"One way or another this darkness got to give"

The Annotated "New Speedway Boogie"

An installment in The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics.
By David Dodd
Research Associate, Music Dept., University of California, Santa Cruz
"New Speedway Boogie"
Words by Robert Hunter; music by Jerry Garcia
Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission

Please don't dominate the rap Jack
if you got nothing new to say
If you please don't back up the track
This train got to run today

Spent a little time on the mountain
Spent a little time on the hill
Heard some say better run away
Others say you better stand still

Now I don't know but I been told
it's hard to run with the weight of gold
Other hand I heard it said
it's just as hard with the weight of lead

Who can deny? Who can deny?
it's not just a change in style
One step done and another begun
in I wonder how many miles?

Spent a little time on the mountain
Spent a little time on the hill
Things went down we don't understand
but I think in time we will

Now I don't know but I been told
in the heat of the sun a man died of cold
Do we keep on coming or stand and wait
with the sun so dark and the hour so late?

You can't overlook the lack Jack
of any other highway to ride
It's got no signs or dividing lines
and very few rules to guide

Spent a little time on the mountain
Spent a little time on the hill
I saw things getting out of hand
I guess they always will

I don't know but I been told
if the horse don't pull you got to carry the load
I don't know whose back's that strong
Maybe find out before too long

One way or another
One way or another
One way or another
this darkness got to give
One way or another
One way or another
One way or another
this darkness got to give

"New Speedway Boogie"

Recorded on Also on Bill Kreutzmann's group's album: Backbone

First known performance: December 20, 1969, at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. It appeared in the second set, following "The Eleven" and preceding "Turn on Your Lovelight." It was played through September of 1970, then dropped from the repertoire for over twenty years, reappearing in February of 1991. It appeared occasionally thereafter.

Hunter's footnote in A Box of Rain says:

("Written as a reply to an indictment of the Altamont affair by pioneer rock critic Ralph J. Gleason)"

The title is reminiscent of song titles of the type: "New Minglewood Blues."


Speedway

The site of the Altamont concert (December 6, 1969) was a racetrack in the hills east of Livermore, California, (my home town) called the Altamont Speedway.

rap Jack

This note from a reader:
From: Max Kaplan [mailto:maxk@optonline.net]
Sent: Sunday, October 05, 2003 9:19 AM
Subject: New Speedway Boogie Annotation

Hey David,
Not sure if you still update this stuff but I had a comment about the "rap Jack" I'm not a big CB radio person but I'm pretty sure Hunter was talking about the random jabbering on a CB channel which is know as the rap jack.
Thanks man,
Max
This could use some verification--anybody out there know about CB jargon?

I don't know but I been told

Compare the line from "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot":
"I ain't never been to heaben but Ah been told
Dat de streets in heaben am paved with gold."

The entire song, with its proclamation of confusion and not knowing, sits squarely with the best of the tradition of ambiguity in Grateful Dead lyrics.


in the heat of the sun a man died of cold

The man who was killed at the Altamont concert was Meredith Hunter, aged 18.

The line is evocative of the line from "Oh Susanna": (also echoed in "Black Muddy River.")

"The sun so hot I froze to death
Susanna, don't you cry."

And this note from a reader:

erin wolfe wrote:

Greetings.

First of all, I love your site! It's great, and I hope it continues for a long time.

I came across a reference for "New Speedway Boogie" that I thought you might be interested in, although the context is completely different.

"In the heat of the sun a man died of cold."

The reference is from Geoffrey Chaucer's "Troilus and Criseyde," which was finished in 1385. This particular bit is a direct translation of a sonnet by Boccaccio (although I don't know which one). Troilus is madly in love with Criseyde, and he says this (Book I, Stanza 60):

"Alas! what is this wonder maladye?

For heat of cold, for cold of heat, I dye."

I think it works...

Peace and thanks for the site,

Erin Wolfe


Keywords: @Altamont, @dark
DeadBase code: [SPEE]
First posted: January 30, 1996
Last revised: October 6, 2003