Dead Songs in Depth

    
He's Gone
w: Hunter m: Garcia
AGDL: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/gone.html
LASF: http://www.whitegum.com/songfile/HE1SGONE.HTM
  

    
He's Gone 
Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Jerry Garcia


Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

Rat in a drain ditch, caught on a limb
You know better, but I know him

Like I told you, like I said
Steal your face right off your head

Chorus
And now he's gone
Now he's gone, Lord he's gone
He's gone
Like a steam locomotive rolling down the track
He's gone, gone, and nothing's gonna bring him back
He's gone

Nine mile skid on a ten mile ride
Hot as a pistol but cool inside

Cat on a tin roof, dogs in a pile
Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile

[chorus]

Going where the wind don't blow so strange
Maybe off on some high cold mountain range
Lost one round but the price wasn't anything
A knife in the back and more of the same

Same old
Rat in a drain ditch, caught on a limb
You know better, but I know him

Like I told you, like I said
Steal your face right off your head

[chorus]

Ooh, nothing's gonna bring him back
Ooh, nothing's gonna bring him back
Ooh, nothing's gonna bring him back
[etc]
  

    


Dr. Paul Smith writes:



Well, there's always the risk that in my ignorance, I'm rehashing something
that's been mentioned countless times already, but... I'm surprised to see
that in the discussion of the line "Steal your face right off your head" in
He's Gone, there's no mention of French director George Franju's 1959 Cinema
fantastique classic "Les yeux sans visage" ("Eyes without a face"). It's
about a doctor who, yes, steals faces from young women in order to graft them
onto the destroyed face of his daughter. She was terribly disfigured in an
accident that he caused.

It's a particularly timely film right now in light of last week's apparently
successful face transplant by French doctors.

Dr. Paul Smith
Alverno College
Milwaukee
  

    
Wasn't there a Billy Idol song called "Eyes without a Face"?
  

    
Yes.
  

    

Does any one know of a list of dedications they've done?  I know about Bobby
Sands (5/6/81), Len Bias (date?), and I'm pretty sure they dedicated it to
Sonny Heard at the Greek.  Any others?
  

    
5/12/81 for Bob Marley
  

    
Thanks!
  

    
and it looks like the Len Bias dedication was 6/21/86 (according to
setlist.com)


the Marley one i knew was the day after he died. that one choked me up big
time.
  

    
In 'The Transmigration of Timothy Archer' by Philip K Dick (1982) in
Chapter 11:

'"The world is awful." That says it all. This is what we pay composers
and painters and the great writers to do: tell us this; from figuring
this out they can earn a living. What masterful, incisive insight. What
penetrating intelligence. A rat in a drain ditch could tell you the
same thing, were it able to talk.'

There is no doubt that Dick was aware of the Grateful Dead. Not only
did he live in California, in and around San Francisco, from 1965, he
specifically mentions the Grateful Dead in 'Valis' (1981), Chapter 1:

'"My favorite Grateful Dead album is Workingman's Dead," Gloria said
at one point. "But I don't think they should advocate taking cocaine. A
lot of kids listen to rock."

"They don't advocate it. The song's just about someone taking it. And
it killed him, indirectly; he smashed up his train." [Horselover Fat ie
Dick's alter ego]

"That's why I started on drugs," Gloria said.

"Because of the Grateful Dead?"'
  

    
!!!
  

    
Good one
  

    
Fantastic reference! Thank you.
  

    
I just finished reading the three volume set of Dick novels published
by The Library of America, 13 novels in two months, a feast of ideas.
  

    <scribbled by icenine Sat 8 Mar 14 12:33>
  

    
Thanks for the reminders of the quotes about the Grateful Dead in
PKD's works...back in the late 90's, I joined the the Phillip K.Dick
Society which was a bunch of us who truly appreciated this genius...we
got a monthly newsletter written by the founder of the Society (who was
his biographer)about all things Dickian...have been gratified to see
some of his works make it to films esp. Blade Runner which was the
closest depiction of his work, in my humble opinion...have devoured his
works, lo these many years...since I have collected posters for over
30 years, my favorite reference of his was when one do his characters
traveled to Japan, in the true Japanese tradition, the gift upon the
initial meeting with his Japanese counterpart was a poster from the
60's...do not remember if it was a Grateful Dead poster or not and do
not have the specific reference or novel since all my collection of
books is at home and would have to research it, anyhoo...nuff said
  

    
One of the proto-versions of the Valis trilogy (Radio Free Albemuth, I
think) has a whole subplot where a rock band is trying to subliminally
suggest that Nixon joined the Communist Party, and the song is clearly
an allusion to "Golden Road" and the weird overlapping/round style of
the "Join the... " "Come and..." "...party every day."
  

    

Weir: "This was about Lenny."
Welnick: "Lenny Bruce?"
Weir: "Lenny Hart, a manager that we had. That's what Hunter says."
Garcia: "Yeah, that that's the discrepancy. He keeps saying it's about Lenny,
but we wrote this way after Lenny was gone... for a while, he was saying it's
about Nixon. But we wrote it way before Nixon was gone. I don't think we can
trust Hunter on this. What the fuck does he know? He just writes 'em."
Kidd: [laughs]
Weir: "Well, you made Candelario laugh."
Garcia: "Is that a bad sign or a good sign?"

8/28/90 rehearsal
  

    
Hah!
  

    

For the record, Hunter told me in November 1977 that it was about Lenny Hart.
  

    
but  "what the fuck does he know? He just writes 'em" I love that
line, especially when applied to fate music. Various band members
have described instances where the musician came off stage thinking
they had an off night, but other members, audiences or the tapes
(like the 2/14/68 show Garcia discusses in the movie) think it was
great. Prompting me to think "what the fuck do they know, they just
play them".
  

    
heh yeah!
  

    
Hunter was asked about the origins of the song in an interview in
Relix Volume #5 Issue #2:

Relix: Who was the inspiration for "He's Gone"?
Hunter: Lenny.
Relix: Lenny of Hart? Great. [laughter]
Hunter: I warned them about him from the beginning. That song just
contained more warning: "Rat in a drain ditch out on a limb/You know
better than I know him". 
  

    
You know better BUT I know him!
  

    
It may have been written about Lenny Hart but whenever it was played
it seemed to apply to some other passing. As a part of the crowd my
first thought was for Pigpen. 
  

    
That is true.