The Dwarf

Lyrics: John Barlow
Music: Bob Weir

This was written by Barlow during the sessions for Bob Weir's album "Ace" but not used. See below for the background.

These are the lyrics:

I'm just a small man
I'm not a tall man
But I got hands more quick than your eye
Don't ask for favors
Don't cheat my neighbors
Still I always get my piece of the pie
I just watch from the shadows
I know every move you make
If you should fall by the wayside
Well, that's a nasty break

My boss is a mover
Wouldn't work for a loser
He just plays in the games where the winner takes all
I may be spiteful
He thinks I'm delightful
And knows it's no crime to be three feet tall
'Cause I'm a wheel in his business
And he seems to understand
How a little left-handed critter like me
Makes a real fine right-hand man

Don't pull a fast one--it's likely to show
You're much too big--you're bound to be slow
You bank with me, boy, your money will grow
But don't ask for answers that you shouldn't know

Hustle for me, Ace
Finish in first place
I got a plan that'll set us up fine
A piece of the action
Is all that I'm askin'
I'll see you get yours when I see I've got mine
You know the big men get the spotlight
And to me it don't seem fair
But when the small man takes the front seat
He'll stuff the big men in the rear
Yeah, the small man's takin' over
You know the small man's path is clear

Bob Weir had this to say about The Dwarf in an interview with David Gans on KPFA on 14 May 1997:

Weir: There was a lyric that [John Perry] Barlow had written that I actually chickened out from singing. It was called "The Dwarf," and it was ugly. Um...

Gans: Now, wait a minute. Barlow told me that he wrote that lyric as a way of getting you to accept "Walk in the Sunshine."

Weir: Right. Basically, yeah.

Gans: [chuckle]

Caller: That's not the best song on the whole album.

Weir: No, it's not.

Caller: [chuckle]

Weir: But it would have been a lot better, I think, if I'd done "The Dwarf."

Gans: [chuckle]

Caller So you never played that song live.

Weir: No. Maybe, maybe if I can get the lyrics to that one...

Gans: I think I have -- I think Barlow gave me the lyrics --

Weir: A copy of the lyrics to "The Dwarf"?

Gans: -- to "The Dwarf. " I have it in my file. I'll fax it to you, Bob.

Weir: I don't know --

Gans: Look for it on this tour, folks.

Weir: -- we'll see, it's, uh --

Gans: We'll have banners out on the Furthur tour.

Caller: [laugh]

Weir: Among other things, it's kinda politically incorrect.

John Perry Barlow said this in his book "Mother American Night" (page 107):

"I stayed up all night with Frankie Weir, who fed me Wild Turkey and cocaine and made me write the fairly dreadful "Walk In The Sunshine." I also wrote a song based on Pär Lagerkwist's The Dwarf called "The Dwarf" that included the lyrics "I'm not a tall man / I'm a small man." It was about a horrible little Renaissance court dwarf who had no one's interests at heart. I gave it to Bobby, and so he was greatly relieved when I showed him the only slightly less terrible "Walk In The Sunshine," and I was free to go."

This is from an interview that David Gans did with John Perry Barlow on 10 January 1986 on KFOG:

[Walk in the Sunshine played]

Gans:: That song is called Walk in the Sunshine, and you Deadheads haven't heard it much 'cause I don't think the Dead have ever played it live.

Barlow:: For good reason. That's the worst song we ever wrote.

Gans:: (laughs) But I know that it could've been worse.

Barlow:: Well, that depends on how you look at it. Now I'm wondering. But at the time we were under duress, we were already in the studio, and Weir and I had been battling over this song, and my father died the night before that was written, and I had to write the song and get back, for obvious reasons. And I was feeling especially burnt out, and I wrote the first thing that came into my head, and it was just terrible.

Gans:: This?

Barlow:: Yeah, I thought so.

Gans:: Well, Bob didn't like it either, right?

Barlow:: No. It was straight out of a greeting card. Sort of a hip cosmic greeting card.

Gans:: "Go placidly amid the noise and haste..."(laughs)

Barlow:: Well, yeah. Desiderata is a lot better. Painfully obvious. It was like 14-year-old very earnest poetry. But it was all I could come up with. I was just shell-shocked. So I figured that the only way that I could get Weir to do it so I could get out of the way, whatever the consequences, was to write something that was really twisted and perverse that would make the sunny sentiments of Walk in the Sunshine seem much more palatable, and then he'd agree to do it, and then I could leave. So I wrote a song called The Dwarf.

Gans:: Based on the Lagerkvist novel.

Barlow:: Right, based on the Pär Lagerkvist novel about a very twisted little man able to manipulate everybody in power around him. It's kind of a great song, now I see, but I figured if I gave Weir this twisted song it would work. The pity was that I didn't throw away Walk in the Sunshine and just give him The Dwarf and let the devil take the hindmost. That's what I should have done. (laughs)

When Bob Weir played Walk In The Sunshine at the first concert marking the 50th anniversary of Ace, he introduced it:

"OK now, we're gonna bring out another guest but first I got to tell you all a story. And it's not a happy story, it's not a sad story, but it is weird story. When we were making the Ace record, it came down to, as it always does, it came down to the last night before the last day of sessions that I had at Wally Heider's studio in San Francisco

I had one day's session left - we'd been in there for a week or so, maybe two - I don't remember. But we had one day left and we had a bunch of vocals to do. And I still had to finish the lyrics on this tune we called the C Shuffle. But I also had to get a night's sleep.

So I was working with my old pal John Barlow on the lyrics. And I said, John, I gonna have to go to bed - I've got to be fresh in the morning: I've got to be able to sing. [He said] No problem, me and Frankie (Frankie was my girlfriend at the time) we'll stay up and we'll finish those lyrics for you. No problem.

Now John had been reading a book, I think might have been written by Gunter Grass, it was a German book called The Dwarf. And he wrote a dark set of lyrics. I mean, we're talking dark.

And he knew damn well there was no way - you know I was twenty something, in my early twenties, and it was still sort of the flower child era, and I just wasn't going to sing those lyrics, and he knew that, and he just wrote them because he wanted to.

And then he wrote another set of lyrics and he said we'll go for these. And they're sort of hippy-dippy and I think I sang them one time in the studio - just straight through. And as I recall, you can actually hear on the studio recording that my voice is starting to go at the end of the song. And that was it. I'd done singing it for the day, for the project."

Weir:		There was a lyric that [John Perry] Barlow had written that I actually chickened out from singing. It was called "The Dwarf," and it was ugly. Um...
Gans:		Now, wait a minute. Barlow told me that he wrote that lyric as a way of getting you to accept "Walk in the Sunshine."
Weir:		Right. Basically, yeah.
Gans:		[chuckle]
Caller:		That's not the best song on the whole album.
Weir:		No, it's not.
Caller:		[chuckle]
Weir:		But it would have been a lot better, I think, if I'd done "The Dwarf."
Gans:		[chuckle]
Caller		So you never played that song live.
Weir:		No. Maybe, maybe if I can get the lyrics to that one...
Gans:		I think I have -- I think Barlow gave me the lyrics --
Weir:		A copy of the lyrics to "The Dwarf"?
Gans:		-- to "The Dwarf. " I have it in my file. I'll fax it to you, Bob.
Weir:		I don't know --
Gans:		Look for it on this tour, folks.
Weir:		-- we'll see, it's, uh --
Gans:		We'll have banners out on the Furthur tour.
Caller:		[laugh]
Weir:		Among other things, it's kinda politically incorrect.

[Walk in the Sunshine played]
Gans::		That song is called Walk in the Sunshine, and you Deadheads haven't heard it much 'cause I don't think the Dead have ever played it live.
Barlow::		For good reason. That's the worst song we ever wrote.
Gans::		(laughs) But I know that it could've been worse.
Barlow::		Well, that depends on how you look at it. Now I'm wondering. But at the time we were under duress, we were already in the studio, and Weir and I had been battling over this song, and my father died the night before that was written, and I had to write the song and get back, for obvious reasons. And I was feeling especially burnt out, and I wrote the first thing that came into my head, and it was just terrible.
Gans::		This?
Barlow::		Yeah, I thought so.
Gans::		Well, Bob didn't like it either, right?
Barlow::		No. It was straight out of a greeting card. Sort of a hip cosmic greeting card.
Gans::		"Go placidly amid the noise and haste..."(laughs)
Barlow::		Well, yeah. Desiderata is a lot better. Painfully obvious. It was like 14-year-old very earnest poetry. But it was all I could come up with. I was just shell-shocked. So I figured that the only way that I could get Weir to do it so I could get out of the way, whatever the consequences, was to write something that was really twisted and perverse that would make the sunny sentiments of Walk in the Sunshine seem much more palatable, and then he'd agree to do it, and then I could leave. So I wrote a song called The Dwarf.
Gans::		Based on the Lagerkvist novel.
Barlow::		Right, based on the Pär Lagerkvist novel about a very twisted little man able to manipulate everybody in power around him. It's kind of a great song, now I see, but I figured if I gave Weir this twisted song it would work. The pity was that I didn't throw away Walk in the Sunshine and just give him The Dwarf and let the devil take the hindmost. That's what I should have done. (laughs)