Box of Rain

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

"Box of Rain" is a song by the Grateful Dead, off their 1970 album American Beauty. Written by bassist Phil Lesh and lyricist Robert Hunter and sung by Lesh.[1]

Contents

[edit] The song

  • Key: G
  • Time signature: 4/4 (with an occasional 2/4 measure)
  • Chords used: A, Bm7/A, Asus4, D, Am, Em, C, G, Bm

"Box of Rain" is mainly acoustic and delves into the folk and country roots of a lot of the Dead's music, like most of the songs on American Beauty and their other 1970 release Workingman's Dead. As the first song on American Beauty, is was the first Grateful Dead song released on record to feature Phil Lesh as the lead vocalist. At concerts in later years, fans would encourage Phil to sing the song by chanting, "Let Phil sing!"[2][3]

The song also featured two non-Dead members in crucial roles. Dave Torbert played bass, while Lesh played acoustic guitar. David Nelson plays the lead guitar with a Fender Telecaster equipped with a Parsons/White B-Bender, while Jerry Garcia plays the piano.

[edit] Lyrics

According to lyricist Hunter, Lesh "wanted a song to sing to his dying father and had composed a piece complete with every vocal nuance but the words. If ever a lyric 'wrote itself,' this did—as fast as the pen would pull."[2][3] Lesh practiced the song driving to the nursing home where his father lay with terminal cancer.

Many of the lyrics to this song are reminiscent of the song "Ripple", which opens the second side of the album. Images of water abound in both, as well as references to "broken" or "hand-me-down" "thoughts". The image of a "box of rain" originates, according to Hunter: "By 'box of rain,' I meant the world we live on, but 'ball' of rain didn't have the right ring to my ear, so box it became, and I don't know who put it there."

The line "moth before a flame" echoes several proverbs, such as "the fate of the moth in the flame"—Aeschylus, Fragments (Fragment #288). The line "long long time to be gone and a short time to be there" echoes Pete Seeger's "Little Birdie", which includes the line "I've a short while to be here, and a long time to be gone." Fittingly, this was also the last line ever sung at a Grateful Dead concert, during the final encore at Soldier Field in Chicago on July 9, 1995.

[edit] Performance history

"Box of Rain" debuted on September 17, 1970 at the Fillmore East in New York City during the acoustic portion of the show. The Grateful Dead played it on and off during 1972 and 1973, only reviving it on March 20, 1986 at the Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia. After that, the song was frequently played in response to chants from the audience of "We want Phil!"

[edit] Audio sample

[edit] Cover versions

Cover versions of "Box of Rain" have been done by Nicki Holland and Toni Brown.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Greadful Dead, the Illustrated Trip, page 124
  2. ^ a b Garcia, 197
  3. ^ a b Greadful Dead, the Illustrated Trip, page 121

[edit] References

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../b/o/x/Box_of_Rain_e9a1.html"