I lit out from Reno1
I was trailed by twenty hounds2
Didn’t get to sleep that night
Till the morning came around
Chorus:
I set out running but I take my time
A friend of the Devil is a friend of mine3
If I get home before daylight
I just might get some sleep tonight
I ran into the Devil, babe
He loaned me twenty bills
I spent that night in Utah4
In a cave up in the hills
(Chorus)
I ran down to the levee
But the Devil caught me there
He took my twenty-dollar bill
And he vanished in the air
(Chorus)
Got two reasons why I cry
away each lonely night
First one’s named sweet Anne Marie
and she’s my heart’s delight
Second one is prison, baby
the sheriff’s on my trail
If he catches up with me
I’ll spend my life in jail
And one in Cherokee7
First one says she’s got my child
But it don’t look like me
(Chorus)
Words by Robert Hunter
Music by Jerry Garcia and John Dawson
A city in Nevada, county seat of Washoe County, founded in 1860. According to The Illustrated Dictionary of Place Names, Reno was named for Jesse Lee Reno (1823–62), Virginia-born Union general killed at the Battle of South Mountain, during the Antietam campaign of the Civil War. He had previously served as an ordinance officer during various western surveys, including those in the Territory of Utah.
It’s interesting to note that Reno, for the space of one year, from its founding to the split of the Nevada from the larger Utah territory (of which it was originally a part) in 1861 was actually in Utah. This makes the character’s one-day run from Reno to a cave in the hills of Utah seem a little more believable. Nevada became its own territory in 1861, then a state in 1864.
Compare Robert Johnson’s “Hellhound on My Trail”:
And the days keeps on worryin’ me
there’s a hellhound on my trail
Here’s an interesting comment from Eliade:
Devils: The definition and derivation of the term devil need to be carefully delineated. This need for care in defining devil arises from the fact that the very class of creatures being designated as malign may have been originally benign or may be capable of acting in either a benign or malign way.
Forty-fifth state of the Union, admitted 1896.
Utah. From the Indian name Ute . . . variously defined as “in the tops of the mountains” “high up,” “the land of the sun,” and “the land of plenty.” (Illustrated Dictionary of Place Names)
This being set in Utah, perhaps the character is a Mormon practicing polygamy.
Chino, California (San Bernardino County) From a land grant called Santa Ana del Chino. Chino is Spanish for a person with mixed blood; probably the landowner was a chino. (Illustrated Dictionary of Place Names)
Also the location of a prison in the California system.
The idea has been proposed that the geographical location might more logically be the Chino Valley in Arizona, given the proximity of another place, called Cherry Creek—easily pronounced Cher-o-kee.
There are several Cherokees in California, located in Butte County, Nevada County, San Joaquin County, and Tuolumne County. There are also towns named Cherokee in Alabama, Iowa, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Texas. All are named for the Native American Cherokee Nation, and there is an American Cherokee Confederacy of Utah.
Studio recording: American Beauty (November 1970).
First performance: February 28, 1970, at the Family Dog at the Great Highway in San Francisco. It remained in the repertoire thereafter.
The version played by the band in later years was a slow, stately one, inspired, according to Garcia, by a Kenny Loggins version of the song.
Hunter, in an interview in Relix, said:
I like “Friend of the Devil”; I thought that was the closest we’ve come to what may be a classic song.