Great North Special, were you on board?
You can’t find a ride like that no more
Night the chariot swung down low1
Ninety-nine children had a chance to go
One long party from front to end
Tune to the whistle going ’round the bend
No great hurry, what do you say?
Might as well travel the elegant way
Chorus:
Might as well, might as well (4x)2
Ragtime solid for twenty-five miles
then slip over to the Cajun style
Bar car loaded with rhythm and blues
Rock and roll wailing in the old caboose
Long train running from coast to coast
bringing ’long the party where they need it the most
Whup on the boxcar, beat on the bell
Nothing else shaking so you might just as well
(Chorus)
Never had such a good time in my life before
I’d like to have it one time more
One good ride from start to end
I’d like to take that ride again
Again
Run out of track and I caught the plane
Back in the county with the blues again3
Great North Special been on my mind
Might like to ride it just one more time
(Chorus)
Words by Robert Hunter
Music by Jerry Garcia
A reference to the spiritual “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”
Sometimes heard and/or transcribed as “mighty swell.”
Possibly a reference to the band’s home county, Marin, in California, just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.
Studio recording: Reflections (January 1976).
First performance: June 3, 1976, at the Paramount Theater in Portland, Oregon.
The song memorializes the Trans-Continental Pop Festival, or Festival Express tour, which saw the Dead, Janis Joplin, the Band, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Delaney and Bonney, and others joining forces to “bring on the party where they need it the most,” in May 1970. Hunter wrote: “Everyone agreed we had just about the best time of our collective lives in that week of nonstop music and partying. Nearing her last days, Janis, for one, wished aloud that the ride would never have to stop.” A documentary film from the tour, titled Festival Express, was released in 2004.