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!”
Lyrics:
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)
Notes
(a) Jesse Jarnow kindly sent me two versions of the lyrics in Bob Weir's hand-writing, with the following minor differences:
[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

Grateful Dead Recordings
     Date Album
     (studio) 4 Aug 1973 Wake Of The Flood   (note 1)
     (studio) Aug 1973 Wake Of The Flood   (note 3)
      8 Sep 1973 Dave's Picks Volume 38
     30 Oct 1973 Listen To The River: St Louis '71 '72 73
     1 Nov 1973 Wake Of The Flood (50th Anniversary Edition bonus disc)
      9 Nov 1973 Winterland 1973 - The Complete Recordings
     10 Nov 1973 Winterland 1973 - The Complete Recordings
     11 Nov 1973 Winterland 1973 - The Complete Recordings
     21 Nov 1973 Road Trips Volume 4, Number 3
     23 Nov 1973 30 Days Of The Dead (2021)
     23 Nov 1973 30 Days Of The Dead (2021)
     30 Nov 1973 Dick's Picks Vol 14
      2 Dec 1973 Dick's Picks Vol 14
      8 Dec 1973 30 Days Of The Dead (2011)
     19 Dec 1973 Dick's Picks Vol 1
     23 Feb 1974 Dave's Picks Volume 42   (note 4)
     24 Feb 1974 Dave's Picks Volume 13
     23 Mar 1974 Dick's Picks Vol 24
     14 May 1974 Dave's Picks Volume 9 (note 3)
     19 May 1974 Pacific Northwest '73-'74
     21 May 1974 Pacific Northwest '73-'74
     18 Jun 1974 Road Trips Number 2, Volume 3
     23 Jun 1974 Dave's Picks Volume 34
     28 Jun 1974 Dick's Picks Vol 12
     19 Jul 1974 Dave's Picks Volume 17 (note 2)
     29 Jul 1974 Dave's Picks Volume 2 (Bonus disc)
     31 Jul 1974 Dave's Picks Volume 2
      4 Aug 1974 Dick's Picks Vol 31
     10 Sep 1974 Dick's Picks Vol 7
     17 Oct 1974 Beyond Description: Bonus CD
     18 Oct 1974 Grateful Dead Movie (DVD and CD)
 
Other Recordings
     Date Album Recorded By
     1999 Laughing Water Jazz Is Dead
     2005 The 1000th Show Dark Star Orchestra
     2019 Live At The Old Church Holly Bowling
     31 Dec 2018 Rising Up To Paradise Big Swell
     2020 Seeking All That's Still Unsung Holly Bowling

Notes
(1) acoustic studio outtake issued as a bonus track on the version in the box set Beyond Description (1973-1990)
(2) also included on Best Of The Grateful Dead Hour Vol 2.
(3) also released as the Grateful Dead 7" single volume 9.
(4) also on 30 Days Of The Dead (2016)


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 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 Anthology Volume 2 (piano arrangement)
          Grateful Dead Songbook Volume 2 (piano arrangement)

 


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