Doin' That Rag

Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Jerry Garcia

Sitting in Mangrove Valley chasing light beams
Everything wanders from baby to Z
Baby baby pretty young on Tuesday
Old like a rum drinking demon at tea
Baby, baby, tell me what's the matter
Why, why tell me, what's your why now
Tell me why will you never come home
Tell me what's your reason if you got a good one
Everywhere I go the people all know
Everyone's doin' that rag
Everywhere I go the people all know
Everyone's doin' that rag

Take my line, go fishing for a Tuesday
Maybe take my supper, eat it down by the sea
Gave my baby twenty, forty good reasons
Couldn't find any better ones in the morning at three
Rain gonna come but the rain gonna go
Stepping off sharply from the rank and file
Awful cold and dark like a dungeon (note a)
Maybe get a little bit darker 'fore the day (note b)
Hipsters, tripsters, real cool chicks, sir
'Cause everyone's doin' that rag
Hipsters, tripsters, real cool chicks, sir
'Cause everyone's doin' that rag

You needn't gild the lily, offer jewels to the sunset
No one is watching or standing in your shoes
Wash your lonely feet in the river in the morning
Everything promised is delivered to you
Don't neglect to pick up what your share is (note c)
All the winter birds are winging home now
Hey, love, go and take a look around you
Nothing out there you haven't seen before now
But you can wade in the water and never get wet
If you keep on doin' that rag
Wade in the water and never get wet
If you keep on doin' that rag

One eyed jacks and the deuces are wild
And the aces are crawling up and down your sleeve
Come back here, baby Louise
And tell me the name of the game that you play
Is it all fall down; is it all go under
Is it all fall down; is it all go under
[etc]

Everywhere I go (note d)
The people all know
Everybody's doin' that rag
Notes
(a) sometimes "Awful cold and damp like a dungeon"
(b) it sounds as if Garcia almost always sang "Maybe get a little bit dark before the day"
(c) sometimes "Don't forget to pick up what your share is"
(d) this portion is on the original Aoxomoxoa LP mix and on the live Fillmore version, but was edited from the LP remix and the CD version of Aoxomoxoa

Grateful Dead Recordings
     Date Album
     studio 1969 Aoxomoxoa (note 1)
     24 Jan 1969 Aoxomoxoa (2019 bonus disc)
     11 Feb 1969 Fillmore East 2-11-69
     22 Feb 1969 30 Trips Around The Sun (note 2)
     27 Feb 1969 Fillmore West 1969 -The Complete Recordings
     28 Feb 1969 Fillmore West 1969 -The Complete Recordings
      1 Mar 1969 Fillmore West 1969 - The Complete Recordings
      2 Mar 1969 Fillmore West 1969 - The Complete Recordings
     22 Apr 1969 30 Days Of The Dead (2014)
     25 Apr 1969 30 Days Of The Dead (2016) (note 3)
     26 Apr 1969 Dick's Picks Vol 26
     24 May 1969 Road Trips Volume 4, Number 1
     28 Jun 1969 30 Days Of The Dead (2019)
     30 Aug 1969 30 Days Of The Dead (2018)
Notes
(1) also on the compilation What A Long Strange Trip It's Been
(2) also on the compilation 30 Trips Around The Sun: The Definitive Live Story 1965-1995
(3) also included in the compilation 30 Days Of The Dead (2018). And before that made available for download as an outtake from So Many Roads (1965-1995)


Further Information
For an online discussion of the lyrics to this song see the deadsongs.vue conference on The Well.
For more information on recordings see Matt Schofield's Grateful Dead Family Discography
For information on references in the lyrics see David Dodd's Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics
For David Dodd's discussion of this song on dead.net see Greatest Stories Ever Told
For online chords and TAB see www.rukind.com
For sheet music, see:
          Garcia/Hunter Songbook (vocal line and chords/TAB)

 


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