Our challenge for Song Lyric Sunday this week is to post something from a band that you wish were still together. I know what you’re thinking – the good old Grateful Dead, right?

Wrong. Some might argue that the GD legacy lives on through ‘Dead and Company’ (and some earlier, similar iterations) but for me the Grateful Dead ended when Jerry Garcia died. What remains seems to have morphed into a franchise. Las Vegas residencies? Oh, please.

So, here is a song by the Jerry Garcia Band, the great man’s side project. This itself took many forms and many changes in line-up, with Jerry and bassist John Kahn the only ever-presents. Here from 1978 they are joined by Keith and Donna Godchaux from the Grateful Dead, as well as Maria Muldaur.

I love to hear that rhapsody in red
It just knocks me right out of my head
Lifts me up here, just floating’s around
Sends me way up and it don’t let me down

I love to hear that rhapsody in red
On my feet or laid back in my bed
Takes me way back where I don’t mind
Takes me way back in my time, my time

Sail away on that rhapsody in red
Don’t care where those other rainbows led
With all those northern lights just blowing away
Got no thought to relate in the same old way anyway

Love to feel it flood down to my soul
Loving feel just like in days of old
I sing blues, where has it led?
Gimme some more rhapsody in red, in red

Written by Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter and John Kahn

Song Lyric Sunday 6 October 2024