Weather Report Suite Part I

Lyrics: Bob Weir, Eric Andersen
Music: Bob Weir

Part 1 of the Weather Report Suite. It was played live only in 1973 and 1974. In an interview with Alan Paul in 2001, Bob Weir explained:

"The fast part (i.e. Let It Grow) was one of the few times Barlow and I sat and wrote words and music simultaneously. The slow part was written completely separately. I liked the music but it sounded like a love song, which is not my forte. Then Eric Andersen and I got a bottle of whiskey and wrote this sappy love song. I always hated what we did, which is why that part of the song vanished for years. Those words couldn’t pass my lips without me visibly retching, and I’m not going to do anything that I’m embarrassed about walking into. I do enough stuff that I’m embarrassed about after the fact!”

Winter rain, now tell me why
Summers fade and roses die
The answer came, the wind and rain

Golden hills now veiled in gray
Summer leaves have blown away
Now what remains, the wind and rain

And like a desert spring my lover comes and spreads her wings
(Knowing)
Like a song that's born to soar the sky
(Flowing)
Till the waters all are dry
(Growing)
The loving in her eyes

Circle songs and sands of time
And seasons will end in tumbled rhyme
And little change, the wind and rain

And like a desert spring my lover comes and spreads her wings
(Knowing)
Like a song that's born to soar the sky
(Flowing)
Till the rivers all are dry
(Growing)
The loving in her eyes

Winter gray and falling rain
We'll see summer come again
Darkness fall and seasons change
(Gonna happen every time)
Same old friends the wind and rain
(We'll see summer by and by)
Winter gray and falling rain
(Summers fade and roses die)
We'll see summer come again
(Like a song that's born to sail the skies)

[minor variants on one page]
Summer must end and roses die
Soft like a desert spring
Like a song that's born to sail the skies

[more substantial variants on second page]
Line instead of "like a desert spring":
Chilling (?) wind blowing a symphony [...] comes to me
Never change, the wind and rain
Line instead of second time "like a desert spring":
My lover comes to me, hush the wind and calm the sea
Like a sage (?) that's born to sail the skies