Turn On Your Love Light

Lyrics: Scott/Malone
Music: Scott/Malone

Without a warning, you broke my heart
Taken it baby, tore it apart
And you left me standing, in the dark, cryin' (note 1)
Said your love for me was dyin'
So come on baby, baby please
I'm begging you baby, I'm on my knees
Turn on your light, let it shine on me
Turn on your love light, let it shine on me
Let it shine, let it shine, let it ...

Well I get a little lonely in the middle of the night
And I need you darling to make things all right
So come on baby, baby please
And I'm begging you baby, 'cause I'm on my knees
Turn on your light, let it shine on me
Turn on your love light, let it shine on me
Let it shine, let it shine, let it ...

Without a warning, you broke my heart
Taken it baby, torn it apart
And you left me standing, in the dark, cryin'
Said your love for me was dyin'
So come on baby, baby please
I'm begging you baby, I'm on my knees
Turn on your light, let it shine on me
Turn on your love light, let it shine on me
Let it shine, let it shine, let it ...

Well I get a little lonely in the middle of the night
And I need you baby to make things all right
So come on baby, baby please
And I'm begging you baby, 'cause I'm on my knees
Turn on your light, let it shine on me
Turn on your love light, let it shine on me

[starts getting more ad-lib from here: this is the Live/Dead version:]

Let it shine on me, let it shine on me
Let it shine on me, let it shine on me
Why don't you let it, shine on me
Why don't you let it baby, shine on me
Early in the morning, let it shine on me
Late in the evening, let it shine on me too
Well that's all I need, I just got to get some
That's all I need, I just got to get some
I just got to, I just to
Get a little more, yes I do
And I don't want it all, I just want a little bit
I don't want it all, no no no no, I just want a little bit
A little of your lovin', a little of your kissin'
A little of your rollin', that's all I want
Baby please, baby please
Baby please, baby please
Just like a stringray, on a four day ride
Now wait a minute, I wanna to tell you about my baby
I wanna tell you how come she make me feel so good
Yes she do, yes she do
I know she make me feel all right, yes she do

She's got box-back nitties (note 3)
And great big noble thighs (note 2)
Working undercover with a boar hog's eye

[etc - including, famously]
Take your hands out of your pockets and turn on your lovelight
See below for another version of Pigpen's rap

Grateful Dead Recordings
     Date Album
     22 Oct 1967 Anthem Of The Sun (2018 bonus disc)
     23 Jan 1968 Road Trips Volume 2, Number 2 (bonus disc)
     14 Feb 1968 Road Trips Volume 2, Number 2
     23 Feb 1968 Dick's Picks Vol 22
     17 Mar 1968 Download Series Vol 6
     24 Aug 1968 Two From The Vault
     20 Oct 1968 30 Trips Around The Sun
     26 Jan 1969 Live/Dead (note a)
     11 Feb 1969 Fillmore East 2-11-69
     22 Feb 1969 30 Trips Around The Sun
     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
     17 Apr 1969 Download Series Vol 12
     27 Apr 1969 Dick's Picks Vol 26
     23 May 1969 Road Trips Volume 4, Number 1
     24 May 1969 Road Trips Volume 4, Number 1
     16 Aug 1969 Woodstock - Back To The Garden
      7 Nov 1969 Dick's Picks Vol 16
     12 Dec 1969 Dave's Picks Volume 10
     20 Dec 1969 Dave's Picks Volume 6
     26 Dec 1969 Dave's Picks Volume 43
      2 Jan 1970 Dave's Picks Volume 30
     18 Jan 1970 Download Series Vol 2
     23 Jan 1970/TD> Dave's Picks Volume 19
      2 Feb 1970 Dave's Picks Volume 6
     13 Feb 1970 Dick's Picks Vol 4
     15 Apr 1970 30 Trips Around The Sun
     14 May 1970 Road Trips Vol 3 No 3
     15 May 1970 Road Trips Vol 3 No 3 (late show)
     24 Oct 1970 Dave's Picks Volume 48
     12 Apr 1971 Dave's Picks Volume 51
     27 Apr 1971 Ladies And Gentlemen ... The Grateful Dead
     30 May 1971 Winterland 1971
      4 Aug 1971 Road Trips Number 1, Volume 3 (bonus disc)
      6 Aug 1971 Dick's Picks Vol 35
     26 Apr 1972 Hundred Year's Hall (note c)
      7 May 1972 Steppin' Out with the Grateful Dead: England '72 (note c)
     24 May 1972 Rockin' The Rhein (note c)
      2 Apr 1989 Download Series Vol 9
      7 Jul 1989 Crimson, White and Indigo (DVD & CD)
     12 Jul 1989 RFK Stadium 1989 Box
     14 Mar 1990 Spring 1990 (The Other One)
     21 Mar 1990 Spring 1990 (The Other One)
     29 Mar 1990 Wake Up To Find Out (note d)
      8 Jul 1990 View From The Vault (video/DVD & CD soundtrack)
     20 Sep 1990 Road Trips Number 2, Volume 1
     14 Jun 1991 View From The Vault II (video/DVD & CD soundtrack)
     10 Sep 1991 30 Trips Around The Sun
     20 Mar 1992 30 Trips Around The Sun
 
Non-official releases
     30 Oct 1968 Hartbits (Mickey & The Hartbeats) (note b)
      7 Jun 1969 Best Of San Francisco Live (with Janis Joplin)
 
Phil Lesh and Friends Recordings
     18 May 2006 Live At The Warfield
 
Other Dead-related recordings
     Date Album Recorded By
      1999 Grateful Dreams Tom Constanten
     26 Apr 2001 Live At The Roseland Ratdog
 
Tribute albums
     Date Album Recorded By
      1997 Fire On The Mountain Reggae Celebrates The Grateful Dead Vol 2 (by "Toots")
      2001 Blues Tribute To The Grateful Dead Langhorne Slim
     2019 Phantom Ships With Phantom Sails Live Dead '69

Notes
(a) also on the compilation Skeletons From The Closet
(b) jam only - no lyrics sung
(c) also on the box set Europe '72 - The Complete Recordings
(d) also included as part of box set Spring 1990 (The Other One)

The original version is by Bobby "Blue" Bland, and is available on compilations of his work. It is also on "The Music Never Stopped - Roots Of The Grateful Dead."


Notes to the lyrics
(1) the original Bobby Bland version is "... left me sitting ..." not "standing". Some transcriptions of the lyrics have "in a dark clime" rather than "in the dark, cryin'" but that isn't what I hear.
Note also that when Bob Weir started singing this song, he sang "you stole my heart" and "your love for me was slowly dying" in this verse.
(2) a correspondent (Mike) suggests that Pigpen sings "Great big enormous thighs" or possibly "Great big and noble thighs"
(3) no one seems to know where Pigpen got these lines from. The 1993 Golden Road Annual quotes Garcia:
"He (Pigpen) loved Lord Buckley, and W.C. Fields was another of his faves. But I don't see that influence much in the music; more in him as a guy. I have no idea where he picked up most of that stuff (in the music). Some of it was bits and pieces of lyrics from old tunes that he'd pick up and then he'd extrapolate. But, like, I have no idea where he got that thing he used to sing (during "Lovelight"): 'She got box back nitties and great big noble thighs, working undercover with a boar hog's eye.' Don't ask me--I don't know what the fuck that's all about! It's some weird mojo shit or something. But he could always pull that stuff out. He could do that as long as I knew him. When he was on, he was amazing."
The following post explains a bit more:
"Box back nitties are those long flannel underwear with the flap in the back for, well, you know :) For an example, see Michael Landon in Little House On The Prairie."
The following post from Rand Hutcheson explains more about "boar hog's eye":
"A search for that phrase on Google doesn't turn up much, but it does turn up a review of a Kate Lissauer disk, and the review has some discussion of the phrase "boar hog's eye." The only helpful bit is a quotation from Lissauer herself, who notes that "I got a girl, she's got something like a boar hog's eye is a standard blues line. The remainder of the discussion, quoting sources going back to 1910 is, it seems to me, wrong, and the suggestion that "hog's eye" equals "hoagie" (a term they still use in Philadelphia for a sandwich on French bread) and is a metaphorical term for "penis" is badly wrong ("I got a girl, she got a penis"? What!?).

"The correct solution is just the reverse. The use of the word eye to refer to the female pudendum is ancient. There is a riddle in the Exeter Book, a 10th-century Anglo-Saxon poetic codex, which I translate thus:
Riddle 25
"I am a wondrous thing, a comfort to women, helpful to neighbors; I harm no city-dwellers, except my killer alone. My stem is stiff, I stand in bed, and am hairy down below. Sometimes a pretty free-mans daughter dares, stout-hearted maid, to get a grip on me, rushes upon me in my redness, ravages my head, confines me in a tight place. She will soon feel my encounter, she who forced me in, woman with braided locks. Wet will be her eye!"
"The answer to the riddle is "an onion," but with an obvious double entendre, which is carried through in the final sentence to the corresponding body part of the woman who grips it and confines it in a tight place.

"Probably the best known example of this use of the word eye occurs in Chaucer's Miller's tale, where the poet, summing up the story, says:
"And Absolon hath kissed her nether eye"
"So there is a well-established tradition in English for eye="female pudendum." As for a boar-hog's eye, I'm not particularly familiar with boar's eyes, so I can't say whether they have some special feature that makes them particularly appropriate in this context, other than that they are, well . . . hairy. "
Here are couple of examples of "boar hog's eye" in old blues songs - with a lot of similarities to what Pigpen sings:
Texas Alexander: "Bo' Hog Blues"
She got little bitty legs, gee, but below her thighs
She got little bitty legs, gee, but below her thighs
She got something on-a-yonder works like a bo' hog's eye

Geeshie Wiley: "Skinny Leg Blues"
I got little bitty legs, keep up these noble thighs
I got little bitty legs, keep up these noble thighs
Ah, gee, but below those thighs
I got something underneath and it works like a bo' hog's eye
There's a full discussion of the origins and background of these lines here

See also the appearance of these lines in Good Morning Little Schoolgirl

Here is the version of Pigpen's rap from 27 April 1971:
I wanna ask everybody now - all you fellas standin' around
Whatcha doin' with your hands right now?
You have them in your pockets? Does anybody have their hands in their pockets?
Alright, everybody raise your hands so I can see there ain't nobody got their hands in their pockets
If I find somebody who do, you in trouble, because I know you're playing pocket pool
I tell you what now, you keep your hands out of your pockets, fellas
And I'll tell you what you do with 'em
You might find some little lady standin' next to ya
All you got to reach over and say, "what's your name?"
That's all you got to do
If you want a little company this evening, don't stand around going like this
Ask some young lady, does she want to do it for you
Hey, does anybody around right down here got a little young lady on their mind
That's right around 'em?
Anybody standing down here got a young girl they'd like to take home this evening?
C'mon, raise your hand, must be somebody
All right - how would you like to go home with that chick?
Right, all you got to do is walk over and say, "hello, lady!"
Go on, go on! Just walk over, say "what's your name?"
You pick out anyone you want. Tell her Pigpen said it was OK
Go get one - c'mon, you got to catch one
You got one? Alright, what's your name? Chris and Marsha have just made it!
Now see, everybody ought to do that, man
All you fellas just walk over to some girl that you would like to get in bed with
And say, "hello". And tell her Pigpen said it was OK
And if her mother wants to complain, tell her to write to her congressman!
Ain't none of my business; I'm just makin' suggestions


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 online chords and TAB see www.rukind.com
For sheet music, see:
          Hundred Year Hall songbook (guitar TAB)

 


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