On the day that I was born
Daddy sat down and cried
I had the mark just as plain as day
which could not be denied
They say that Cain caught Abel
rolling loaded dice,1
ace of spades behind his ear
and him not thinking twice
Chorus:
Half-step
Mississippi Uptown Toodleloo2
Hello baby I’m gone, good-bye3
Half a cup of rock and rye4
Farewell to you old Southern sky
I’m on my way—on my way
If all you got to live for
is what you left behind
get yourself a powder charge
and seal that silver mine
I lost my boots in transit, babe5
A pile of smoking leather
Nailed a retread to my feet
and prayed for better weather
(Chorus)
They say that when your ship comes in
the first man takes the sails
The second takes the afterdeck
The third the planks and rails
What’s the point to calling shots?
This cue ain’t straight in line
Cueball’s made of Styrofoam
and no one’s got the time
(Chorus)
Across the Rio Grand-eo
Across the lazy river
Across the Rio Grand-eo
Across the lazy river
Words by Robert Hunter
Music by Jerry Garcia
Could this be the motive for the first murder in recorded Judaeo-Christian human history (that of Abel by Cain)? The biblical story of Cain and Abel is found in Genesis 4:8.
An old African American song, “Creation,” contains the lines:
Cain thought Abel played a trick
(Dese bones gwine rise ergain)
Hit ’em in the head wid a piece of brick
(White)
From the Oxford English Dictionary:
toodle-oo int. colloq. [Origin unknown; perh. f. TOOT (An act of tooting . . .)] Goodbye. Cf. PIP-PIP. 1907 Punch 26 June 465 ‘Toodle-oo, old sport.’ Mr. Punch turned ’round at the amazing words and gazed at his companion. Also toodle-, tootle-pip.
Partridge speculates:
or maybe, as Mr. F. W. Thomas has most ingeniously suggested, a Cockney corruption of the French equivalent of ‘(I’ll) see you soon’: à tout à l’heure.
Compare “Hello, I Must Be Going,” from the 1930s film Animal Crackers, sung by Groucho Marx.
Also compare the Beatles’ “Hello Goodbye.”
A sweet alcoholic beverage made from putting rock candy and fruit in rye whiskey.
Compare the lines from an African American folk song:
Farewell to Tom and Jerry
Farewell to rock and rye
It’s a long way to old Kentucky
For Alabama done gone dry.
(White: Reported from Auburn, Alabama
1915–16; to the tune of “Tipperary”)
[Garcia:] Events in my life suggested to me that maybe it was going to be my responsibility to keep upping the ante. I was in an automobile accident in 1960 with three other guys . . . ninety plus miles an hour on a back road. We hit these dividers and went flying, I guess. All I know is that I was sitting in the car and there was this . . . disturbance . . . and the next thing, I was in a field, far enough away from the car that I couldn’t see it.
The car was crumpled like a cigarette pack . . . and inside it were my shoes. I’d been thrown completely out of my shoes and through the windshield. One guy [Paul Speegle] in the group did die. It was like losing the golden boy, the one who had the most to offer. For me, it was crushing, but I had the feeling that my life had been spared to do something . . . not to take any bullshit, to either go whole hog or not at all. . . . That was when my life began. Before that, I had been living at less than capacity. That event was the slingshot for the rest of my life. It was my second chance, and I got serious. (Gans, Playing in the Band) 55
Studio recording: Wake of the Flood (November 15, 1973).
First performance: July 16, 1972, at Dillon Stadium in Hartford, Connecticut. It remained a staple of the repertoire thereafter.
Compare the title “East St. Louis Toodeloo” by Duke Ellington; also covered by Steely Dan.