That said, actually having the words didn’t do that much to clarify anything, and I think that’s just exactly what Robert Hunter would have wanted. It wasn’t until David Gans published an interview with Robert Hunter in BAM magazine, which included the lyrics to “China Cat Sunflower,” that I had any real inkling what was being sung. My transcription didn’t get very far using this method. I couldn’t believe the intricacy! I couldn’t fathom how it was being done.Īnd I don’t think I actually understood very many of the words-they were more like part of the instrumentation, like the poetry of HD Moe that I later came to love because he used words in this way to create a stained-glass verbal image.įirst, I started in the time-honored method of lifting the needle from the groove and setting it back just a bit to try to catch the words. I lay on the floor of their living room, and stared at the cottage-cheese ceiling, and watched the patterns form and re-form there, to the music that was playing-such a delicate constellation of intertwined guitar notes. And that night, I put it on my parents’ record player-an old Magnavox console-when they were somewhere out and about, and listened. She told me I should buy the triple Europe ’72 album, so I did. She was a huge Deadhead, and I was a neophyte.
I was home for Christmas break from college, and a friend and I went shopping for records. I relish each new dive into this song.Īnd I’m not sure why this is. I don’t tire of the interplay between the words and the music. I don’t tire of it musically, or lyrically. And I have spent many hours with it over the years, never getting tired of it. This song opened my ears to the band in a big way. And in particular the Europe ’72 recording. I mean, if I had to whittle it all down to just one song I could bring with me, this would be it. Celebrating the start of a new year seems like an appropriate occasion, so let’s look at what is probably my number one desert-island song. I wasn’t sure exactly why, but I had been saving “China Cat Sunflower” for a special occasion. (I’ll consider requests for particular songs-just private message me!)
CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER INSTAGRAM FREE
Therefore, the best part, I would hope, would not be anything in particular that I might have to say, but rather, the conversation that may happen via the comments over the course of time-and since all the posts will stay up, you can feel free to weigh in any time on any of the songs! With Grateful Dead lyrics, there’s always a new and different take on what they bring up for each listener, it seems. The circle of white plaster left beneath: a memory of stolen life.Here’s the plan-each week, I will blog about a different song, focusing, usually, on the lyrics, but also on some other aspects of the song, including its overall impact-a truly subjective thing. In a burnt down house, a decorative dinner plate falls off the soot-stained wall. Recorded live at the Digout Studio, Kharkiv, Ukraine, 2022 Translated/adapted into Ukrainian by Eugene Manko That promise is now a reminder of the world before it was upended.Ĭhina Cat Sunflower: music by Jerry Garcia, lyrics by Robert Hunter On their Youtube post in January, the band promised more music this year. Recorded a month before the war began, but with a great sense of apprehension.Ī Grateful Dead cover made for #deadcoversproject2022, China Cat Sunflower had followed La Horsa Bianca throughout their history, the lyrics a translation of Hunter's poetry into Ukrainian, the arrangement a snapshot of how the song evolved together with this band, as Dead music does.
Olga (keyboards at LHB) works as one of their coordinators. All proceeds from this album will be directed to Dopomoha.Kharkiv, a local relief organisation run by friends on the ground. Our home Ukraine is kept alive by fundraising today. Today we release an audio version of this track. A month before the war began, but with a building sense of apprehension, the Ukrainian psychedelic art rock band La Horsa Bianca recorded a Grateful Dead cover.
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