Gone are the days when the ox fall down
he'd take up the yoke and plow the fields around
Gone are the days when the ladies said "please,
gently Jack Jones won't you come to me?"
Brown eyed women and red grenadine
the bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean
Sound of the thunder with the rain pouring down
and it looks like the old man's getting on
In 1920 when he stepped to the bar
he drank to the dregs of the whiskey jar
In 1930 when the Wall caved in
he paid his way selling red eye gin
Brown eyed women and red grenadine
the bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean
Sound of the thunder with the rain pouring down
and it looks like the old man's getting on
Delilah Jones was the mother of twins
two times over and the rest was sins
Raised eight boys, only I turned bad
Didn't get the lickings that the other ones had
Brown eyed women and red grenadine
the bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean
Sound of the thunder with the rain pouring down
and it looks like the old man's getting on
Tumble down shack in Bigfoot County
Snowed so hard that the roof caved in
Delilah Jones went to meet her God
and the old man never was the same again
Brown eyed women and red grenadine
the bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean
Sound of the thunder with the rain pouring down
and it looks like the old man's getting on
Daddy made whiskey and he made it well
Cost two dollars and it burned like hell
I cut hick'ry to fire the still
Drink down a bottle and you're ready to kill
Brown eyed women and red grenadine
the bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean
Sound of the thunder with the rain pouring down
and it looks like the old man's getting on
First performance: August 23, 1971 at the Auditorium Theater, Chicago. It appeared in the first set, between "Beat It On Down the Line" and "Me and My Uncle." It's been a regular in the repertoire ever since.
There has long been confusion over the song's title. Hunter, in A Box of Rain, titles it "Brown-Eyed Women," while the listing on the cover of Europe '72 calls it "Brown-Eyed Woman." According to DeadBase VIII:
"Willy Legate of the Grateful Dead Archives kindly informed us that although the title was copyrighted as Brown-eyed Woman (that's how it appears on the album and/or songbook), Robert Hunter actually wrote and intended it to be Brown-eyed Women, the way Jerry Garcia really sings it. This is a classic case of a typographical error."--p. vii.
"Redeye: n. 1. Whisky of very poor quality. In full redeye whisky. ... 1819 QUITMAN in Claiborne Life Quitman I. 42 Whiting and I had a treat to 'red-eye,' or 'rot-gut,' as whiskey is here [Ky.] called." -- Dictionary of Americanisms.
Follow this link for more information about the mythical Bigfoot.
And here's a note from a reader:
Subject: brown-eyed women-bigfoot county
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 1997 20:45:42 -0800
From: doug shipleyHello David,
A fellow traveler turned me on to this cool project and I thought I'd send you my interpretation of the line "tumbledown shack in Bigfoot County". I've always taken that to be the nick name of the county just south of my own Jackson Co. on the California/Oregon border- Del Norte or Humbolt County being popular places where Bigfoot was seen in the early days of timber and mining activity . Plus when it snows there it dumps.
Brown-eyed Women is one of my favorite songs, it reminds me of my father, I tend to cry every time I hear it.
Doug
"I'll make you one gallon for a two-dollar bill."--Folksinger's Wordbook, p. 229.