in Big Foot County
Snowed so hard that the roof caved in
Delilah Jones went to meet her God
And the old man never was the same again
Daddy made whiskey and he made it well
Cost two dollars and it burned like hell (note f)
I cut hickory just to fire the still
Drink down a bottle and you're ready to kill (note g)
[chorus]
And it looks like the old man's getting on
[?] my older brother, his name was Ben
My sister died at the age of ten
We followed up to the burying ground
Was the first time Daddy's tears hit the ground
First came school, and then came the law
[...] and the wall [...]
But I grew up just a little too slow
I moved over into Arkansas
When I went back it was twenty years' later
[?]
[?]
Tears were falling at the place again
[I think the next bit is a fragment from a different song]
My moma they were gone [...], lay down, lay down
[...] in her arms, saying baby, babe lay down
Lay down
Lay down
And I see your slumber [...]
Recordings from dead.net Tapers Section
"The Dead" Concert Recordings
Ratdoglive CDs and downloads
Phil Lesh and Friends Digital Download Series
Furthur Digital Downloads and CDs
Weir-Robinson-Greene Trio Live!
Bob Weir Solo Acoustic Live!
| Covers etc | |||||
| Date | Album | Recorded By | |||
| 1986 | Fiesta En La Biblioteca | Pontiac Brothers (note 2) | |||
| 1990 | Box Of Rain | Robert Hunter | |||
| 1995 | Live At The Dock Street Theatre | Blue Dogs | |||
| 2000 | Dead Grass | Vassar Clements | |||
| 2003 | Bringin It Back | The Orchard Boys | |||
| 2004 | 20 Degrees Of Solitude | The Grass Is Dead | |||
| 8 Feb 2006 | Live At The Fillmore | Grateful Grass | |||
| 2008 | Fennario: Songs by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter | Emory Joseph | |||
| 2008 | Under the Influence: Drinking Songs, Vol. 1 | P.J.Elliott | |||
| 2010 | One Hesher, Two Punks And A Hippy | Punk Is Dead | |||
| 26 May 2011 | Jerry Jams for Rex II | Chris Robinson Brotherhood | |||
| 2012 | Run For The Roses | Tim Bluhm et al (Rex Foundation) | |||