Misheard Song Lyrics -> Stories -> Grateful Dead

The Story: I thought that would make it hard to run, and what was he doing outside her window? - Submitted by: BobT

The Story: I heard this sung by a Head in the hallway at a Dead Show in the late ’80s. - Submitted by: Spritely Sprite

The Story: I just figured it was like Moses parting the Red Sea. - Submitted by: Donna

The Story: My good friend Joseph, who was just becoming familiar with the Grateful Dead and their music, was singing the song thinking it was the funniest song he ever heard. - Submitted by: Lisa Laffing

The Story: I tattooed 'thighs of the world' onto my left thigh, thinking those were the right lyrics. - Submitted by: Jerry

The Story: Dead and Company alpine valley 2016 a Franklin's Tower is playing and totally melting my face so I'm looking around me and hear them say "roll away the dew" but at the same moment I notice tons of people sparking up doobies so I assumed that's what they were saying - Submitted by: Hayden

The Story: My wife thinks this has to do with twenty pounds of grass, coke or some other kind of banned substance. - Submitted by: Jim Krys

The Story: - Submitted by: Karl B.

The Story: I know at least three or four other deadheads who misheard these the same way. - Submitted by: Richard Starlight

The Story: I heard this on the radio, and wondered what they could mean by 'blue collar oughta rain' or 'blue collar auto rain'. I asked my uncle about it, and he told me it was probably 'cool Colorado rain'. We checked on the Internet, and guess what? He'd guessed the correct lyrics, even though he was thinking about a different song. It turns out at least two different songs talk about 'cool Colorado rain'! - Submitted by: Amber Wayland

The Story: Not really, but after hearing it a couple hundred times, and singing along, I finally realized the my version made absolutely no sense and I checked to see what the words actually were. - Submitted by: Jeff Hollerman

The Story: Submitting this on behalf of my friend Cathy. This has been my favorite misheard lyric for over 20 years. - Submitted by: Cathy

The Story: First Grateful Dead show I ever went to was March 1992 at the Palace of Auburn Hills (Michigan). I was familiar with the basic 'greatest hits' of the Dead, but as any seasoned Deadhead could have told me, they tend to play a lot of different songs in concert and do not always play the obvious, well known ones. Anyway, late in the second set, Jerry Garcia is singing this slow, sentimental song. I cannot make out a lot of the words to it, but it kind of sounds like the oft-repeated refrain might be 'still love you.' So I am thinking that this might be a song about a long term relationship that has its ups and downs, and through it all the two people still love each other, hence the 'still love you.' As I became more absorbed into the Deadhead scene, I learned that this is not really a love song at all, and that the refrain I was hearing (and the title of the song) is in fact 'Stella Blue.' - Submitted by: Jerrybear

The Story: When I met my husband he would sing, 'Plays my chicken when I speed', and I would always correct him. He acted like he was totally convinced that he was right. I soon found out it was his way of flirting with me. Well, it worked we have been together for 8 years and married for one. - Submitted by: Jamie

The Story: My Deadhead friends howled at my misinterpretation of this song, but the combination of Robert Hunter, Jerry Garcia and 58 pounds of assorted drugs makes any lyric a possibility for the Dead. - Submitted by: Eric Cartridge

The Story: Even though I knew what a Willys jeep was, it just didn't occur to me. - Submitted by: S Johnson

The Story: Researched 'kufu' when I wondered about the lyric and found it is the name of a Egyptian Pharoh, A/K/A 'Khufu' or 'Cheops', who of course as pharoh could do no wrong... - Submitted by: Rick Jones

The Story: In the version of this song on "Live Dead" both verses are sung at the same time, so it is hard to understand. I always thought it was the former, but recently Furthur has been playing the song, so I heard the lyrics correctly. - Submitted by: Chrispy

The Story: A newbie freind of mine at his first Dead show misheard the endlessly repeated line, and immediately began singing it to himself. After the show, several of us were walking around Berkeley looking for something more to do, while our friend kept banging a stick against things in that peculiar rhythm and repeating his version of the lyrics. After a while one of the females in our group asked him what he thought he was singing. His singing was so bad, that even for such a short phrase and despite the distinctive beat, it was hard to be sure. After he was corrected, he told us that he 'really liked' the song - it 'had a good beat' - but had thought the words were 'a little strange.' For a long time after that, when we went to Dead shows our group tended to congregate in front of Jerry's mic waiting for the song. If it turned up, we would sing our version as loud as we could, hoping to impress Jerry. One day at The Frost i think he actually did hear us, because he scowled very deeply in our direction, and we didn't hear that song at a single show we went to for nearly five years. - Submitted by: billy rainbow

The Story: My daughter used the line "pink light of the morning sky" in a college English project as an inside joke. That's my girl! - Submitted by: heynowTK

The Story: I thought it could have referred to magazine titles! - Submitted by: Cody Finke

The Story: Blue sheen, as in the glowing lights ?!?! - Submitted by: iknowurider

The Story: I always wondered who the heck was Errol, and had a mental image of two guys in zoot suits walking R Crumb style, spinning their keys on the end of a long chain. My illusion has been shattered. - Submitted by: Sam

The Story: Just the way I heard it. When I started working for the Grateful Dead in 1983, I was corrected you GD lyricist Robert Hunter...He should know! - Submitted by: Steven Marcus