It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

Lyrics: Bob Dylan
Music: Bob Dylan

The Grateful Dead played this (sung by Garcia) all the way through from 1966 to 1995 - though with long gaps in the 1970s. He also played it once with the Jerry Garcia Band in 1981. Bob Weir began playing it with Ratdog during the 1997 Furthur Festival.

Garcia's version is very close to the Dylan original.

You must leave now, take what you need, you think will last
But whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast
Yonder stands your orphan with his gun
He's crying like a fire in the sun
Look out, all the saints are coming through
And it's all over now, Baby Blue

The highway is for gamblers, you'd better use your sense
Take what you have gathered from coincidence
The empty-handed painter from your streets
Is drawing crazy patterns on your sheets
The sky, too, is folding over you (note 1)
And it's all over now, Baby Blue

All your seasick sailors, they are rowing home
Your empty-handed army is all going home
The lover who just walked out your door
Has taken all his blankets from the floor
The carpet, too, is moving under you (note 1)
And it's all over now, Baby Blue

Leave your stepping stones behind, there's something calls for you
Forget the dead you've left, they will not follow you
The vagabond who's rapping at your door
Is standing in the clothes that you once wore
Strike another match, go start anew
And it's all over now, Baby Blue

It's all over now, Baby Blue
It's all over now, Baby Blue
It's all over now, Baby Blue
[etc]
Notes
(1) Garcia frequently muddled up these lines, either singing "The carpet too ..." in the second verse and "The sky too ..." in the third verse, or sometimes merging them as "The sky, too, is moving over you" as on Postcards Of The Hanging. (thanks to Olav Asrkog for pointing this out).

Grateful Dead Recordings
     Date Album
     live Jul 1966 Birth Of The Dead (note a)
      1966 Vintage Dead
     29 Jul 1966 The Grateful Dead: 50th Anniversary Edition
     24 Feb 1974 Dave's Picks Volume 13
      3 Dec 1981 Postcards Of The Hanging (note b)
      6 Apr 1982 Road Trips Volume 4, Number 4
      2 Sep 1983 Dave's Picks Volume 27
      2 Apr 1989 Download Series Vol 9
     22 Mar 1990 Jerry Garcia Plays Dylan (note c)
      1 Apr 1990 Spring 1990 (The Other One)
     16 Jun 1990 View From The Vault III (video/DVD & CD soundtrack)
      6 Jul 1990 (official YouTube video only)
     16 Sep 1990 Dick's Picks Vol 9
     14 Jun 1991 View From The Vault II (video/DVD & CD soundtrack)

Notes
(a) originally released as part of the Rhino box set The Golden Road (1965-1973)
(b) also on the soundtrack to the Dylan film "Masked And Anonymous"
(c) also on the box set Spring 1990

Bob Dylan's version was originally on 'Bringing It All Back Home'.




Further Information
For more information on recordings see Matt Schofield's Grateful Dead Family Discography
For online chords and TAB see www.rukind.com

 


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