Truckin'

Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Jerry Garcia/Bob Weir/Phil Lesh

A mainstay of the Grateful Dead's concert performances, and now played by Ratdog, Phil Lesh & Friends, The Other Ones etc.

Truckin' got my chips cashed in
Keep truckin' like the doodah man
Together, more or less in line
Just keep truckin' on

Arrows of neon and flashing marquees out on Main Street (note 1)
Chicago, New York, Detroit and it's all the same street (note 7)
Your typical city involved in a typical daydream
Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings

Dallas got a soft machine
Houston too close to New Orleans
New York got the ways and means
But just won't let you be

Most of the cats that you meet on the street speak of true love
Most of the time they're sitting and crying at home
One of these days they know they gotta get going (note 2)
Out of the door and down to the street all alone

Truckin' like the doodah man
Once told me "Gotta play your hand
Sometimes the cards ain't worth a dime
If you don't lay them down"

Sometimes the lights all shining on me
Other times I can barely see
Lately it occurs to me
What a long strange trip it's been

What in the world ever became of sweet Jane?
She lost her sparkle you know she isn't the same (note 4)
Living on reds and vitamin C and cocaine (note 5)
All her friends can say is ain't it a shame (note 6)

Truckin' up to Buffalo
Been thinking you got to mellow slow
Takes time, you pick a place to go
Just keep truckin' on

Sitting and staring out of the hotel window
Got a tip they're gonna kick the door in again
Like to get some sleep before I travel
But if you got a warrant I guess you're gonna come in

Busted down on Bourbon Street
Set up like a bowling pin
Knocked down, it gets to wearing thin
They just won't let you be

You're sick of hanging around, you'd like to travel
Get tired of travelling you want to settle down
I guess they can't revoke your soul for trying
Get out of the door, light out and look all around (note 3)

Sometimes the lights all shining on me
Other times I can barely see
Lately it occurs to me
What a long strange trip it's been

Truckin' I'm a going home
Whoa, whoa, baby, back where I belong
Back home, sit down and patch my bones
And get back truckin' on

Robert Hunter sings an additional verse (never sung by the Dead so far as I know):
Once in a while when the music gets into the street
Fifty old ladies buck every cop on the beat
They're putting the lock on Lindley Meadow and Kezar
Beginning to look like we can't play in the park

S.F. - that's an open town
Sometimes, it even makes a sound
Caution, spread the word around
Before them mother-truckers close it down
Robert Hunter threw in a couple of additional verses in performances in the early 1980s:
Enjoy yourself if just because
It's later than you thought it was
Just in case you're in the pink
It's later than you thought, I think

Enjoy yourself if only that
There's more than one way to skin a cat
Start at the teeth and keep it neat
So even skinned he lands on his feet
Notes
(1) in early versions, Weir sang "Garlands of neon ...", and in the next line "Detroit, Chcago, New York ..."
(2) Sometimes "One of these days they know they better be going
(3) in early versions, Weir sang "Get out of the door, strike out ..."

Bob Weir often varied some lines - or in some cases screwed up or forgot the lyrics. Examples of variations include:

(4) Variants on this line included: (5) Variants on this line included: (6) Variants on this line included: (7) Bob Weir sometimes varied this depending on where the band was playing. So for example: Thanks to Todd Corey, David Bader and others for spotting these variations

See also the Pop-O-Pies variations on the lyrics.

Grateful Dead Recordings

Dead-related Recordings

Tribute Albums

Covers By Other Artists

Single version
The single version is cut as follows:
Truckin' got my chips cashed in
Keep truckin' like the doodah man
Together, more or less in line
Just keep truckin' on

Arrows of neon and flashing marquees out on Main Street
Chicago, New York, Detroit and its all the same street
Your typical city involved in a typical daydream
Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings

Dallas got a soft machine
Houston too close to New Orleans
New York got the ways and means
But just won't let you be

[cut]

What in the world ever became of sweet Jane?
She lost her sparkle you know she isn't the same
Living on reds and vitamin C and cocaine
All her friends can say is ain't it a shame

Truckin' up to Buffalo
Been thinking you got to mellow slow
Takes time, you pick a place to go
Just keep truckin' on

[cut]

You're sick of hanging around, you'd like to travel
Get tired of travelling you want to settle down
I guess they can't revoke your soul for trying
Get out of the door, light out and look all around

Sometimes the lights all shining on me
Other times I can barely see
Lately it occurs to me
What a long strange trip it's been

Truckin' I'm a going home
Whoa, whoa, baby, back where I belong
Back home, sit down and patch my bones
And get back truckin' on
There were a number of earlier "Truckin'" songs. One was recorded in 1935 by Fats Waller and by the Mills Blue Rhythm Band, written by Rube Bloom and Ted Koehler. It was described in "Hit Songs, 1900-1955":
"Truckin' was a dance step and a "hep" expression, as in "truckin' on down". The dance step was difficult to describe in words, but it had an arm extended, elbow bent and index finger wagging, while the feet shuffled forward and sideways with toes turned out. One source suggested that the feet 'sloshed'."
Lyrics:
We had to have something new
A dance to do
Up here in Harlem
So, everyone start truckin'

As soon as the news got round
The folks downtown
Came up to Harlem
Saw everybody truckin'

It didn't take long
Before the high-hats were doing it
'Park Avenuing' it
All over town
You see them shufflin', shufflin', shufflin'

It spread like a forest blaze
Became a craze
Thanks to Harlem now
Everybody's truckin'

It didn't take long
Before the high-hats were doing it
'Park Avenuing' it
All over town
You see them shufflin', shufflin', shufflin'

It spread like a forest blaze
Became a craze
Thanks to Harlem now
Everybody's truckin'
A separate "Truckin'" song was Blind Boy Fuller's 1935 song "Truckin My Blues Away"
I got a gal here in this town, the best-lookin' brown around
I got a gal in this town, the best-lookin' brown around
She's a strictly tailor-made, she ain't no hand-me-down
Catch you truckin' with 'em, gonna sure shoot you down
Keep on truckin', mama, truckin' my blues away
Truckin' my blues away

Keep on truckin', mama, truckin' my blues away
Keep on truckin', mama, 'til you truck my blues away
I got a gal, she's little and neat
When she starts a-truckin', man, it's so sweet
Keep on truckin', mama, truckin' my blues away
Truckin' my blues away

Keep on truckin', baby, truckin' my blues away
Keep on truckin', baby, truckin' my blues away
I know a gal, she's long and tall
When she starts truckin', make a little man squall
Keep on truckin', mama, truckin' my blues away
I mean, truckin' my blues away

Keep on truckin', baby, truckin' my blues away
Keep on truckin', mama, truckin' my blues away
She does the dance you call beedle-um-bum
Sure miss somethin' if you don't truck some
Keep on truckin', mama, truckin' my blues away
Truckin' my blues away

Keep on truckin', baby, truckin' my blues away
Keep on truckin', mama, truckin' my blues away
You don't have to hurry, you don't have to go
Wait a little while, might wanna truck some mo'
Keep on truckin', baby, truckin' my blues away
Truckin' my blues away

Keep on truckin', mama, truckin' my blues away
Keep on truckin', baby, truckin' my blues away
Make a lame man run, make a blind man see
Sure gets good when she's truckin' with me
Keep on truckin', baby, truckin' my blues away
Hot Tuna recorded a song "Keep On Truckin'" on their 1972 album "Burgers". It draws on the Blind Boy Fuller song, and another of his songs, "What's That Smells Like Fish", though it is credited to Bob Carleton.
Well now keep on truckin' mama, truckin' my blues away
Keep on truckin' mama, truckin' my blues away
Here you come mama big as sin
Tell what you been doin' by the shape you're in
So keep on truckin' mama, truckin' my blues away

If you been doin' what I think you been doin', baby, can't do that 'round here
You been doin' what I think you been doin', baby, can't do that 'round here
Here you come mama, big as hell
Tell what you been doin' by way you smell
So keep on truckin' mama, truckin' my blues away

What's that smell like fish pretty baby, I really would like to know
Tell me What's that smell like fish oh mama, I really would like to know
That ain't puddin' baby ain't no pie
It's the stuff that I got you by
So keep on truckin' mama, truckin' my blues away

Now yes, you gotta leave my house mama, get your yes yes out of my door
I said yes, you gotta leave my house mama, get your yes yes out of my door
Ashes to ashes mama, dust to dust
What you gonna do when that damn thing rusts
So keep on truckin' mama, truckin' my blues away
'Keep On Truckin' was of course a famous cartoon by Robert Crum published in 1968.


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
For online chords and TAB see www.rukind.com
For sheet music, see:
          Grateful Dead Anthology Volume 1 (piano arrangement)
          Grateful Dead Authentic Guitar Classics Volume 1 (guitar TAB)
          Grateful Dead Songbook Volume 1 (piano arrangement)
          Hundred Year Hall songbook (guitar TAB)
          Very Best Of The Grateful Dead (guitar TAB)

For an interesting analysis of the origins and early performances, see Truckin' and Truckin' Jams: 1970-1974

 

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