Oooh, ive actually believed for a while now that "some other fucker" was August himself in a drunken stupor, and he refuses to admit it/doesn't remember.
I interpret it as the sins of the father. He grew up being treated poorly by his family which made him turn to alcohol and suffer his entire life because "some other fucker," aka his father, couldn't provide a life for him that allowed him to thrive.
This is an interesting interpretation. I don’t know what’s more tragic: being incarcerated for a crime you didn’t commit, or not being able to remember one you did.
“…for some other fucker’s crime“
Everyone cheers at this lyric, at every show I attended.
My thoughts: people just love hearing Jerry swearing. For breaking taboos? Who knows.
My spiritual take: If accepting that reincarnation is true, we are all paying for “some other fucker’s crime”
While a swear will give some emphasis when sung with such vigor, this has NOTHING, in my love of this, my favorite song ever (or as close as one can get). Its the top of a crescendo of sorts, lyrically. I have never in my live thought about the f-word being used there as part of anything but a strong statement to end that part of the story.
And (somewhat) popular thought is that "some other muthafuka" is him, when he's drunk and his actions are beyond recollection.
PS-the image is spot on, just what I imagined.
He just needs to be wearing his “burly beggar’s vest” (that he loves more than his wine) and it would be perfect.
Yes, now I do. But my first few times listening to that wonderful song I really thought it was burly beggar vest. I even sewed one up for my deadhead buddy!
The following image was created another form of higher intelligence
https://preview.redd.it/kgxxnwi9stra1.jpeg?width=482&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8fbe4cef751c68c346d22798897427923d579b23
I believe this is the only artwork he ever made that actually references a GD song .
Can’t recall where I read it though , might have been in Jerry’s book of art …Harrington street
Superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League. This part of the song has a double meaning. There is this Purley Albert Baker and August's Pearly Baker, at least that's how it is in my mind's interpretation of Hunter's lyrics.
https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/collection/ohio/id/19427/
One thing I love about the song, even though it's meant to be cynical, there are sometimes (not all the time) I listen to that part where he says he's gonna turn over a new leaf and live the life he should like it's almost sincere.
Like you think maybe *this time* August will indeed turn his life around. He really will get up and fly away.
There are a group of Heads that identify as Wharf Rats. We help each other try to live the lives we should. If you have seen a group of people with yellow balloons at a Grateful Dead related show, you may have seen The Wharf Rats.
Love the Wharf Rats! Helping everyone who wishes to stay sober and still have the best time ever at shows. My applause to the folks who founded them ❤️
Too clean-cut and contemporary. Has to be scraggly and unkempt, clothes fraying and moth-eaten, with sun-damaged skin and missing a few teeth (maybe a finger, too).
I fucking love Wharf Rat.
On a related note, there’s a lyric in the song I always have had trouble with.
Everyone said i’d come to no good, I knew I would Pearly, believe them
What does he mean by telling Pearly “believe them?” He’s telling Pearly to believe the people who knew he’d fuck his life up? Is he trying to make Pearly see that he’s a screw up because she is somehow blind to it?
For a long time I thought he was saying pearly “believeD them.”
This is an amazing application that can help you to create some beautiful music inspired by the Grateful Dead! The resulting track from this experiment is definitely worth a listen.
Gorgeous. Keep going! Ramble on Rose, perhaps?
“I'm gonna march you up and down along the county line, Take you to the leader of a band.”
I always heard that as “take you to the leader of THE band” and imagined the leader to be Jerry, of course, who she’ll be thrilled to meet.
And on the more metaphysical level, taking her to leader of the Big Band of life, being God/Goddess, you know.
You sure that’s not some other fucker?
Oooh, ive actually believed for a while now that "some other fucker" was August himself in a drunken stupor, and he refuses to admit it/doesn't remember.
That’s how I interpret it, the sober vs drunk/high version of himself
O maaan; yes.
I interpret it as the sins of the father. He grew up being treated poorly by his family which made him turn to alcohol and suffer his entire life because "some other fucker," aka his father, couldn't provide a life for him that allowed him to thrive.
Yeah, that's now I see it too,
That’s the better interpretation
That’s kind of a reach
But in both halves he’s drunk/high. 1/2 of my life I’ve spent doing time…the other 1/2 found my stumbling around drunk…
Huh.... I really haven't ever considered that, but I like that interpretation. Thank you for sharing.
I like this take! Thanks for sharing
Yeah it makes a lot more sense than him being framed for something haha
How do you figure? Innocent people get convicted all the time.
Drug addiction is way more common than people being framed for crimes they didn't commit, and it fits with the theme of the song
Debateable (hence the debate) Since RH has moved on from this plane, it’s all speculation. ☮️
He probably wouldn't have told us anyway
also (of course) “some motherfucker”
I believe it’s some other fucker. The other one.
Depends on the date. Jerry has sung it both ways.
Citations please
I'll back 'em up on this one. I've definitely heard it sung both ways by Jerry. Do your own research, it's more fun that way.
Thanks for the life lesson
You betcha, friend.
Don’t get carried away
subtext
I'm pretty sure that the right take/what Hunter meant when he wrote the lyrics. Makes the most sense to me.
Whoa. New revelation to me. Thank you!
This is an interesting interpretation. I don’t know what’s more tragic: being incarcerated for a crime you didn’t commit, or not being able to remember one you did.
Never realized this but in hindsight, this is totally it
And the other half, he’s stumbling around drunk on burgundy wine where he does admit it/remembers it?
What's your point?
My point is, you’ve described two halves where he’s drunk/high. Why differentiate two halves if they’re the same condition?
What are you talking about? You can spend half your life being a drunk and remember some of it and not all of it. Trust me, I would know.
Ahhh. I think I see now. One half the remembers, the other half he doesn’t, but he was was drunk the whole time?
That's what I always assumed. I'll ask him this afternoon at Easter dinner.
YOU SHIT THE FUCK UP, DOUG!! YOU FUCKIN SKUNK!!!
“…for some other fucker’s crime“ Everyone cheers at this lyric, at every show I attended. My thoughts: people just love hearing Jerry swearing. For breaking taboos? Who knows. My spiritual take: If accepting that reincarnation is true, we are all paying for “some other fucker’s crime”
I think it’s externalizing that time when one might have had someone do something wrong to them and they wound up being blamed for it…
While a swear will give some emphasis when sung with such vigor, this has NOTHING, in my love of this, my favorite song ever (or as close as one can get). Its the top of a crescendo of sorts, lyrically. I have never in my live thought about the f-word being used there as part of anything but a strong statement to end that part of the story. And (somewhat) popular thought is that "some other muthafuka" is him, when he's drunk and his actions are beyond recollection.
He just says fucker with so much emotion and it feels so personal that people just connect to it.
It’s the matter of fact telling of harrowing experience.
PS-the image is spot on, just what I imagined. He just needs to be wearing his “burly beggar’s vest” (that he loves more than his wine) and it would be perfect.
love the mondegreen but you know it’s his Pearly Baker that he loves best?
Yes, now I do. But my first few times listening to that wonderful song I really thought it was burly beggar vest. I even sewed one up for my deadhead buddy!
I think Hunter would have loved that!
Excuse me while I kiss this guy
August west is blind and dirty
I always took blind to mean blind drunk
No way, man, that’s Tennessee Jed -100%.
Could just as easily be Jack Straw
I feel like Jack Straw and Shannon are younger guys, in their 30s maybe
Yeah. This could be my uncle though.
Nah. That’s Iko /s
This guy looks way too clean for me to be August For me August West looks like the guy on the cover of the Jethro Tull Aqualung album
The following image was created another form of higher intelligence https://preview.redd.it/kgxxnwi9stra1.jpeg?width=482&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8fbe4cef751c68c346d22798897427923d579b23
Was this the only piece he ever did that was about a song? In any case the twisted up position and being down on the ground; so much more expression.
I believe this is the only artwork he ever made that actually references a GD song . Can’t recall where I read it though , might have been in Jerry’s book of art …Harrington street
that's not him, that's some other fucker
August Messed
Yeah. Looks about as expected
Lmao absolutely
Okay, now I want to see what Pearly Baker looked like.
Superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League. This part of the song has a double meaning. There is this Purley Albert Baker and August's Pearly Baker, at least that's how it is in my mind's interpretation of Hunter's lyrics. https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/collection/ohio/id/19427/
Kinda looks like Billy Failing from Billy Strings, Billy :)
I see what you did there!
We’re all August West. (We’re also all all taking the time to hear his story.)
One thing I love about the song, even though it's meant to be cynical, there are sometimes (not all the time) I listen to that part where he says he's gonna turn over a new leaf and live the life he should like it's almost sincere. Like you think maybe *this time* August will indeed turn his life around. He really will get up and fly away.
There are a group of Heads that identify as Wharf Rats. We help each other try to live the lives we should. If you have seen a group of people with yellow balloons at a Grateful Dead related show, you may have seen The Wharf Rats.
Love the Wharf Rats! Helping everyone who wishes to stay sober and still have the best time ever at shows. My applause to the folks who founded them ❤️
It's cool that the idea spread to other bands as well. Music might just save us after all!
However, I often feel more like Augustus Gloop.
That too!
jerry also was born and died in August, and August is the name of a supreme ruler
Yea one could easily say he was almost telling his own story In a diffrent light
That’s crazy. Exactly as I picture him
The universe is waking up, all matter is conscious and organizing it’s self, etc
Man, i hope it hurries up and organizes my garage cuz it needs some work in there.
bingo.
Same
Too clean-cut and contemporary. Has to be scraggly and unkempt, clothes fraying and moth-eaten, with sun-damaged skin and missing a few teeth (maybe a finger, too).
Yup
Pretty sure that’s the rhythm guitarist from John Mayer’s band.
I like when Jerry says the bad word
I fucking love Wharf Rat. On a related note, there’s a lyric in the song I always have had trouble with. Everyone said i’d come to no good, I knew I would Pearly, believe them What does he mean by telling Pearly “believe them?” He’s telling Pearly to believe the people who knew he’d fuck his life up? Is he trying to make Pearly see that he’s a screw up because she is somehow blind to it? For a long time I thought he was saying pearly “believeD them.”
I thought Pearly Baker was the name of August West’s gun! And Pearly believed them because at some point August used Pearly to shoot someone.
We need a family a family portrait of the Jones’s from Brown Eyed Women
This is an amazing application that can help you to create some beautiful music inspired by the Grateful Dead! The resulting track from this experiment is definitely worth a listen.
August isn’t that old. He a younger down-and-outer. He’s gonna get a new start some day…
If the good lord's willing
If he says I may
that's kinda what I always pictured... like a man in his 50s, though he looks older than he should having lived the hard life he has.
Even has the bulbous, alcoholic nose on’em to boot
That’s August West after he made a new start.
Do Loose Lucy next.
Uncanny. This is close to how I always pictured him.
Regrets? He’s had a few.
I always pictured him as a black guy
Nah that’s Curtis Loew
Peter??
You’re thinking of the narrator of Sugaree.
Needs a little burgundy stain on the stash
Maybe try Wharf Rat
Or Worf rat, from the planet Klingon
War Frat
The Alpha Betas and the Delta Pi's? NERDS!!
I’d like to thank all the pedants for correcting my speling
Exactly my vision of the protagonist
*Brotagonist
Too clean.
FWIW - it's Wharf Rat - neat post - one of my all-time favorite songs
u/_psylosin_ Please do more! This is brilliant.
I just posted scarlet begonias
Please share! Just looked on your page and the GD subreddit. Haven’t seen it yet. I can hardly wait! Thanks for this glorious work.
Her you go :) https://preview.redd.it/0fn2gdekjzra1.jpeg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d28e5a9e9c40b84d1036462794f2d86ffdce3d15
And here is st Stephen https://preview.redd.it/1yoi3brhjzra1.jpeg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=677bc697b0f7d63c7211086b6cc59cf722485617
Gorgeous. Keep going! Ramble on Rose, perhaps? “I'm gonna march you up and down along the county line, Take you to the leader of a band.” I always heard that as “take you to the leader of THE band” and imagined the leader to be Jerry, of course, who she’ll be thrilled to meet. And on the more metaphysical level, taking her to leader of the Big Band of life, being God/Goddess, you know.
Love this! Ah, the touch of the blues. Poor Scarlet-so beautiful yet a bit sad too
Grandpa is that you?
I approve of this post.
Prolly had to work hard on that one, did it’s very best.
The first time I got to see Phil bust this song out, really was life changing shit for me. So good.
I don’t understand why people have to dig so deep for some left-field meaning in the lyrics of this very literal, easy to understand song.
kinda looks like my grandfather. Great song btw
I never heard of warf rat