Thought I heard a blackbird singin’ up on Bluebird Hill1
Call me a whinin’ boy if you will2
Born where the sun don’t shine3
and I don’t deny my name4
Got no place to go, ain’t that a shame?5,6
Thought I heard that KC whistle
moanin’ sweet and low7
Thought I heard that KC when she blow
Down where the sun don’t shine
Underneath the Kokomo8
Whinin’ boy—got no place else to go
So many roads I tell you
So many roads I know
So many roads—
So many roads—
Mountain high, river wide9
So many roads to ride
So many roads
So many roads
Thought I heard a jug band playin’
“If you don’t—who else will?”10
from over on the far side of the hill
All I know the sun don’t shine,11
the rain refuse to fall
and you don’t seem to hear me when I call12
Wind inside and the wind outside
tangled in the window blind
Tell me why you treat me so unkind
Down where the sun don’t shine
Lonely and I call your name
No place left to go, ain’t that a shame?
So many roads I tell you
New York to San Francisco
All I want is one
to take me home
From the high road to the low13
So many roads I know
So many roads—So many roads
From the land of the midnight sun14
where ice blue roses grow15
’long those roads of gold and silver snow
Howlin’ wide or moanin’ low16
So many roads I know
So many roads to ease my soul
Words by Robert Hunter
Music by Jerry Garcia
Possible reference to the Beatles’ “Blackbird,” by John Lennon and Paul McCartney (but mostly McCartney): “Blackbird singin’ in the dead of night.”
Compare “Winin’ Boy Blues” by Jelly Roll Morton, ca. 1938:
Compare the 1947 song “Sixteen Tons,” written by Merle Travis and made famous by Tennessee Ernie Ford:
I was born one mornin’ when the sun didn’t shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
See lyrics from “Whinin’ Boy Blues,” mentioned above: “I’m a whinin’ boy, I don’t deny my name.”
Big Brother and the Holding Company also did a traditional song called “Easy Rider,” whose chorus was
Easy rider, don’t you deny my name
Compare “No Particular Place to Go” by Chuck Berry
Compare “Ain’t That a Shame” by Fats Domino.
Compare the traditional tune “KC Moan,” performed once by the Grateful Dead and now part of the Ratdog repertoire. Performed by The Dead in 2004. And, of course, the line brings to mind the Grateful Dead’s own “Casey Jones.”
Kokomo is a town in Indiana.
It was named after an Indian: In the Miami Indian tribe of the Ohio Valley a local leader named his sons after trees. One was Ko-ko-mo-ko (black walnut), who was thought to have become a war chief of the Miami Tribe.
Mentioned in “No Particular Place to Go” (1964) by Chuck Berry.
“Kokomo” is also a Beach Boys song, written by Terry Melcher and John Phillips for the soundtrack to the Tom Cruise movie Cocktail (1988).
Kokomo Arnold (1901–1968) was a Delta bluesman.
During the four-month hiatus in 1986 (August to December), while Jerry was recovering from his diabetic coma, Kreutzman and Myland toured the East Coast in September, calling themselves “KOKOMO.”
Compare “River Deep, Mountain High,” written by Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry, and Phil Spector and recorded by Keith and Donna Godchaux (among many others, including, most famously, Ike and Tina Turner) on their 1975 eponymous LP. The Grateful Dead sound-checked the song on December 31, 1976.
Compare the line in Doctor John’s “Such a Night”: “If I don’t do it, somebody else will.”
Compare “In the Pines,” an old folk tune:
In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shines
and “Dark Hollow,” another standard bluegrass tune:
“I’d rather be in some dark hollow, where the sun don’t ever shine
Compare Al Smith and Luther Dixon’s “Big Boss Man” (part of the Grateful Dead repertoire): “Big boss man, can’t you hear me when I call.”
Compare “Loch Lomond,” quintessential Scottish song: “You take the high road and I’ll take the low road and I’ll be in Scotland afore ye.”
Compare line in “China Cat Sunflower”: “proud walking jingle in the midnight sun.”
“The blue rose is a symbol of the Impossible.”
—Juan-Eduardo Cirlot
Compare the Mouse and Kelley poster
“Blue Rose” for the closing of Winterland.
Also reminiscent of “Dark Star”: “ice-petal flowers / revolving.”
For roses in general, see note under “That’s It for the Other One.”
“Moanin’ Lo” (possibly by Howard Dietz and Ralph Rainger, 1929) was a song performed in the 1930s by Billie Holiday.
No studio recording. Included on the box set So Many Roads.
First performance: February 22, 1992, at the Coliseum Arena in Oakland, California.