Easy Wind

Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Robert Hunter

I've been balling a shiny black steel jack-hammer
Been chipping up rocks for the great highway (note 1)
I'll live five years if I take my time
Balling that jack and drinking my wine

I been chipping them rocks from dawn till doom
While my rider hide my bottle in the other room (note 2)
Doctor say better stop balling that jack
If I live five years I'm gonna bust my back, yes I will (note 3)

Chorus
Easy wind, cross the Bayou today (note 4)
'Cause there's a whole lotta women, Mama
Out in red on the streets today (note 5)
And the river keeps a talking
But you never heard a word it said

Gotta find a woman be good to me
Won't hide my liquor, try to serve me tea
'Cause I'm a stone jack baller and my heart is true
And I'll give everything that I got to you, yes I will

[chorus]

Notes
(1) it sounds as if Pigpen sang "picking up rocks ..." on 30 August 1969.
(2) on the version on DP16, Pigpen sings "While my baby hide my bottle ..."
(3) on DP16, Pigpen sings "In another five years I'm gonna bust my back"
(4) on DP16, Pigpen starts with the chorus before before the first verse, and he sings "Easy wind, blowin' cross the Bayou today"
(5) variants that Pigpen sang include "Out dressed in red ...", "Out on the streets in red today" and "Out in red that way."

Grateful Dead Recordings
	29 Aug 1969	30 Days Of The Dead (2017)
	30 Aug 1969	30 Days Of The Dead (2019)
	8 Nov 1969	Dick's Picks Vol 16
	12 Dec 1969	Dave's Picks Volume 10
	studio 1970	Workingman's Dead (note 6)
	2 Jan 1970	Dave's Picks Volume 30
	16 Jan 1970	Workingman's Dead (note 7)
	27 Feb 1970	So Many Roads (note 9)
	15 May 1970	Road Trips Vol 3 No 3 (early show) (note 8)
	Jun/Jul 1970	Festival Express (DVD)
	31 Dec 1970	New Year's Eve At The Winterland
	19 Feb 1971	Three From The Vault
	21 Feb 1971	Workingman's Dead (50th Anniversary Edition)

(Plus live recordings by The Dead, Furthur, Dead & Company, Ratdog, Phil Lesh & Friends etc not listed here. See Grateful Dead Family Discography for a full list.)

Other Recordings
	Date	Album	Recorded By
	1985	Live '85	Robert Hunter
	20 May 2005	Live At The Sweetwater Saloon	Mark Karan's Buds
	2007	At Fine Arts Center, UMass	The American Beauty Project
	2009	Walk Through The Fire	Mark Karan
	2010	At Page Auditorium, Duke University	The American Beauty Project
	2011	Carriage House Sessions	Jeff Ray and Hurricane Harold
	9 Jul 2011	Oakland, CA	Widespread Panic
	12 Jul 2012	Live At The Iridium	Donna Jean Godchaux Band
	2015	Songs Of Their Own	The Record Company
	2016	Day Of The Dead	Bill Callahan
	2019	Dead Air	Kenneka Cook
	2024	The Mouse That Rocked: A Tribute to Stanley Mouse	Charlie Musselwhite

Notes
(6) also released on the compilation The Best Of The Grateful Dead.
(7) included as a bonus track on remastered album, first released as part of the box set The Golden Road (1965-1973). Also released for download on 30 Days Of The Dead (2010).
(8) also on Fallout From The Phil Zone
(9) an outtake from So Many Roads (1965-1995) released as a download.

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:
Grateful Dead Songbook Volume 1 (piano arrangement)