Greatest Stories Ever Told - "Ramble On Rose"

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February 7, 2013
https://www.dead.net/features/greatest-stories-ever-told/greatest-stories-ever-told-ramble-rose

Greatest Stories Ever Told - "Ramble On Rose"

By David Dodd

First, just a little background: “Ramble On Rose” was introduced on Tuesday, October 19, 1971 at the Northrop Auditorium at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. The show is noteworthy for a number of reasons. First performances at the show, besides "Ramble on Rose," included "Comes a Time," "Mexicali Blues," "One More Saturday Night" (on a Tuesday!), and "Tennessee Jed." It was also Keith Godchaux's first show. "Ramble On Rose" occupied the #2 spot in the second set, following "Truckin'," and preceding "Me and Bobby McGee."

Numbering the song among his favorites, Robert Hunter stated in an interview in Relix that "'Ramble on Rose' is a particular favorite -- there's something funny about that song."

In David Gans's Conversations with the Dead, Hunter says: "I think ‘Ramble On Rose’ is the closest to complete whimsy I've come up with. I just sat down and wrote numerous verses that tied around ‘Did you say...’ “

“Ramble On Rose” also happens to be the song that set me off on my little adventure of annotating the Grateful Dead’s lyrics. When I first started the project, I was working as a reference library assistant at the Fremont Main library in Alameda County. I was living in Oakland, commuting via BART the 30 miles each way every day to Fremont, and going to as many Dead concerts as I could. Those were some good days — I was learning about what I wanted to do with my life (become a librarian) and at the same time, seeing the Dead or Jerry with his various bands on a regular basis. The Greek, Frost, Henry Kaiser, SF Civic, Oakland Coliseum Arena, Keystone Berkeley,Cal Expo….

Where was I? Oh yeah. “Ramble On Rose.” Something about that song… I still find new stuff in there all the time. One of my biggest revelations about the song was actually from a mis-hearing. It was at the closing of Winterland show, when I clearly heard Garcia sing, “Buckle up, and buckle down, do yourself a favor.” Not the real words (and not what Jerry sang), but definitely of some import to me at the time. Hmmmm. That would be a fun component in any and all of these blog posts and subsequent conversations — what did you hear, as opposed to what the words really were? American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term “mondegreens” to refer to these creative mis-hearings. Feel free to chime in at any time with your own! (“Wake up to find out that you are disguised as a squirrel...”)

So. “Ramble On Rose.” And I am rambling. It’s a predilection of mine, to go off on tangents, and I’ve found it serves me well. I like to make strange connections. I started making the connections in this song simply by trying to figure out who all and what all was being talked about by Robert Hunter. That guy! You could be standing there, innocently listening to a rock and roll song, and BAM — he hits you right between the eyes.

I think my first foray into this kind of fact-finding was when I decided to look up the names in the song, starting with Billy Sunday. I’m not going into the whole annotation thing here (just search online for “annotated Ramble On Rose,” except to say that I was pretty surprised by the cast of characters and who they turned out to be. I mean, a tent preacher who got his start as a professional baseball player? A ragtime piano player from the 1950s named Crazy Otto? The legendary DJ Wolfman Jack? This song, if you put images with all of it, would look something like the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. A highlight of my work on the song was receiving a phone call from Johnny Maddox (aka Crazy Otto), who was still playing ragtime for a living, at a place in Durango, Colorado. We had a great conversation.

The same is true for all of the musical references in the song. I did a medley once with David Gans for his radio show featuring snippets of all the various songs and types of music in “Ramble On Rose.” Amazing! Ragtime (100 verses thereof), Irving Berlin (“leader of a band,” from ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’), the blues (“Mojo Hand”), nursery rhymes (Jack and Jill), gospel (Jericho), country (“I Walk the Line”), jazz standards (“Ramblin’ Rose”), folk (“Green Green, the Grass is Green”), and more. Here’s a link to streaming audio for that musical collage, plus some verbal commentary… with thanks to David Gans:

Click here to listen.

Top left going clockwise are Mary Shelley, a “Crazy Otto” album cover, Billy Sunday, sheet music cover for “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” by Irving Berlin, Wolfman Jack.

So, here’s my question, now that I have run to ground all of the song’s references—historical, literary, musical, etc. And that is: can anyone get a handle on this song from a “meaning” point of view? I do love hearing personal interpretations, and Hunter has made it clear over the course of a number of interviews that he will not comment on a song’s “meaning” because that would shut down the ability of each of us listeners to construct our own meaning. It would be fun, and enlightening, to hear just what you take away from this particular song.

Is the narrator singing to someone who calls herself “Ramblin’ Rose”? Is the line about singing “a hundred verses of ragtime” a threat or a promise? Who is the leader of the band mentioned in the song? Or is that a metaphor? What is meant by the series of “just like” comparisons?

Or do you prefer to let the lyrics wash over you, invoking a mental kaleidoscope of images and music? I like to think that the curious structure of the music Garcia wrote for these words is an answer, or a complement to Hunter’s hodge-podge—it’s an unclassifiable amalgam of ragtime, shuffle, slow rock and roll, and who knows what all else—opinions?

My online annotation of the song includes an actual analysis of the lyric’s prosody—its rhyming and metric components, as follows. Useful? Perhaps not, but kind of fun:

          The song lyric is structured in trochaic rhythm, with paired verses consisting of two lines of triameter, one of quadrameter, and another of triameter, for a total of 13 strong feet (!) per verse. The verses' rhyming pattern is A, B, C, [C], B; with the bracketed [C] being an optional internal rhyme: halls, walls; chains/change; and plush/flush. There are seven verses, with the first six in pairs. The final verse stands alone, carrying into the final chorus.

          The chorus' rhythm stays in trochees for the first line of five beats, then switches to dactylic quadrameter for the second line, and a punchy single dactylic line of two beats to wind up. The chorus contains no rhymes. It is repeated three times.

          The bridge is less easy to pin down, moving from iambic to trochaic to dactylic rhythms. It similarly dispenses with any firm rhyming pattern, relying solely on the assonances contained in "ragtime" and "county line." The bridge is repeated twice.

This is one of those Grateful Dead songs that generates a lot more questions than answers. And I look forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts! Chime right in.

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https://www.dead.net/features/greatest-stories-ever-told/greatest-stories-ever-told-ramble-rose

Greatest Stories Ever Told - "Ramble On Rose"

By David Dodd

First, just a little background: “Ramble On Rose” was introduced on Tuesday, October 19, 1971 at the Northrop Auditorium at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. The show is noteworthy for a number of reasons. First performances at the show, besides "Ramble on Rose," included "Comes a Time," "Mexicali Blues," "One More Saturday Night" (on a Tuesday!), and "Tennessee Jed." It was also Keith Godchaux's first show. "Ramble On Rose" occupied the #2 spot in the second set, following "Truckin'," and preceding "Me and Bobby McGee."

Numbering the song among his favorites, Robert Hunter stated in an interview in Relix that "'Ramble on Rose' is a particular favorite -- there's something funny about that song."

In David Gans's Conversations with the Dead, Hunter says: "I think ‘Ramble On Rose’ is the closest to complete whimsy I've come up with. I just sat down and wrote numerous verses that tied around ‘Did you say...’ “

“Ramble On Rose” also happens to be the song that set me off on my little adventure of annotating the Grateful Dead’s lyrics. When I first started the project, I was working as a reference library assistant at the Fremont Main library in Alameda County. I was living in Oakland, commuting via BART the 30 miles each way every day to Fremont, and going to as many Dead concerts as I could. Those were some good days — I was learning about what I wanted to do with my life (become a librarian) and at the same time, seeing the Dead or Jerry with his various bands on a regular basis. The Greek, Frost, Henry Kaiser, SF Civic, Oakland Coliseum Arena, Keystone Berkeley,Cal Expo….

Where was I? Oh yeah. “Ramble On Rose.” Something about that song… I still find new stuff in there all the time. One of my biggest revelations about the song was actually from a mis-hearing. It was at the closing of Winterland show, when I clearly heard Garcia sing, “Buckle up, and buckle down, do yourself a favor.” Not the real words (and not what Jerry sang), but definitely of some import to me at the time. Hmmmm. That would be a fun component in any and all of these blog posts and subsequent conversations — what did you hear, as opposed to what the words really were? American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term “mondegreens” to refer to these creative mis-hearings. Feel free to chime in at any time with your own! (“Wake up to find out that you are disguised as a squirrel...”)

So. “Ramble On Rose.” And I am rambling. It’s a predilection of mine, to go off on tangents, and I’ve found it serves me well. I like to make strange connections. I started making the connections in this song simply by trying to figure out who all and what all was being talked about by Robert Hunter. That guy! You could be standing there, innocently listening to a rock and roll song, and BAM — he hits you right between the eyes.

I think my first foray into this kind of fact-finding was when I decided to look up the names in the song, starting with Billy Sunday. I’m not going into the whole annotation thing here (just search online for “annotated Ramble On Rose,” except to say that I was pretty surprised by the cast of characters and who they turned out to be. I mean, a tent preacher who got his start as a professional baseball player? A ragtime piano player from the 1950s named Crazy Otto? The legendary DJ Wolfman Jack? This song, if you put images with all of it, would look something like the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. A highlight of my work on the song was receiving a phone call from Johnny Maddox (aka Crazy Otto), who was still playing ragtime for a living, at a place in Durango, Colorado. We had a great conversation.

The same is true for all of the musical references in the song. I did a medley once with David Gans for his radio show featuring snippets of all the various songs and types of music in “Ramble On Rose.” Amazing! Ragtime (100 verses thereof), Irving Berlin (“leader of a band,” from ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’), the blues (“Mojo Hand”), nursery rhymes (Jack and Jill), gospel (Jericho), country (“I Walk the Line”), jazz standards (“Ramblin’ Rose”), folk (“Green Green, the Grass is Green”), and more. Here’s a link to streaming audio for that musical collage, plus some verbal commentary… with thanks to David Gans:

Click here to listen.

Top left going clockwise are Mary Shelley, a “Crazy Otto” album cover, Billy Sunday, sheet music cover for “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” by Irving Berlin, Wolfman Jack.

So, here’s my question, now that I have run to ground all of the song’s references—historical, literary, musical, etc. And that is: can anyone get a handle on this song from a “meaning” point of view? I do love hearing personal interpretations, and Hunter has made it clear over the course of a number of interviews that he will not comment on a song’s “meaning” because that would shut down the ability of each of us listeners to construct our own meaning. It would be fun, and enlightening, to hear just what you take away from this particular song.

Is the narrator singing to someone who calls herself “Ramblin’ Rose”? Is the line about singing “a hundred verses of ragtime” a threat or a promise? Who is the leader of the band mentioned in the song? Or is that a metaphor? What is meant by the series of “just like” comparisons?

Or do you prefer to let the lyrics wash over you, invoking a mental kaleidoscope of images and music? I like to think that the curious structure of the music Garcia wrote for these words is an answer, or a complement to Hunter’s hodge-podge—it’s an unclassifiable amalgam of ragtime, shuffle, slow rock and roll, and who knows what all else—opinions?

My online annotation of the song includes an actual analysis of the lyric’s prosody—its rhyming and metric components, as follows. Useful? Perhaps not, but kind of fun:

          The song lyric is structured in trochaic rhythm, with paired verses consisting of two lines of triameter, one of quadrameter, and another of triameter, for a total of 13 strong feet (!) per verse. The verses' rhyming pattern is A, B, C, [C], B; with the bracketed [C] being an optional internal rhyme: halls, walls; chains/change; and plush/flush. There are seven verses, with the first six in pairs. The final verse stands alone, carrying into the final chorus.

          The chorus' rhythm stays in trochees for the first line of five beats, then switches to dactylic quadrameter for the second line, and a punchy single dactylic line of two beats to wind up. The chorus contains no rhymes. It is repeated three times.

          The bridge is less easy to pin down, moving from iambic to trochaic to dactylic rhythms. It similarly dispenses with any firm rhyming pattern, relying solely on the assonances contained in "ragtime" and "county line." The bridge is repeated twice.

This is one of those Grateful Dead songs that generates a lot more questions than answers. And I look forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts! Chime right in.

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ethios4

8 years 3 months ago

Moving beyond apparent duality
I thought I'd post my interpretation of Ramble on Rose since I haven't seen one similar yet. I see a lot of references to a certain unity behind the apparent duality of our world, and transcending or moving beyond such duality. The most prominent lines are: Just like Jack and Jill, Mama told the sailor One heat up and one cool down, Leave nothin' for the tailor Just like Jack and Jill, Papa told the jailer One go up and one come down, Do yourself a favor To me, Jack and Jill represent to poles of a duality and the song is pointing to their inherent balance. One heats up, one cools down. "Leave nothing for the tailor" means there is no remainder to the equation, so to speak. One goes up, one goes down. Papa tells the jailer "Do yourself a favor" i.e., lock them both up or set them both free because they are linked. Something like that, maybe. Also, Mama and Papa are another expression of duality. I know this song it ain't never gonna end I'm gonna march you up and down the local county line Take you to the leader of the band To me, this indicates that apparent duality is a basic feature of our world and isn't going away. By walking the line between apparent opposites, maintaining a balance, we rise/transcend... all the way to the "leader of the band". Open for interpretation... God? Higher self? It's left open, but basically speaks of drawing closer to the highest. This line may also link to the part after Frankenstein, "Try to walk the line" Goodbye, Mama and Papa Goodbye, Jack and Jill The grass ain't greener, the wine ain't sweeter either side of the hill. To me, this is about moving beyond duality. Saying goodbye to Mama/Papa, Jack/Jill, and the idea that one is better than the other since there is a fundamental unity behind apparent opposites. I don't always see how the wealth of musical/cultural references fit in this interpretation, and the song surely works on many levels, but I can see some of them. Billy Sunday in a shotgun ragtime band... perhaps the duality of an evangelistic preacher who used what many would have considered "vulgar" music? Crazy Otto... Crazy Otto being a reference to Fritz Schulz-Reichel, who alternated between "serious" music and ragtime. This points to the unity of music that transcends false dichotomies of "serious" music and "vulgar" music. As Garcia said in a Rolling Stone interview, "You have to get past the idea that music has to be one thing. To be alive in America is to hear all kinds of music constantly--radio, records, churches, cats on the street, everywhere music, man." Wolfman Jack... a radio DJ with the apparent duality of being a white DJ everyone thought was black. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein... not really sure here, but it makes me think of Mary Shelley being the creator of the Frankenstein story, and Dr. Frankenstein being the creator of the monster... sort of a duality between creator and created. Obviously some of these interpretations are quite tentative and loose, but there is so much in this song that, to me, really does speak about moving beyond apparent duality that I think it's a worthwhile contribution to possible interpretations of the song.
Quincunx

9 years 8 months ago

Ramble on
Funny how the lyrics pop up or take on new meaning sometimes... heading back from a Buffalo show, I got on the NYS Thruway and there was the "Count Your Change" sign upon leaving the toll booth. Okay. But then hearing the line beginning with "Just like New York City..." the first time after 911: that was heavy.
dain_bramage

10 years 6 months ago

too much? or just too genius?
you have to remember, robert hunter was not researching these factoids to drop into his tunes. he had an arsenal of literary knowledge that he deployed seemingly effortlessly. it's only to us more feeble-brained individuals that have to strain for these references.

By David Dodd

First, just a little background: “Ramble On Rose” was introduced on Tuesday, October 19, 1971 at the Northrop Auditorium at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. The show is noteworthy for a number of reasons. First performances at the show, besides "Ramble on Rose," included "Comes a Time," "Mexicali Blues," "One More Saturday Night" (on a Tuesday!), and "Tennessee Jed." It was also Keith Godchaux's first show. "Ramble On Rose" occupied the #2 spot in the second set, following "Truckin'," and preceding "Me and Bobby McGee."

Numbering the song among his favorites, Robert Hunter stated in an interview in Relix that "'Ramble on Rose' is a particular favorite -- there's something funny about that song."

In David Gans's Conversations with the Dead, Hunter says: "I think ‘Ramble On Rose’ is the closest to complete whimsy I've come up with. I just sat down and wrote numerous verses that tied around ‘Did you say...’ “

“Ramble On Rose” also happens to be the song that set me off on my little adventure of annotating the Grateful Dead’s lyrics. When I first started the project, I was working as a reference library assistant at the Fremont Main library in Alameda County. I was living in Oakland, commuting via BART the 30 miles each way every day to Fremont, and going to as many Dead concerts as I could. Those were some good days — I was learning about what I wanted to do with my life (become a librarian) and at the same time, seeing the Dead or Jerry with his various bands on a regular basis. The Greek, Frost, Henry Kaiser, SF Civic, Oakland Coliseum Arena, Keystone Berkeley,Cal Expo….

Where was I? Oh yeah. “Ramble On Rose.” Something about that song… I still find new stuff in there all the time. One of my biggest revelations about the song was actually from a mis-hearing. It was at the closing of Winterland show, when I clearly heard Garcia sing, “Buckle up, and buckle down, do yourself a favor.” Not the real words (and not what Jerry sang), but definitely of some import to me at the time. Hmmmm. That would be a fun component in any and all of these blog posts and subsequent conversations — what did you hear, as opposed to what the words really were? American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term “mondegreens” to refer to these creative mis-hearings. Feel free to chime in at any time with your own! (“Wake up to find out that you are disguised as a squirrel...”)

So. “Ramble On Rose.” And I am rambling. It’s a predilection of mine, to go off on tangents, and I’ve found it serves me well. I like to make strange connections. I started making the connections in this song simply by trying to figure out who all and what all was being talked about by Robert Hunter. That guy! You could be standing there, innocently listening to a rock and roll song, and BAM — he hits you right between the eyes.

I think my first foray into this kind of fact-finding was when I decided to look up the names in the song, starting with Billy Sunday. I’m not going into the whole annotation thing here (just search online for “annotated Ramble On Rose,” except to say that I was pretty surprised by the cast of characters and who they turned out to be. I mean, a tent preacher who got his start as a professional baseball player? A ragtime piano player from the 1950s named Crazy Otto? The legendary DJ Wolfman Jack? This song, if you put images with all of it, would look something like the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. A highlight of my work on the song was receiving a phone call from Johnny Maddox (aka Crazy Otto), who was still playing ragtime for a living, at a place in Durango, Colorado. We had a great conversation.

The same is true for all of the musical references in the song. I did a medley once with David Gans for his radio show featuring snippets of all the various songs and types of music in “Ramble On Rose.” Amazing! Ragtime (100 verses thereof), Irving Berlin (“leader of a band,” from ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’), the blues (“Mojo Hand”), nursery rhymes (Jack and Jill), gospel (Jericho), country (“I Walk the Line”), jazz standards (“Ramblin’ Rose”), folk (“Green Green, the Grass is Green”), and more. Here’s a link to streaming audio for that musical collage, plus some verbal commentary… with thanks to David Gans:

Click here to listen.

Top left going clockwise are Mary Shelley, a “Crazy Otto” album cover, Billy Sunday, sheet music cover for “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” by Irving Berlin, Wolfman Jack.

So, here’s my question, now that I have run to ground all of the song’s references—historical, literary, musical, etc. And that is: can anyone get a handle on this song from a “meaning” point of view? I do love hearing personal interpretations, and Hunter has made it clear over the course of a number of interviews that he will not comment on a song’s “meaning” because that would shut down the ability of each of us listeners to construct our own meaning. It would be fun, and enlightening, to hear just what you take away from this particular song.

Is the narrator singing to someone who calls herself “Ramblin’ Rose”? Is the line about singing “a hundred verses of ragtime” a threat or a promise? Who is the leader of the band mentioned in the song? Or is that a metaphor? What is meant by the series of “just like” comparisons?

Or do you prefer to let the lyrics wash over you, invoking a mental kaleidoscope of images and music? I like to think that the curious structure of the music Garcia wrote for these words is an answer, or a complement to Hunter’s hodge-podge—it’s an unclassifiable amalgam of ragtime, shuffle, slow rock and roll, and who knows what all else—opinions?

My online annotation of the song includes an actual analysis of the lyric’s prosody—its rhyming and metric components, as follows. Useful? Perhaps not, but kind of fun:

The song lyric is structured in trochaic rhythm, with paired verses consisting of two lines of triameter, one of quadrameter, and another of triameter, for a total of 13 strong feet (!) per verse. The verses' rhyming pattern is A, B, C, [C], B; with the bracketed [C] being an optional internal rhyme: halls, walls; chains/change; and plush/flush. There are seven verses, with the first six in pairs. The final verse stands alone, carrying into the final chorus.

The chorus' rhythm stays in trochees for the first line of five beats, then switches to dactylic quadrameter for the second line, and a punchy single dactylic line of two beats to wind up. The chorus contains no rhymes. It is repeated three times.

The bridge is less easy to pin down, moving from iambic to trochaic to dactylic rhythms. It similarly dispenses with any firm rhyming pattern, relying solely on the assonances contained in "ragtime" and "county line." The bridge is repeated twice.

This is one of those Grateful Dead songs that generates a lot more questions than answers. And I look forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts! Chime right in.

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A skull to go with the roses.

What if... the narrator is a man on death row awaiting his date with eternity. If you listen to the song with that interpretation in mind... Rose is a lover of his on the other side of the jailhouse bars. Papa and Mama both spoke to the jailer. Jack fell down and broke his crown. (The means of execution) Frankenstein was re-animated after death. (Wasn't it the body of a convicted killer?) Wolf man is another monster reference. The other side of the hill is the afterlife. Ain't so great for this guy. The ragtime songs never end-- a reference to eternity and This would be in keeping with the classic western ballad style in a lot of GD songs. Me and My uncle, mama tried, etc. Lots of that esthetic on Workingman's, American Beauty, and Aoxomoxoa. (Otto is also a palindrome...) ....And what if Rose is the killer?

Rambel on Rose

I feel like rose is a euphemism for all of us and all the names are nods to the quality of human beings represented. People who weren't afraid to live and more importantly live how they wanted to freely. Ultimately defining what it truly means to be alive and grateful...

RIAMBLE ON ROSE & MIGHT AS WELL?!

PORTAL ENTRY #4 from the FB page:
' MY G.D. FRIENDS PORTAL '

"well there seems to be a beat now"

This is more of a sing-along musical journey than a particularly lyrical one, though there IS an interesting word interplay in the bridge..... So simply start singing one right alongside the other, & voila-~~(you may wanna get the boombox to play RAMBLE ON ROSE"!)

sing:
"Just like Jack the Ripper
Just like Mojo Hand
Just like Billy Sunday
In a shotgun ragtime band
Just like New York City,
Just like Jericho
Pace the halls and climb the walls
Get out when they blow

along with:
"Great North Special, were you on. board?
You can't find a ride like that no more
Night the chariot swung down low
NINETY NINE children had a chance to go"

ditto for the 2nd verse & sing both songs together~
-------------------------------
then sing the verses together &
the composite chorus goes like this:
"Might As Well, Might As Well" "Did you say your name was "Might As Well, Might As Well" "Ramble On Rose?" "Might As Well, Might As Well" "Ramble On Baby"
"Might As Well, Might As Well, MIGHT As Well," "SETTLE down easy,,,,"

"MIGHT AS WELL, (Ramble On Rose!") MIGHT AS WELL" .....!
-----------------------------
Jerry's leads easily stand in for one another in front of the oddly familiar & uncannily similar musical backdrops~
------------------------------
With "NEVER" being the common word used in each bridge, & the crossover word for beginning the other chorus, here's how the composite bridge sings:
"I'm gonna sing you a hundred verses in ragtime,
"I know this song it ain't NEVER ever gonna end" "NEVER had such a good time in my life before"
"I'm gonna march you up and down the local county line"
"I'd like to have it one time more"
"TAKE YOU TO THE LEADER OF THE BAND!"
"One good ride from start to end
I'd like to TAKE RIDE AGAIN,,
AGAIN!"
and if you manage to keep the timing going & sounding like "Never, Never", the fuller adventure is revealed. I know, it's kinda out there, but it's there!!

So folks, ya might as well ramble on, rose!

🕉
kenny

After much consideration....

Okay I'll try to keep this "short".

It's about 1 person. A rose has a sweet center, surrounded by a thorny exterior. Consider the typical Hunter duality here. We have good intentions, we are good people, but our actions say otherwise. We put up those "walls" that make it hard to get to us, to find us. To find ourselves. There's potentially an internal struggle angle here of introspection and fighting what you see and not wanting to accept it.

Jack the Ripper GOT AWAY with the crime, let's not forget. This is the FIRST reference. I think that is important. This is not about a man on death row who got caught, but rather a man who got away and is on the run and has that weight on his shoulders of what would happen if the law came got em.

Frankenstein wasn't the monster, they were the creator. Mary Shelly being the creator of the creator of the monster. We are not the monster, but rather we create our own monsters. We are good people, we have good intentions, but alas, we end up in situations where we kind of become the monster...

Walk you up and down the county line... jailor, card games, pace the halls, climb the walls, clank your chains, etc. Lots of prison references for sure.

Let's say this song is about a rolling stone who committed a crime and got away with it, but as a result is now haunted by having to resort to living life on the run. The imagery of prison are the outcome if they were caught or turned themselves in. I know this song, it aint never gonna end. Endless life on the run, this is it. This is how I have to live now forever until I die. Why is it that Mama and Papa are the ones talking to the Jailer? Moms and Pops know son did it and want him to turn himself in? Do yourself a favor... accept fate.

The leader of the band could be the warden or someone like that? Or if we go with the deathrow stackolee theory, the one instituting the death penalty. Could double as the 'meet your maker' kind of leader of the band.

Also, if we're making a Johnny Cash reference for walk the line, let's connect Jericho there too. Jericho Hill = Cocaine Blues. trouble ahead.....

Go deeper -- Jack and Jill, Jack was the one who broke his crown and Jill came after him. When they got home, Jack got patched up but JILL got whipped by mother too for 'causing' Jack's disaster. So that plays into the theory that this is also about someone taking the fall for a crime they didn't really commit. The accomplice. Way to go Eve....

Go even deeper -- the Jacks references. Aces. Royal Flush. Just saying you play the cards you are dealt.

All that said, I still think there is the other angle about morality in general here. Grass aint greener either side of the hill. Still the guy coming to terms like whether I'm alive or dead it aint no difference, be here now, it's my soul, there is no place I'm going that's a step up, this is it. Make the most of THIS. Your only shot at something remotely blissful is what you make of what you got in front of you.

Settle down easy though, always makes me think of coming to terms with death. Death penalty? Or just accepting who you are and what your life is IS in fact just that and nothing more. Make it.

That solo says more without words than I describe... Thank you Jerry. Been almost a year since the last comment. Just keeping the thread and spirit alive here. I could serious go on and on with theories here and ramble ... on ... rose... but I'll settle down easy for the night.. ☮️

Thanks!

Thanks very much for your excellent observations. I'm just touching base back here for the first time in a long time. Lots to consider! --David

Another "thank you"

I too wanted to say thanks for your post, and wanted you to know if was appreciated. :^)

what's it all about

I think the song is definitely about people & society in general and their funny habits that seem to stay the same over a great span of years, as well as being a cool way of commenting on the temperature (weather) and the price of gasoline.

Ramble On Rose

A secret you can’t tie down.

A little insight, maybe

Just like Crazy Otto…..
Just like Wolfman Jack
Sitting plush with a royal flush Aces back to back

What is the Grateful Dead like? The aces back to back is clearly a reference in my mind to “Workingman’s Dead” and “American Beauty” if that wasn’t the high watermark I don’t know what was. I think Garcia had deep philosophical questions about identity and being a “rock star” in general. There is the public persona and perception and the reality I think perhaps Crazy Otto and Wolfman Jack are allusions to that.

David Dodd's Top Ten

From January 2013 to January 2015, David Dodd produced weekly posts on this site digging into lyrics of favorite Dead songs.

I list below the Top Ten posts based on number of comments they have drawn over the years.

Two below are marked with asterisks: his first (Miracle) and last post (He’s Gone) are outliers for having many comments about the series and David’s effort.

David Dodd’s Top 10

Song # Comments

1 Ramble On Rose 59

2 Black Throated Wind 54

3 Fire On The Mountain 54

4 Dark Star 53

* He's Gone 52

* I Need A Miracle 50

5 Jack Straw 46

6 Brokedown Palace 44

7 Days Between 44

8 Scarlet Begonias 43

9 Stella Blue 43

10 Althea 42

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