Chevrolet

Lyrics: Ed Young, Lonnie Young
Music: Ed Young, Lonnie Young

Played by the Dead at the Panhandle on 9 April 1967. It's primarily an instrumental, but Jerry sings

I'll buy you everything
I'll buy you everything

It seems that it's a fragment of the song Chevrolet. Jerry is most likely to have learnt this from the 1966 recording by Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band. That version doesn't actually have the line "I'll but you everything" but has a series of verses like:

I'll buy you a Chevrolet
I'm gonna buy you a Chevrolet
I'm gonna buy you a Chevrolet
If you'll do somethin' for me
If you'll do somethin' for me

then "I'll buy you a diamond ring" and so on.

The Jim Kweskin recording is credited to Ed and Lonnie Young, who recorded a version in, I think, 1959. That similarly has a series of "I'll buy you ..." verses, including "I'll buy you a Chevrolet". But it seems the song goes back further, to Memphis Minnie in 1930. Her version under the title "Can I Do It For You" has a similar (though different) series of "I'll buy you ..." verses, again including "I'll buy you a Chevrolet". There are, however, a range of earlier traditional English songs with the structure "I'll buy you ..." or "I'll give to ..." (though not, of course, including "Chevrolet").

Further Information
For details of every time played by the Grateful Dead, see Chris Edwards Grateful Sets site