Fare you well, Mr. Hunter. We love you more than words can tell...
For a man who provided us with so many meaningful words, the soundtrack to our lives, he's left us a bit speechless with his passing. For more than 50 years, since his first lyrical contributions to the Grateful Dead in 1967, Robert Hunter has been just as integral a part of the legacy of the Grateful Dead as those who recorded the music to accompany his words, those who walked out on stage to bring his words to life. More than 2,000 times 1967-1995, these six (or five or seven) proud walkers on the jingle bell rainbow, plus countless thousands of times since then by other performers, the Grateful Dead have brought Hunter's words to life in front of all of us as their witness. Not a single day has gone by since 1984 that Hunter's words haven't been a part of my world; I've heard Jerry, Bob and others sing his words literally every day for the past 35 years.
When the final Fare Thee Well show ended in Chicago in 2015, Mickey Hart famously sent us on our way by asking us to "please, be kind," and that lesson along with its lyrical brethren written by Hunter, "ain't no time to hate," and "are you kind?" are some of the truest words to live by. No matter what meaning, solace, lesson you find in Hunter's lyrics, please go out and do some good with them.
David Lemieux
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Robert Hunter RIP
Sleep in the stars Mr. Hunter and thank you for your wonderful words of wisdom. Those words will last many lifetimes.
I rang a silent bell
In another time’s forgotten space
The wind inside and the wind outside, tangled in the window blind
Imagery put to music
I love Grateful Dead
No one except maybe Shakespeare could paint such pictures with words. A true poet wordsmith of our times.
"Been walking all morning, went walking all night
I can't see much difference between the dark and the light
And I feel the wind and I taste the rain
Never in my mind to cause so much pain"
Don't give it up, You got an empty cup, only love can fill
Rest in Peace friend Robert, and thank you for the pictures.
How can you miss or pine away for something you've never had or someone you've never known? I'm sure but I know what I feel today resembles loss, sadness, grief! All my years, our years, have that soundtrack. Robert Hunter was that intense pen of inky memory, full and broken hearts, technicolor acid dreams, nostalgic love, twists of fate, villains, heroes, couples on the precipice of madness and the pictures between the chapters. I miss him just knowing the void he left. My huge regret is not getting to the city winery during that tiny teensy tour a few years ago. What a LEGEND! Imagine what intense genius resides in a man who lyricized for Jerry Garcia and Bob Dylan. What words can describe him? RIP