China Doll

Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Jerry Garcia

A pistol shot at five o'clock
The bells of heaven ring
Tell me what you done it for (note a)
"No I won't tell you a thing

"Yesterday I begged you
Before I hit the ground --
All I leave behind me
Is only what I found

"If you can abide it
Let the hurdy gurdy play
Stranger ones have come by here
Before they flew away

"I will not condemn you
Nor yet would I deny ..."
I would ask the same of you
But failing, will not die ...

Take up your china doll
It's only fractured --
Just a little nervous from the fall

La la la la la la la

[Hunter] I could tell you what "China Doll' means but I really wouldn't want to get into it. "A pistol shot at five o'clock the bells of heaven ring." Do you understand what that song's about?

[Jackson] I've always assumed it was about a literal or metaphorical suicide

[Hunter] Good, 'cause one of my original titles for it was "The Suicide Song." It's almost like a ghost voice: Tell me what you done it for/No I won't tell you a thing." It's a little dialogue like that. I don't know about love being in there. I think it's a terrifying song. And then it's also got some affirmation of how it can be mended somehow. There's a bit of metaphysical content in there which I kind of leave open, not that I subscribe or don't subscribe to it. At the time it resonated right. That song is eerie and very, very beautiful the way Jerry handles it.

[Jackson] I guess I've always sensed that there's another character there, literally or figuratively, who is empathising with the main character and understanding why it's happening and saying, in effect, "It's all right."

[Hunter] Well, yeah, sort of like a guardian angel. Who knows who or what that is? This is a dangerous area for me to be talking about -- the metaphysics of my lyrics. You don't want me to start passing judgments on this.

[Jackson] I'm sorry if this makes you uncomfortable.

[Hunter] It's fine up to a point, but I'd just as soon move away from the subject of lyric interpretation. ... I know to some degree what I intended there [in "China Doll"], or I know what some of the resonances in there seem to be to me, even if I can't put too good a logical head on it. It seemed right. I trusted it. I had to.