Here Comes Sunshine

Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Jerry Garcia

Wake of the flood, laughing water, forty nine
Get out the pans, don't just stand there dreaming, get out the way
Get out the way

Chorus
Here comes sunshine
Here comes sunshine (note 1)

Line up a long shot, maybe try it two times, maybe more
Good to know you got shoes to wear, when you find the floor
Why hold out for more

[chorus]

Asking you nice now, keep the mother rolling, one more time
Been down before, you just don't have to go no more (note 2)
No more

[chorus]
Notes
(1) the manuscript lyrics (auctioned in 2002) have "One more time, one more time for music" at the end of the choruses
(2) the manuscript lyrics have "you may not have to go no more"
(3) the manuscript lyrics have an extra verse:
Wake of the flood, laughing water, in and out the door
Get out the boats, don't you stand there dreaming
Get out the way
(thanks to Jessie Jarnow for pointing this out)

Grateful Dead Recordings
     Date Album
     studio 1973 Wake Of The Flood (note 4)
     studio 1973 (demo) Wake Of The Flood (50th Anniversary Edition)
     24 Mar 1973 Dave's Picks Volume 32
     28 Mar 1973 Dave's Picks Volume 16
      2 Apr 1973 Dave's Picks Volume 21
     13 May 1973 Here Comes Sunshine
     20 May 1973 Here Comes Sunshine
     26 May 1973 Here Comes Sunshine
     10 Jun 1973 Here Comes Sunshine
     10 Jun 1973 30 Days Of The Dead (2017)
     22 Jun 1973 Pacific Northwest '73-'74
     26 Jun 1973 Pacific Northwest '73-'74
      7 Sep 1973 Dave's Picks Volume 38 (bonus disc)
     30 Oct 1973 Listen To The River: St Louis '71 '72 73
      9 Nov 1973 Winterland 1973 - The Complete Recordings
     14 Nov 1973 30 Trips Around The Sun (note 3)
     17 Nov 1973 Dave's Picks Volume 5 (note 2)
     21 Nov 1973 Road Trips Volume 4, Number 3
     30 Nov 1973 Dick's Picks Vol 14
     19 Dec 1973 Dick's Picks Vol 1
     23 Feb 1974 Dave's Picks Volume 42
      9 Mar 1993 30 Days Of The Dead (2023)
     29 Mar 1993 30 Days Of The Dead (2017) (note 5)
     26 May 1993 Road Trips Vol 2, No 4
 
(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
     1999 Laughing Water Jazz Is Dead
     2000 Crazy Fingers The Grass Is Dead
     2000 Might As Well The Persuasions (note 1)
      2007 Dead Symphony Lee Johnson
     2015 9 Aug 2015, Omaha, NE Yonder Mountain String Band (note 6)
     2016 Day Of The Dead Real Estate
     2019 Dead Air Minor Poet
     2019 Chip's Picks Vol 1 High Time

Notes
(1) re-released in 2011 on "Persuasions of the Dead"
(2) also made available for download on 30 Days Of The Dead (2012)
(3) also on the compilation 30 Trips Around The Sun: The Definitive Live Story 1965-1995
(4) also released as the Grateful Dead 7" single volume 8.
(5) also made available for download on 30 Days Of The Dead (2020)
(6) The list above includes only one illustrative example of the series of live recordings by these bands. For a full list see the Grateful Dead Family Discography.

Background
Robert Hunter's "Box Of Rain" has this note:
"Remembering the great Vanport, Washington flood of 1949, living in other people's homes, a family abandoned by father; second grade."
This site has background information on the flood referred to.


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 online chords and TAB see www.rukind.com
For sheet music, see:
          Grateful Dead Songbook Volume 2 (piano arrangement)
          Garcia/Hunter Songbook (vocal line and chords/TAB)

 


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