"What is a man, deep down inside, but a raging beast with nothing to hide"

The Annotated "Passenger"

An installment in The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics.
By David Dodd
Library, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
"Passenger"
Words by Peter Monk; music by Phil Lesh

"Passenger"

Recorded on

First performance: May 17, 1977 at Memorial Coliseum, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. "Passenger" appeared in the ninth spot in the first set, between "Tennessee Jed" and "High Time". Also played for the first time at this concert was "Iko Iko." "Passenger" remained in the repertoire fairly steadily through 1981, and was then dropped.

In an interview in Dupree's Diamond News, issue #28, Lesh says of "Passenger":

"What's weird about that song is I sort of did it as a joke. It's a take on a Fleetwood Mac tune called "Station Man." I just sort of sped it up and put some different chord changes in there..." (p. 18)

DeadBase code: PASS
First posted: January 30, 1996
Last revised: