Friend of the Devil

lost in space, my dad is just like this song too. haha. he tells me of his drug days, his running from the cop days, his VW bus days, and the one time he bumped into jerry garcia in a bar. he's always told me this song is one of his favorites.

as to what its about, i'm almost positive the devil is cocaine.

For the record there is a final verse that Garcia decided to ommit:

You can borrow from the Devil You can borrow from a Friend The Devil will give you Twenty When a friend's got only Ten

Set out running .....

Just an absolutely amazing song. It was written by Robert Hunter (the lyricist for the Dead - check out the original hand-written version - dead.net/RobertHunterArchive/files/HandwrittenLyrics/FriendOfDevil.html)

My thought has always been that this song is about the choices we make -- sometimes stealing from Peter to pay off Paul. Sometimes picking the wrong ally for the right reasons. Indebting ourselves to those that are negative influences in our lives.

There's a general feeling that the "hounds" are devil dogs, and that the writer can't sleep until he's in the "protection" of his home, or else the hounds of hell will steal his soul.

I also wonder if this song is about chosing to go against the status quo. "An enemy of my enemy is my friend." Kind of fighting against the church by siding with their enemy. Lashing out at "The Man," in a sort of protest against popular morality.

i have only heard the Counting Crows version, but it's pretty much the same. A guy is running from the cops because of his past wrongdoings and i think he has singed a deal with the devil. the devil has done these bad things with him and for that the devil wont leave until its all cleared up.

I was a freshman at Emory University when I first heard this song as my friend Jerry was playing it on the guitar in his dorm room...He always sang, got 2 reasons why I cry, awake each lonely night…first one’s name sweet Emory, and she’s my heart’s delight That is what I thought until today, some 40 years later... There is a Thank you Jerry concert on axsTV and I saw in the subtitles, it’s really Anna Marie, not Emory…. At school, I hung out with a bunch of Deadheads, and a love for this band is probably the most meaningful thing I got from my college education that has remained with me to this day… The Dead’s music is full of disjointed lyrics, that don’t seem to mean anything. Yet there is very powerful imagery in few words. And the music is the vehicle which the words ride upon, sometimes senseless, yet perfect in the spinning, psychedelic musical place that is a Grateful Dead concert….

This is one of the coolest songs I've ever heard. Especiallly Jerry and David's version. I think it might be some kind of analogy for something, but I think it describes this dude's life. He's dealt with the devil, he's always running away from the cops, he's got a couple wives, he's hiding in the hills of Reno territory. You get the picture.

slugsinthefields i agree, its a song about somebody running away from the police, the devil being other criminal or people in run from the law also who help him be on his way, simple a brillant song, ofcourse the best version is the grateful dead version :)

one of the best

the song is pure nostalgia for me... this song embodies my dad. not only do we share our love for the dead but the song always reminded me of him.. always on the run with the devil... never quite able to tie himself down to responsibilities or traditional conventions of life. people like that can equally bring the most joy and pain to life, you just have to accept thats how they are and learn to love it :) a friend of the devil IS a friend of mine

my friend and I were trying to interpret this song does anyone know for sure what the songwriter was trying to tell us. I think it means theguy was a drug addict escaping from prison and the devil is drugs and no matter how hard he tried to get home to annemarie the devil got in the way his other wife was prison