The Annotated "Sage & Spirit"

An installment in The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics.
By David Dodd
Library, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
"Sage and Spirit"
Instrumental. Music by Bob Weir.

"Sage and Spirit"

Recorded on

First performance: August 13, 1975, at the Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, California. This is the performance captured on One From the Vault. "Sage & Spirit" appeared in the second set, following "The Other One" Jam and preceding "Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad." The other first in the show was "The Music Never Stopped." DeadBase notes only one other live performance, on Halowe'en, 1980, Radio City Music Hall, in the acoustic set.

From Rock Scully's Living With the Dead:

"Bobby wrote 'Sage & Spirit' while my daughters, named Sage and Spirit, were jumping on his bed and generally trashing his hotel room. He was trying to play his guitar and came up with the rhythm for this from their jumping. The flute mimics their laughter." (p. 257.)

First posted: January 16, 1996
Last revised: