Sugaree

Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Jerry Garcia

When they come to take you down
When they bring that wagon round
When they come to call on you
And drag your poor body down

Chorus
Just one thing I ask of you
Just one thing for me
Please forget you knew my name
My darling, Sugaree (note a)

Shake it, shake it, Sugaree
Just don't tell them that you know me
Shake it, shake it, Sugaree
Just don't tell them that you know me

You thought you was the cool fool
And never would do no wrong
You had everything sewed up tight
How come you lay awake all night long

[chorus]

Well in spite of all you gained
You still have to stand out in the pouring rain
One last voice is calling you (note b)
And I guess it's time you go

[chorus]

Well shake it up now, Sugaree
I'll meet you at the jubilee
And if that jubilee don't come
Maybe I'll meet you on the run

[chorus]

"Sugaree was written soon after I moved from the Garcia household to China Camp. People assume the idea was cadged from Elizabeth Cotten's Sugaree, but, in fact, the song was originally titled 'Stingaree,' which is a poisonous South Sea manta. The phrase 'just don't tell them that you know me' was prompted by something said by an associate in my pre-Dead days when my destitute circumstances found me fraternizing with a gang of minor criminals. What he said, when departing, was: 'Hold your mud and don't mention my name.'

"Why change the title to 'Sugaree'? Just thought it sounded better that way, made the addressee seem more hard-bitten to bear a sugar-coated name. The song, as I imagined it, is addressed to a pimp. And yes, I knew Libba's song, and did indeed borrow the new name from her, suggested by the 'Shake it' refrain."

After "Your Country" (my new CD which contains said Garcia cover) was released, a friend who happens to be a Deadhead pointed out in barely concealed disgruntlement that I had sung the word "raygun" in the first verse when the word is actually "wagon," thus pretty much destroying the entire meaning of the number! Oh well, happens with most of the covers of my stuff, so I guess it was my turn screw with the writers' heads, one of whom - a bloke named Hunter I believe - may well be still alive (although Jerry most certainly is not).