Dead Songs in Depth

    
Geez. Nice job transcribing that, Alex! 
  

    
Wow!
  

    
I wonder if those might be "place marker" lyrics that are designed to
record the rhythm scheme for a more considered later pass?
  

    
Yes, I wondered that.
  

    
I've just come across a March 1978 interview which confirms that these
must have been the original Hunter lyrics. The interview is with Denis
McNamara for 92.7 WLIR-FM Garden City, New York for the "Sunday At
9:00" program:

Hunter: "That's a song that went through a lot of transitions ... the
thing started with some kind of ... I had a melody for it [takes up
guitar and sings]

Sugar magnolia, the blossom is bare
Haven't got a thought about it, that's all I care
Chugging locomotive manicure my line
Wrote a note to tell you everybody is fine

Sugar magnolia
You can't bear to beware [?]
You can't go casting notions
With a hook in the air

"Then I passed that on to Weir and it turned into the monster that it
is. He just worked to death on it. And Weir's a hard task-master - he
wants everything to be just the way he wants it. So we went around and
around and around. And he'd go off and work on it some more, and bring
it back and demand more lyrics or better lyrics. And then when it was
all done, he wanted some extravaganza to cap it all off. So I wrote
that Sunshine Daydream thing for it right in the studio. I just went
out and wrote it down. And it turns out [Bob said] that's just fine,
and tacked it on.

"I do think that's a monster. The first time that song ever came off
was in Chicago. They had been playing it a lot but the audience had
only reacted very mildly to it. So Bob Matthews was at the soundboard
at that time, and he went off into the audience or backstage or
something like that, and there was nobody there at the sound-booth. So
I zipped in there, and Weir starts singing it, and I just cranked his
vocal up. 'Cause there was a thing that everything should be at the
same level including the voices which tended to get lost, so I just
cranked it up, and the audience just sat up, and then they had the
reaction to it at the end that they've had ever since. So from that
point, that vocal got turned up - Matthews came running back and
smacked my hands."
  

    
Awesome. Thanks! Where did you find that transcript?
  

    
I did the transcript from a recording of the interview I found on
lossless legs.
  

    
Amazing. Thank you!!
  

    
Love that. Flat out love that image of Hunter turning up the vocals.
Wow.
  

    
Great find! There is still gold in them thar hills!
  

    
Hunter: Genius Behind the Magic
  

    
Thank you again, Alex!!
  

    
that is so awesome. thanks Alex!
  

    

"She come skimmin' through rays of sunshine" - Bobby at Lock'n 8/26/18
  

    
never heard him blow Sugar Mag as badly as that one
  

    
https://www.dead.net/deadcast/american-beauty-50-sugar-magnolia