I was standing on the corner, wondering what’s become of me (2x)1
Well things don’t seem to be the way they used to seem to be
I think I’ll go up on a mountain, I’ll fling myself off into space (2x)
I’m not doing it because I’m desperate, I’m just trying to save some space
If you ask me what my name is, I’ll just stop and scratch my head (2x)
Well they took away my name and gave me a number instead2
Well all the things I used to know seem so far behind
There’s a lot of new things that are running around my mind
[ON JULY 27 1966, THE DEAD SANG A DIFFERENT FINAL VERSE:]
If you ask me what I’m doing, I can’t answer right
If you ask me what I’m doing, I can’t answer right
Seems like nothin’ ever changes, and nothing’s gonna turn out right
Words and music by the Grateful Dead
Title of a 1956 hit for the Four Lads, written by Frank Loesser.
Also the title of a Jimmie Rodgers song: “Standin’ on the Corner (Blue Yodel No. 9),” recorded in 1939 with Louis Armstrong (and also by the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band, much later).
Compare the line from the 1966 Johnny Rivers hit, “Secret Agent Man” (P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri).
They’ve given you a number
And taken away your name.
Also worth noting is a British television series that debuted in 1968, The Prisoner, in which a man is kidnapped from his London home and wakes up in a strange village where he is known only by the name Number Six. Various village officers-in-charge, always referred to as Number Two, set about trying to find out why Number Six resigned his job as a secret agent. Number Six is interrogated, brainwashed, and manipulated by the strange powers behind the mysterious village. Number Six’s constant refrain was “I am not a number. I am a free man!” The series was the brainchild of Patrick McGoohan, who not only starred as Number Six but was also instrumental in bringing the series to fruition.
Released on Rare Cuts and Oddities, 1966 (2005).
First documented performance, of four total, believed to have been on February 23, 1966, location unknown. The date is also questionable.