Mindbender (Confusion's Prince)

Lyrics: Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh
Music: Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh

Recorded by the Grateful Dead as a demo and played a couple of times very early in the Dead's career. In an interview, Bob Weir said "Phil wrote most of the lyrics - we all contributed a little bit." The credits on "Birth Of The Dead" are just to Garcia and Lesh, though.


Confusion's Prince is at my door
The crown I wear is the one he wore
He's here to bring me down some more
And bend my mind

The friendly stranger calls my name
He only wants me for his game
But it don't matter just the same
I'll bend his mind

I'll wave my flags into the sun
I've fought my wars and now they're won
And I didn't need nobody's gun
I bent their minds

If only I could be less blind
If only I knew what to find
Everywhere and all of the time
It's bending my mind
Grateful Dead Recordings
     Date Album
     studio 3 Nov 1965 Birth Of The Dead (note 1)
     6 Feb 1966 30 Days Of The Dead (2022)
     23 Feb 1966 30 Days Of The Dead (2019)
Notes
(1) originally issued as part of the Rhino box set The Golden Road (1965-1973)


Further Information
For an online discussion of the lyrics to this song see the deadsongs.vue conference on The Well.
For more information on recordings see Matt Schofield's Grateful Dead Family Discography
For information on references in the lyrics see David Dodd's Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics
For David Dodd's discussion of this song on dead.net see Greatest Stories Ever Told

 


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