Brokedown Palace

I think this song is about someone who has led a long life, and is getting ready to die and saying a last goodbye to the one person (the last singing bird) who has stayed the whole time. He\'s wants to be buried by the river, the only constant thing where \'lovers come and go\' but where his loved one can come and see the willow that he planted as a remembrance and hear the sound of the river that also gives him peace in the afterlife. One of the most achingly sweet and beautiful songs ever written.

one of the most beautiful songs ever written. i wanted to use this song as my senior quote, literally, but they obviously wouldnt let me so i was told to pick a chunk of it. it was so hard to decide that i ended up missing the deadline. highschool was so sad for me and so hard, but i grew so much from it, and learned so much from analyzing it, i love it more than words could tell. invaluably indebted. in retrospect i should have settled right away for

"Going to leave this brokedown palace, On my hand and knees, I will roll, roll, roll. Make myself a bed in the waterside, In my time, I will roll, roll roll."

i learned more than most of the people who graduated with top grades, that year at least, always knew i was "smarter" than most of em. i knew i didnt need to move at the schools pace, i was there to learn, not to recieve assignments. i'd leave on my hands and knees if it's the last thing i did. i skimmed by just barely senior year because i didnt have it in me to do much of anything at the time. i was so fed up with feeling unhappy and imprisoned. but in my time i know i'll be up in vermont by a river, or down south just the same, happy as can be, and forever grateful.

this one right here is one of those tears of joy and pain at the same time songs.

This is my favorite Grateful Dead song. I agree that it's about death, but it's peaceful and seems almost like a lullaby. It makes me think of Jerry Garcia :'(

my first impression upon hearing this and knowing the date it was written is that it's about someone who lived in the haight / san francisco in the 60s leaving it after it went to shit and remembering what it used to be.

but maybe i'm wrong.

ripple and brokedown palace are two of my favorate songs.

i have told everyone i trust that this song needs to be played at my funeral.

this was the song they wanted to play at my mothers funeral but the priest wouldnt let them cause he thought it would be bad cuase it was a dead song. and later my family and my moms freinds went to the same bar the priest went to after funerals and they made the bartender play that song and he said it was the most beautiful thing he ever heard. then he asked how old she was and when they said 29 he started bawling. my grand mother (who was 45 at the time) had to help him to his car

In the "Classic Albums" series episode called "Anthem To Beauty", they chronicled the recording of the Dead from Anthem of the Sun to American Beauty.

Robert Hunter is interviewed and he talks about how he wrote the lyrics to Ripple, Brokedown Palace, and To Lay Me Down all in one afternoon in a park in England. I don't know if they are supposed to all be interconnected, but they all came from the same mood, one would think.

This might be one of the best songs ever recorded. Listening to it leaves me feeling peaceful, but also kind of sad because deep down when I hear it I know that the time of true artistic expression in music has passed. It is now just another mass produced commodity created for the sole purpose of generating revenue. A sad day for our world, indeed.

I have always loved this song since my first Dead album which was Dead Set, I guess around 1982. Anyway, my wife Diane died on 5/13/13 at age 41 from breast cancer. On her gravestone I had inscribed "Fare you well, fare you well, I love you more than words can tell".

Need I say more to tell you what I think this song is about?

Definitely one of my favorite Dead songs... It's so beautiful