Wake of the flood
laughing water
’49
Get out the pans
don’t just stand there dreaming
get out the way
get out the way
Here comes sunshine
. . . here comes sunshine!
Line up a long shot
Maybe try it two times
Maybe more
Good to know
you got shoes to wear
when you find the floor
Why hold out for more?
Here comes sunshine
. . . here comes sunshine!
Asking you nice now
keep the mother rolling
one more time
Been down before
but you just don’t have to
go no more
no more
Here comes sunshine
. . . here comes sunshine!
Words by Robert Hunter
Music by Jerry Garcia
Studio recording: Wake of the Flood (November 15, 1973).
First performance: February 9, 1973, at Roscoe Maples Pavilion, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California. The song was played regularly through February 1974, after which it was dropped from the repertoire until December 6, 1992. It remained in the repertoire thereafter.
Hunter’s note in A Box of Rain: “Remembering the great Vanport, Washington, flood of 1949, living in other people’s homes, a family abandoned by father; second grade.”