Full moon rising over Alcatraz1
Hangin’ there like a big topaz
Ruling this night of a thousand stars
With a backseat full of broken guitars
Raised in chains by Jehosaphat’s daughter2
Served twenty years for walkin’ on the water
Just out fishin’ for love in the rain
From an easy chair in the passing lane
If I had forgotten, I’d remember well
The fruit and the tree from which it fell
Many long years rollin’ homeward bound
Goin’ hell-for-leather on this merry-go-round
Night of a thousand stars
The sound of sweet guitars
On this night (on this night)
On this night (on this night)
On this night (on this night)
On this night of a thousand blazing stars
Down in the laundry with my head in my hands
Doin’ whatsoever the Lord commands
Poppin’ the hood off a Ford V8
Disguised with an out-of-state licence plate
Payin’ my taxes in whiskey and blood
Mixed in a barrel floating on the flood
Doing my penance for a life of crime
Singing B-minor masses in double time3
The tiger and the lion hanging on the wall
Between the head of a saint and a bocci ball
I’ve been rebuked and I’ve been scorned
But I can’t ever say that I haven’t been warned
Night of a thousand stars
The sound of sweet guitars
On this night (on this night)
On this night (on this night)
On this night (on this night)
On this night of a thousand blazing stars
I tried to serve you right
I tried to serve you well
It looked all right by morning light
In hindsight—who can tell?
I don’t know what to tell
Truth or farewell
Flipping though the pages of my soul
My heart rears up and swallows me whole
These were moments of my life
Since dissected with a thick blunt knife
If I could recapture one moment of truth
From the firm foundation of a misspent youth
I’d fall like rain on this thirsty earth
A testament of beauty and worth
But if it don’t happen because it can’t
I hope and pray this wish you grant
From one man’s heart to a falling star
We always remember who we are
Remember the night of a thousand stars
When love swam naked in the reservoir
Writing mad sonnets in the midnight park
Leaving tracks of tears for her watermark
Drums of the jungle on the edge of night
Only you could see with your perfect sight
If you don’t remember you can be excused
’Cause it could never be reproduced
Night of a thousand stars
The sound of sweet guitars
On this night (on this night)
On this night (on this night)
On this night (on this night)
On this night of a thousand blazing stars
Words by Robert Hunter
Music by Phil Lesh and Warren Haynes
The island in the San Francisco Bay, used for years as a federal prison. Now a national park. On November 9, 1969, a group of Native Americans began an occupation of the island that lasted until June 11, 1971. The National Park Service history of the island acknowledges that:
As a result of the occupation, either directly or indirectly, the official government policy of termination of Indian tribes [a policy adopted under the Eisenhower administration, whereby all federal treaties with Indian tribes would be eliminated, along with all federal support] was ended and a policy of Indian self-determination became the official U.S. government policy. (National Park Service)
A ninth-century B.C.E. Judean king who formed an alliance with Israel. He appears in the Bible primarily in Chronicles 2:17–21 but also, to a lesser extent, in Kings 1:22. Of his daughter, nothing is to be found in the Bible; however, his daughter-in-law, the wife of his son and successor, Joram, was the daughter of Ahab, an earlier enemy.
Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B Minor (ca. 1733) is one of the great works of choral literature.
Studio recording: There and Back Again (2002), Phil and Friends.
First performance by The Dead: June 21, 2003, at the Meadows in Hartford, Connecticut.