See that girl, barefootin’ along,
Whistlin’ and singin’, she’s a-carryin’ on
There’s laughing in her eyes
Dancing in her feet
She’s a neon-light diamond
She can live on the street
Chorus:
Hey hey, hey, come right away
Come and join the party every day
Well everybody’s dancin’ in a ring around the sun1
Nobody’s finished, we ain’t even begun
So take off your shoes, child,
And take off your hat
Try on your wings
And find out where it’s at
(Chorus)
Take a vacation, fall out for a while,
Summer’s comin’ in, and it’s goin’ outa style2
Well, lie down smokin’, honey
Have yourself a ball,
’Cause your mother’s down in Memphis,
Won’t be back till the fall
(Chorus)
Words and music by the Grateful Dead
Compare the opening line from the song “Stealin’ ”: “Put your arms around me like a ring around the sun.” “Stealin’ ” (recorded on the Garcia-Grisman CD Shady Grove) was an early jug band tune recorded by the Memphis Jug Band. The Grateful Dead also recorded the tune as an early single.
Ice crystals in the atmosphere can cause the phenomenon known as a solar halo.
Compare the first line of the earliest recorded song in the history of the English language, “Cuckoo Song” (Anonymous, ca. 1250):
Summer is y-comen in,
Loude sing, cuckoo!
Groweth seed and bloweth meed
And spring’th the woode now—
Sing cuckoo!
Studio recording: Grateful Dead (March 17, 1967).
First documented performance: March 18, 1967, at the Winterland Arena in San Francisco.
Because it’s the first song on the first album recorded by the Dead, this song has particular significance, deserved or not. Perhaps most notably, Blair Jackson and Regan McMahon’s magazine, which ran from 1983 to 1993, for a total of twenty-seven issues, was named for this song.