"Truckin" is a song by the Grateful Dead, which first appeared on their 1970 album '' American Beauty''. It was recognized by the

United States Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

in 1997 as a

national treasure The idea of national treasure, like national epics and national anthems, is part of the language of romantic nationalism, which arose in the late 18th century and 19th centuries. Nationalism is an ideology that supports the nation as the funda ...

.''Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip'' . Jake Woodward, et al. Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2003, pg. 112.

Lyrics

Written by band members Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and lyricist Robert Hunter, "Truckin molds classic Grateful Dead rhythms and instrumentation. The lyrics refer to a drug raid of the band's hotel lodgings in New Orleans during a concert tour earlier in 1970: The song's climactic refrain, "What a long, strange trip it's been", has achieved widespread cultural use in the years since the song's release.

Composition

"Truckin is associated with the blues and other early 20th-century forms of

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

. "Truckin was considered a "catchy shuffle" by the band members. Garcia commented that "the early stuff we wrote that we tried to set to music was stiff because it wasn't really meant to be ''sung'' ... the result of yricist Robert Hunter getting into our touring world the better he could write ... and the better we could create music around it." The communal, shared-group-experience feel of the song is brought home by the participation of all four of the group's chief songwriters (Garcia, Weir, Lesh, and Hunter), since, in Phil Lesh's words, "we took our experiences on the road and made it poetry," lyrically and musically. He goes on to say that "the last chorus defines the band itself." Weir credited the band's 1967 experience in backing

vocalese Vocalese is a style of jazz singing in which words are added to an instrumental soloist's improvisation. Definition Vocalese uses recognizable lyrics that are sung to pre-existing instrumental solos, as opposed to scat singing, which uses nonsen ...

singer

Jon Hendricks John Carl Hendricks (September 16, 1921 – November 22, 2017), known professionally as Jon Hendricks, was an American jazz lyricist and singer. He is one of the originators of vocalese, which adds lyrics to existing instrumental songs and re ...

for helping Weir to enunciate the tongue-twister lyrics in Truckin's verses.

Release

The song was taken from the ''American Beauty'' album and edited down in length from five to three minutes for release as a

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

. In addition to being shorter, the single version had some audible differences compared to the album version: it featured sections of lead guitar in places where it's faded down on the album version, a heavy processed effect on Bob Weir's lead vocals in the verses, a different vocal track for the "Sometimes the lights..." portion, and is missing the album version's organ part. The single reached number 64 on December 25, 1971 on the U.S. Pop Singles chart and stayed on the chart for eight weeks. "Truckin was the highest-charting pop single the group would have until the surprise top-ten performance of " Touch of Grey" sixteen years later. Moreover, the album track was heavily played on

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. In ...

and

album oriented rock Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the 1970s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock. Album-orient ...

radio stations and accordingly helped popularize the group among general rock audiences.

Live performances

"Truckin debuted as the first song on the first set on August 18, 1970 at the

Fillmore West The Fillmore West was a historic rock and roll music venue in San Francisco, California, US which became famous under the direction of concert promoter Bill Graham from 1968 to 1971. Named after The Fillmore at the intersection of Fillmore Str ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, the same performance where many of ''American Beautys songs premiered. A longer rendition, that turns into a jam, was included on the popular 1972 live album ''

Europe '72 ''Europe '72'' is a live triple album by the Grateful Dead, released in November 1972. It covers the band's tour of Western Europe in April and May that year, and showcases live favourites, extended improvisations and several new songs including ...

'' segueing into "Epilogue", followed by "Prelude". Over the band's long concert career, "Truckin was performed 520 times, making it the eighth-most performed Dead song.

Charts

Personnel

* Bob Weir – rhythm guitar, lead vocals * Jerry Garcia – lead guitar, backing vocals * Phil Lesh – bass, backing vocals *

Bill Kreutzmann William Kreutzmann Jr. ( ; born May 7, 1946) is an American drummer and founding member of the rock band Grateful Dead. He played with the band for its entire thirty-year career, usually alongside fellow drummer Mickey Hart, and has continued to ...

– drums * Mickey Hart – drums *

Howard Wales Howard Wales (February 8, 1943 – December 7, 2020) was an American keyboardist who worked in a wide variety of styles. He was a collaborator with Jerry Garcia in the early 1970s. Wales was a session player for many musical acts, including Ron ...

– organ

References

{{Authority control 1970 singles Grateful Dead songs Songs about drugs Songs with lyrics by Robert Hunter (lyricist) Songs written by Jerry Garcia Warner Records singles Songs written by Phil Lesh 1970 songs