"You ain't gonna learn what you don't want to know"

The Annotated "Black-Throated Wind"

An installment in The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics.
By David Dodd
Research Associate, Music Dept., University of California, Santa Cruz
Copyright notice; © 1995-2002 David Dodd
"Black-Throated Wind"
Words by John Perry Barlow; music by Bob Weir
Barlow has posted the words to his songs.
Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.
Bringing me down,
I'm running aground
Blind in the light of the interstate cars.
Passing me by,
The busses and semis,
Plunging like stones from a slingshot on Mars.

But I'm here by the road,
Bound to the load
That I picked up in ten thousand cafes and bars.
Alone with the rush of the drivers who won't pick me up,
The highway, the moon, the clouds, and the stars.

The black-throated wind keeps on pouring in
With its words of a life where nothing is new.
Ah, Mother American Night, I'm lost from the light.
Ohhh, I'm drowning in you.

I left St. Louis, the City of Blues,
In the midst of a storm I'd rather forget.
I tried to pretend it came to an end
Cause you weren't the woman I thought I once met.

But I can't deny that times have gone by
When I never had doubts or thoughts of regret
And I was a man when all this began
Who wouldn't think twice about being there yet.

The black-throated wind keeps on pouring in.
And it speaks of a life that passes like dew.
It's forced me to see that you've done better by me,
Better by me than I've done by you.

What's to be found, racing around,
You carry your pain wherever you go.
Full of the blues and trying to lose
You ain't gonna learn what you don't want to know.

So I give you my eyes, and all of their lies
Please help them to learn as well as to see
Capture a glance and make it a dance
Of looking at you looking at me.

The black-throated wind keeps on pouring in
With its words of a lie that could almost be true.
Ah, Mother American Night, here comes the light.
I'm turning around, that's what I'm gonna do

Goin back home that's what I'm gonna do
Turnin' around,
That's what I'm gonna do

'Cause you've done better by me
Than I've done by you. . .


Here are the alternate lyrics, used briefly in 1990:

Verse 2
Well, it's me and the road, yeah, we're lacking the code
That will lead us to some as yet unforseen bar
Alone with the rush of the drivers who won't pick me up
The highway, the moon, the clouds and the stars

But I'm here by the road, yeah, unravelling the code
That will lead us to some as yet unforseen bar

Verse 3
The black-throated wind keeps on pouring in
Like a siren it promises everything new
Ah, Mother American Night, invisible light
Ohhh, I'm flying in you

The black-throated wind keeps on pouring in
With its words of a life where everything's new

Verse 4
I left St Louis, the City of Blues
On a screaming blue bender I'd rather forget
With no scars that show, the keys to the road
A couple of tens and some stale cigarettes

Verse 5
But I can't deny that times have gone by
Nothing is left but thoughts of regret
When I was a man, with so much in hand
That a bird in the bush would be singing there yet

But I can't deny that times have gone by
When being with her was as good as it gets

Verse 6
The black-throated wind, whispering sin
And speaking of life that passes like dew
It's led me to see if you want to be free
Have your way with each day as its granted to you

Verse 7
What's to be found, racing around
You carry your blues to the edge of the sky
Think a coyote could care about birds in the air?
Think a raven thinks coyotes should learn how to fly?

We drew lines all around us when I was down
So now mine turns out to go right to the sky

Verse 8
So I give you my eyes, they were just a disguise
Anyway where I'm going it's too dark to see
Yes, and toss me to Chance and watch me dance
Choreography certain as bats on the breeze

So I leave you my eyes ...

Verse 9
The black-throated wind keeps on pouring in
With it's words of a lie I think just might be true
Oh, Mother American Night, here comes the light
I'm going right on ahead, that's what I'm gonna do

The black-throated wind keeps on pouring in
The prophet that promises everything new
Ah, Mother American Night, come wrong or come right
I will always go onward in you

"Black-Throated Wind"

Cora, Wyoming--San Anselmo, California. February, 1972.

Recorded on

First performance: March 5, 1972 at Winterland, San Francisco. "Black-Throated Wind" appeared in the number two spot in the first set, following "Bertha" and preceding "Mr. Charlie". It was played fairly regularly up until 1974, then dropped from the repertoire until March 16, 1990. It remained something of a concert rarity, as Weir and Barlow experimented with a new set of words for awhile, eventually returning to the original lyrics. The alternate lyrics were published in full in Golden Road, Summer 1990, p. 31.


Black-Throated wind

This note from a reader:
Subject: Black-Throated Wind
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 20:17:52 -0500 (EST)
From: cboyd32114@aol.com

David-

I was recently studying the 25th Chapter of "The Sutra Of The Lotus Flower Of The Wonderful Law," and right at the third paragraph, in Banno Kato's 1930 translation of the scripture, is as follows:

"If there be hundreds thousands of kotis of beings who in search of gold, silver, lapis lazuli, moonstones, agate, corals, amber, pearls and other treasures, go out on the ocean and if a BLACK GALE (my caps) blows their ships to drift upon the land of the rakshasa-demons, and if amongst them there be even a single person who calls upon the name of the Bodhisattva Regarder-Of-The-Cries-Of-The-World, all those people will be delivered from the woes of the rakshasas."
(Kato, Bunno, trans., The Sutra Of The Lotus FLower Of The Wonderful Law (Tokyo: Rissho Kosei-kai, 1971), p. 405.]
On the same page, as a footnote, Kato defines the black gale as "a black wind. There are six kinds of wind, viz., black, red, blue, of heaven, of earth and of fire."

Hope this helps you in your project any.

--Joshua P. Boyd

And another note from a reader:

Subject: Black-Throated Wind comment
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 16:07:30 -0600
From: "Jonathan Beers"

David:

Thanks much for you annotated lyrics web site.

"Black-Troated Wind" was one of my favorite songs to sing to myself while hitchhiking, and I'm convinced that *vehicle exhaust* is the wind that comes from the black throat (tailpipe). However, this insight came to me by the side of the road, so your mileage may vary :) :) :)

Jonathan


ten thousand cafes and bars

Is it worthwhile to note that two songs on Ace contain the number 10,000? The other is in "Greatest Story Ever Told": "And it's one in ten thousand just come for the show." Weir seeems to like this number: he also sings it in the Dead's version of the traditional song "Samson and Delilah": "When he stopped movin' 10,000 was dead." Hmmm. And then of course there's the significance of "ten" in another song on Ace, "Playing in the Band," which is in a meter of ten beats to the bar. Any numerologists out there want to take this one on?

Mother American Night

Reminiscent of the title of a Kurt Vonnegut novel, Mother Night.

St. Louis, the City of Blues

Possibly a reference to the W.C. Handy song, "St. Louis Blues" (1914).
First posted: November 20, 1995
Last revised: January 30, 2002