"Box of Rain" is a song by the Grateful Dead, from their 1970 album '' American Beauty''. The song was composed by bassist Phil Lesh and

lyricist A lyricist is a songwriter who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's incom ...

Robert Hunter, and sung by Lesh. In later years, the song was a favorite and the crowd would shout "Let Phil sing!" to hear the song.Kindersley, Dorling et al (2003). ''Grateful Dead, the Illustrated Trip''. p. 124. .

The song

* Key: G * Time signature: 4/4 (with an occasional 2/4 measure) * Chords used: A, Bm7/A, A4, D, Am, Em, C, G, Bm "Box of Rain" is a song that is drawn from American

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fo ...

and

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while ...

musical roots. This is true of many Grateful Dead tunes, and most of the songs on '' American Beauty'' and their other 1970 release ''

Workingman's Dead ''Workingman's Dead'' is the fourth studio album by American rock band Grateful Dead. It was recorded in February 1970 and originally released on June 14, 1970. The album and its studio follow-up, '' American Beauty'', were recorded back-to-back ...

''. As the first song on ''American Beauty'', it was also the first Grateful Dead song released on record to feature Phil Lesh as the lead vocalist.Kindersley, Dorling et al (2003). ''Grateful Dead, the Illustrated Trip''. p. 121. . The song also featured two musicians who are not in the band.

Dave Torbert David Edwin Torbert (June 7, 1948 – December 7, 1982) was a Bay Area musician, best known for his associations with the Grateful Dead and the New Riders of the Purple Sage. He played bass for the latter group, replacing Phil Lesh during the ses ...

played bass, while Lesh played acoustic guitar. David Nelson (of New Riders of the Purple Sage) plays the lead guitar with a

Fender Telecaster The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it is the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful Les Paul had built a prototype solid bo ...

, while Jerry Garcia plays the piano. While many describe Dave Nelson's Telecaster solo as being performed on a

b-bender A B-Bender is a guitar accessory that enables a player to fluidly alter the pitch of a guitar's B-string. This works by mechanically bending the B-string through the use of a series of levers and/or pulleys attached to an external lever that is ...

equipped guitar, the solo was recorded before he owned one, and was performed using traditional bending technique. Bob Weir sings harmony with Lesh and Garcia.

Lyrics

According to lyricist Hunter, Lesh "wanted a song to sing to his dying father and had composed a piece complete with every vocal nuance but the words. If ever a lyric 'wrote itself,' this did – as fast as the pen would pull." Lesh practiced the song driving to the nursing home where his father lay with terminal cancer. According to an interview of Hunter by Steve Silberman, as asked by Silberman, "The song 'Box of Rain' began as a rough vocal outline from Phil Lesh. How does that process work?" Hunter replied, "Scat singing: Dum-dum dum, da-da-da-da, bump-dum-dum-dum-dum, dee-dee-dee. I'm able to translate people's scat. I hear English in it, almost as though I write down what I hear underneath that. I hear the intention. It's a talent like the Rubik's Cube, or something like that, and it comes easily to me. Which might be why I like

language poetry The Language poets (or ''L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E'' poets, after the magazine of that name) are an avant-garde group or tendency in United States poetry that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The poets included: Bernadette Mayer, Leslie Scalap ...

. I can tell from the rhythms, or lack of rhythms, from the disjunctures and the end stoppages, what they're avoiding saying – the meaning that they would like to not be stating there, comes rushing through to me. I understand dogs. I can talk to babies." Many of the lyrics to this song are reminiscent of the song "

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", which opens the second side of the album. Images of water abound in both, as well as references to "broken" or "hand-me-down" thoughts. According to Hunter: "By 'box of rain,' I meant the world we live on, but 'ball' of rain didn't have the right ring to my ear, so box it became, and 'I don't know who put it there.'" The line "moth before a flame" echoes several proverbs, such as "the fate of the moth in the flame"—

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...

, ''Fragments'' (Fragment #288). The line "long long time to be gone and a short time to be there" echoes the old-time classic "Little Birdie", which includes the line "I've a short while to be here, and a long time to be gone." In one of

Carl Hiaasen Carl Hiaasen (; born March 12, 1953) is an American journalist and novelist. He began his career as a newspaper reporter and by the late 1970s had begun writing novels in his spare time, both for adults and for young-adult readers. Two of his no ...

's novels, the main character is in a shelter for children stranded by a hurricane, and in a particularly tender moment, sings "Box of Rain" to the child.

Performance history

"Box of Rain" debuted on September 17, 1970, at the

Fillmore East The Fillmore East was rock promoter Bill Graham's rock venue on Second Avenue near East 6th Street in the (at the time) Lower East Side neighborhood, now called the East Village neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan of New York City. I ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

during the acoustic portion of the show. That performance was (perhaps significantly given the song's emotional burden for Lesh) its sole appearance for nearly two years. The Grateful Dead reintroduced it during the fall of 1972 and played it on and off for the remainder of the year and 1973 before dropping it again. Between 1976 and 1985, Lesh seldom sang with the group (confining his contributions to harmony vocals on "

Truckin' "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 in 1997 as a national treasure.''Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip'' . Jake Wo ...

") due to vocal cord damage from improper singing. Over 750 concerts after its last performance, "Box of Rain" was permanently revived on March 20, 1986 at the

Coliseum The Colosseum ( ; it, Colosseo ) is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world t ...

in Hampton, Virginia. After that, the song was frequently played in response to chants from the audience. Before the death of Jerry Garcia, "Box of Rain" was the last song ever performed live at a Grateful Dead concert, during the final

encore An encore is an additional performance given by performers after the planned show has ended, usually in response to extended applause from the audience.Lalange Cochrane, in ''Oxford Companion to Music'', Alison Latham, ed., Oxford University Pre ...

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on July 9, 1995. Symbolically, it was the first song played at the first Fare Thee Well show at

on July 3, 2015, bringing fans full circle. Hunter recorded the song on his ''Jack O'Roses'' album (1980).

Reception

In 2021, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked the song at number 364 in their updated list of the

500 Greatest Songs of All Time "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" is a recurring survey compiled by the American magazine ''Rolling Stone''. It is based on weighted votes from selected musicians, critics, and industry figures. The first list was published in December 2004 in ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Box Of Rain 1970 songs Grateful Dead songs Songs written by Phil Lesh Songs with lyrics by Robert Hunter (lyricist)