Always one of my favorite lyrics for its obscura.

Re: Sugar Magnolia, 'jump like a Willys in four wheel drive'. Thought I might be able to contribute a nugget of info. Just happened upon your amazing site while off surfing a fabulous trip of strings on the web. Willys Made by the Overland Automotive Company, this jeep-type vehicle is no longer in production. Hope this helps you, and keep up the great work! It seemed especially similar to the line 'Saw my baby down by the river' as well as 'Rolling in the rushes Down by the riverside'. Sweet was her singing then, and her heart was beating.

There they open first in spring and there they linger latestīy that pool long ago I found the River-daughterįair young Goldberry, sitting in the rushes In a wide pool, deep and clear, far down Withywindle To flower by her pretty feet til the snows are meltedĮach year at summer's end I go to find them for her The last ere the year's end to keep them from the winter Green leaves and lilies white to please my pretty lady I had an errand there: gathering water lilies

She is described in the following verses. I was listening to Sugar Magnolia one day while reading J.R.R Tolkien's Fellowship of the Ring, and it occurred to me how much the girl being sung about is like the character Goldberry in thenovel. Your site is wonderful, and greatly appreciated by the new generation of Deadheads. 'May whatever god you believe in have mercy on your soul'-QĪnd another note from a reader: Date: Mon, 28 May wrote: Here is the main entry from Merriam-Websters online dictionary( Įtymology: Middle English, from Old English rysc akin to Middle HighGerman rusch rush, Lithuanian regzti to knitĪny of various monocotyledonous often tufted marsh plants (as of thegenera Juncus and Scirpus of the family Juncaceae, the rush family) withcylindrical often hollow stems which are used in bottoming chairs andplaiting matsHope this helps. You have links fromMagnolia and Rose to their picture, but not to rush, a type of marshplant that the song seems to be referencing. the eighth line of the song is'rolling in the rushes down by the riverside'. RushesThis note from a reader: Subject: Annotated GD lyrics She won't come and I won't call 'er.' ( Botkin, p. She don't come and I don't followCompare the lines from the folk song, 'Sourwood Mountain' 'I got a girl in the head of the hollow, 'Sugar Magnolia' came out of a drum solo in the second set, and was followed by a jam on 'Louie Louie.'Ī note on performance practice: the band often divided the song into two distinct entities,'Sugar Magnolia,' and 'Sunshine Daydream.' The space between these parts could be as brief asthe space of several beats could frame a set, as in the closing of Winterland or be as long as a week, in the case of the performance occurring in the week of Bill Graham's death, when the 'Sunshine Daydream' came during the Polo Field concertin Golden Gate Park a week after the band opened a show with 'Sugar Magnolia' at the OaklandColiseum Arena. She's a summer love in the spring, fall and winterĪ breeze in the pines in the summer night moonlightĬovered by the Pop-O-Pies on Joe's Third Album (Subterranean Sub52).įirst performance: Jat the Fillmore West in San Francisco. Rolling in the rushes down by the riverside The Annotated 'Sugar Magnolia' 'Light out singing I'll walk you in the morning sunshine.' The Annotated 'Sugar Magnolia'An installment in The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics.ġ997-98 Research Associate, Music Dept., University of California, Santa Cruz

Grateful dead sugar magnolia