Death don't have no mercy.

[Bobby Stainless]

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/m...d-dead-889788/

[Danno]

aw, man, sad news.

I was at the Hampton show you linked.

But in the desire to have a catchy GD-related thread title, you chose a song that Hunter didn't write!

[Peruvian]

All the years combine
They melt into a dream
A broken angel sings
From a guitar
In the end there's just a song
Comes crying like the night (wind)
Through all the broken dreams
And vanished years

[Micol]

seems he wrote like 90%+ (whatever % is was a lot) of the lyrics and should not have had medical bill
problems late in life when touring would be hard....seems like a miscarriage
of royalties and rights...for someone that really needed those funds to take
care of himself and family when he became incapacitated .... vibes+++++++++++

[Skidog]

Bummer for sure.

Saw him once back in the late 90's at the Beacon Theatre in NYC. Tom Constantine opened for him. Great show. Great Venue. Great writer.

RIP Mr Hunter.

[splat]

seems he wrote like 90%+ (whatever % is was a lot) of the lyrics and should not have had medical bill
problems late in life when touring would be hard....seems like a miscarriage
of royalties and rights...for someone that really needed those funds to take
care of himself and family when he became incapacitated .... vibes+++++++++++

Agreed. Especially since I've heard song writers are the only ones who get royalties from radio airplay.

[Bobby Finstock]

I'll scrape a line out in his memory

[billyk]

seems he wrote like 90%+ (whatever % is was a lot) of the lyrics and should not have had medical bill
problems late in life when touring would be hard....seems like a miscarriage
of royalties and rights...for someone that really needed those funds to take
care of himself and family when he became incapacitated .... vibes+++++++++++

Closer to 60-70% (Barlow wrote a bunch of songs with Bobby), but, yeah it’s a shame if he had money problems. One of the consequences of music being so easy to steal, I guess.

[Micol]

Agreed. Especially since I've heard song writers are the only ones who get royalties from radio airplay.

yeah i dont think dead was on radio much enough to add up a ton...but i think you have mechanical and publisher royalties...writer maybe falls under mechanical and BMI and ASCAP collect from every bar, restaurant, other artist albums/performance covering songs, online sources, covers by other band, performance hall, etc, etc....and they are supposed to pay the writer,...so even tho not much radio play (cept maybe touch o gray or whatever) all the other sources should have added up to some nice change $$ at least enough to pay his bills for his entire life, these rights are also passed down through estates after death...but if the dead other band members never gave him writing credits...altho take a look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Jones_(song) but depends how it got listed with BMI and ASCAP

but Casey Jones only played by dead like 300 times....so at a 1/2 of mechanical of a couple of pennies per play , cant buy a beer....so someone (lawyers usually) have to press the BMI ASCAPS to collect and then pay....how many times does casey jones get played i bet way more than 300

doesnt help that the bulk of dead money came from touring and not radio or album sales....

i may have some of the mumbo jumbo on publishing and writers rights mixed up ...been a while....but bottom line....Robert Hunter should not have been out on the road after being in hospital trying to make a few bucks to pay medical debt.....

[Micol]

Closer to 60-70% (Barlow wrote a bunch of songs with Bobby), but, yeah it’s a shame if he had money problems. One of the consequences of music being so easy to steal, I guess.

was barlow the wyoming rancher ? if so he only did like a handful of lyrics....im too lazy to goggle it ......i think there were 3 primary outside lyric writers for dead ... not including band members.....and it was probalby like you say hunter 60-70%, the other guy 28-38%, and the rancher dude 2%

[Micol]

im no dead historian or anything but have a good collection of dicks pics and own a roll of negatives from first Dead show at Redrocks in 1978....yep that shit is the shit.... i had read about hunters problems on deadnet and considered trying to track him down and market the pics on the roll to his benefit for med bills...but i have too many projects, too little human resources and so i put it off....in fact i just spoke to someone about taking it on in the last 2 months but now with hunter gone....no point in it


oh yeah and i did see the dead live..but not in 78 (haha before i was getting around much a mere babe), bought that roll negatives and rights from an old dude moving out of leadville that had circled the globe snapping pics of dead back in the day...

came about because guy lived on same block as me, was having to move and was having a yard sale... due to $ and some family member selling the house he lived in, so i walked over and saw like 4 barnwood framed pics from dead at redrocks that were incredibly cool and i had never seen in any magazine,poster, etc or whatever....asked him what where these came from....got the story....he said he had a whole roll of them...so i bought the negatives...and the prints.. i ended up giving close friends the framed prints ....and i still have the rest ...

[billyk]

was barlow the wyoming rancher ? if so he only did like a handful of lyrics....im too lazy to goggle it ......i think there were 3 primary outside lyric writers for dead ... not including band members.....and it was probalby like you say hunter 60-70%, the other guy 28-38%, and the rancher dude 2%

Barlow was the “other guy” and he was also the Wyoming rancher dude. A quick google search said he wrote something like 27 songs.

[Micol]

Barlow was the “other guy” and he was also the Wyoming rancher dude. A quick google search said he wrote something like 27 songs.

copy that...im foggy on all this stuff...i used to know a lot ...but lost my thoughts...dont want to gogle it, only have limited space for thoughts now...pretty crowded...need room

[Micol]

i see the tgr collab and even saw a bunch of vintage dead design tee's in an outlet mall for Neiman Marcus (wtf??) and wonder who is getting all the money....obviously not all the people that deserved some of it....such as the world turns....and its pretty f'kin harsh i would say...

[billyk]

Barlow was the “other guy” and he was also the Wyoming rancher dude. A quick google search said he wrote something like 27 songs.

Another list had 32 songs by Barlow. And I saw 44 by Hunter but those were just the “notable” songs. I’m sure there were probably more. But no way did Hunter write 10x more songs than Barlow which would give him 90%.

OK, I’m done nit-picking.

[Danno]

I always thought that -- basically -- almost all the Jerry songs were co-written with Hunter, and almost all the Bobby songs were co-written with Barlow.

[The Reverend Floater]

One of the most brilliant writers ever, IMHO. RIP.

[Skidog]

I stopped counting at 70 something on the songs hunter wrote that the dead played.

Articles say he wrote "all but a few of garcias songs". I'd put him close to the 90% mark on total dead songs written.

http://www.deaddisc.com/GDFD_RHSongs.htm

[The Reverend Floater]

In the attics of my life
Full of cloudy dreams; unreal
Full of tastes no tongue can know
And lights no eye can see
When there was no ear to hear
You sang to me
I have spent my life
Seeking all that's still unsung
Bent my ear to hear the tune
And closed my eyes to see
When there were no strings to play
You played to me
In the book of love's own dreams
Where all the print is blood
Where all the pages are my days
And all my lights grow old
When I had no wings to fly
You flew to me
You flew to me
In the secret space of dreams
Where I dreaming lay amazed
When the secrets all are told
And the petals all unfold
When there was no dream of mine
You dreamed of me

[Micol]

I stopped counting at 70 something on the songs hunter wrote that the dead played.

Articles say he wrote "all but a few of garcias songs". I'd put him close to the 90% mark on total dead songs written.

http://www.deaddisc.com/GDFD_RHSongs.htm

thats a cool resource

edit: if you click on the "info" button it expands all the places it got played...really really should have been enough royalties there that should have given him comfort through his illness and beyond imo

[buttahflake]

Saw him at the Iron Horse in Northampton Mass in 1984. Cool cat. Audience member asked him to play his favorite song, he broke into Peggy-O.
His legacy will burn brightly for decades to come.
RIP Hunter

[Skidog]

thats a cool resource

edit: if you click on the "info" button it expands all the places it got played...really really should have been enough royalties there that should have given him comfort through his illness and beyond imo

Only more or less the "best" resource for GD related set lists, etc. Dead net too....

I stopped, aside from being an avid listener, after Jerry's passing. Saw just under 90 shows in my short time on the bus.

[Micol]

https://www.dead.net/lyricsby/robert-hunter

[riser4]

Reach out your hand if your cup be empty
If your cup is full may it be again
Let it be known there is a fountain
That was not made by the hands of men

[EWG]

The greatest american lyrist, and one of the greatest american writers, of all time. Brilliant and vulnerable, layers and layers of depth. He and Jerry made the Dead what they ended up becoming, and he gave them so much of the meaning they ended up embodying. He's why they meant more than any other band.

Thank you Robert Hunter.

Inspiration, move me brightly
light the song with sense and color
Hold away despair
more than this I will not ask
Faced with mysteries dark and vast
statements just seem vain at last
Some rise
some fall
some climb
to get to terrapin
Counting stars by candlelight
all are dim but one is bright
The spiral light of Venus
rising first and shining best
On, from the northwest corner
of a brand new crescent moon
While crickets and cicadas sing
a rare and different tune
Terrapin station

In the shadow of the moon, terrapin station
And I know we'll be there soon, terrapin
I can't figure out, terrapin
if it's the end or beginning, terrapin
But the train's put it's brakes on, terrapin
And the whistle is screaming, terrapin