The WELL: deadsongs.vue.17: Bertha

#26: David Dodd (ddodd) Fri 24 May 13 10:54

Fri, 24 May 2013 10:54:00 PDT

Amazing about dead.net. I thought they used your site exclusively for lyric transcriptions, Alex! [Read entire topic]

#25: beneath the blue suburban skies (aud) Fri 24 May 13 09:20

Fri, 24 May 2013 09:20:00 PDT

i always heard 'bar door' because when i first heard it i had no idea what a bardo was!

it was my first song live. 7-18-72. [Read entire topic]

#24: coal will turn to gray (comet) Fri 24 May 13 08:37

Fri, 24 May 2013 08:37:00 PDT

This is one I have always heard as "ducked back into a bardo" from the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Theodal), where bardo indicates an intermediate state, capturing the spiritual ambiguity of the song's love/hate relationship. [Read entire topic]

#23: Alex Allan (alexallan) Fri 24 May 13 07:50

Fri, 24 May 2013 07:50:00 PDT

Re: "Ducked into a bar door"

On his site, David has an annotation "I always thought, from the Skull & Roses recording, that this line said something about the town of Novato, in California. I guess not."

A correspondent (Phil Hubbard) has just pointed out to me that dead.net has the lyric as "I ducked back into Novato." Odd - especially as they took quite a lot of material from my site. I guess someone transcribed the line from listening to Skull & Roses. Hunter's "Box Of Rain" collected lyrics definitely has it as "bar door" - and for me, that fits the sense of the lyric better. [Read entire topic]

#22: Ed Hewitt (ehewitt) Fri 11 Jul 08 10:36

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:36:00 PDT

i was just poking around the topic, but thought i would share this: when i pulled up the topic, i was listening to the Grateful Dead channel on jango.com - and the "related music" that came on second later was Don't Come Around Here No More by Tom Petty. a little of the old magic in the air... [Read entire topic]

#21: David Dodd (ddodd) Mon 19 May 08 12:08

Mon, 19 May 2008 12:08:00 PDT

Posted on behalf of Eric Hanson:

Heynow, my name is Eric Hanson. I check out your annotated lyrics list now and then, and I think i've figured something out. No ones mentioned it yet but I believe the song 'Bertha' is inspired by D.H. Lawrence's 'Lady Chatterley's Lover". One of the primary characters, Oliver Mellors, has an estranged wife by the name of Bertha Coutt's. One point has him sneaking up to and away from the house after what'd been a rainy night, to try and glimpse his love, Lady Chatterley. And toward's the end of the book, he 'really had to move', as his estranged wife showed up again after a while, naked, in his bed, having broken in while he was gone. He wont' have her back, yada yada... you can check the plot summary, or you're probably quite familiar with it... But I think that was more or less the inspiration behind the song. I'd love to see this bit of trivia on that site if you think it has merit. [Read entire topic]

#20: David Dodd (ddodd) Fri 23 Dec 05 22:08

Fri, 23 Dec 2005 22:08:00 PST

Sometimes it seems like ALL this life was just a dream... [Read entire topic]

#19: searchlight casting (jstrahl) Fri 23 Dec 05 11:29

Fri, 23 Dec 2005 11:29:00 PST

There was an interview with Jerry a *long* time ago in which he said the tune was about a fan (the machine sort:-)) in the rehearsal studio that used to act up in strange ways.But like so much in Hunter lyrics, maybe that's just a takeoff point for a broader statement. OR maybe it was just a joke on Jerry's part. Or maybe it was all a dream. [Read entire topic]

#18: Marked from the Day That I was Born (ssol) Sun 18 Dec 05 18:06

Sun, 18 Dec 2005 18:06:00 PST

Right! Who was in that? There was a later film with the same title, with Gene Hackman and, I think, Sharon Stone. Before that there was a WWII movie with that name. I do seem to recall a 60's flick about fast cars with the same title.

But the consonance with the meme, "the bond between the hopefull and the damned", is nice.

So was the picture of Lon chaney as the Phantom on that old SF poster for the Fillmore. [Read entire topic]

#17: Lightning in a Box (unkljohn) Sun 18 Dec 05 14:43

Sun, 18 Dec 2005 14:43:00 PST

I think I saw an old racing movie long ago called "The Quick and the Dead". [Read entire topic]