Dire Wolf

if you want the meaning go to http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/direwolf.html

I love this song. It has the feeling of- "the boys sing 'round the fire." Dont know why, but that line really shows the feeling of the song.

i think it's about getting what you deserve...living it rough, gambling, drinking, doing whatever, and then begging not to be engulfed by the ginormous hole you've dug for yourself.

When I awoke, the Dire Wolf, six hundred pounds of sin, Was grinning at my window, all I said was "Come on in".

if you let six hundred pounds of sin into your life you have to face the consequences. my favourite line is "In the backwash of Fennario, the black and bloody mire, The Dire Wolf collects his dues"

its about the consequences of your actions. hoping it doesnt come back to bite ya in the ass. aka getting what you deserve

Great song, one of the best pedal steel guitar solo ever.

I agree about it being about getting what you deserve. i think the dire wolf is really all of the bad things a person has done just manifested, and the message behind the song is that if you do bad things to people bad things will happen back to you, when the dire wolf knocks on your door. and all you can do when he comes is let him in, and hope he doesn't swallow you whole

I remember a couple of years back listening to an audience recording with garcia introducing this song as his "paranoid in the streets mantra" i think its a song that recognizes the darker side of that illicit shit we all exist along side in urban life, this is a song that came out as their neighborhood was in a real decline. I think aside from the literal translation which is also valuable and interesting, this is a song at least from an imagery standpoint that speaks to me about not a hatred for the evil in our lives, but a tolerance and acceptance of that understanding. All hunter is saying is live as good of a life as you can live and keep an eye out for the consequences of your actions. A nice little comes around goes around lesson spared of the self richeous overtones... were all bad people some of us are worse than others lets try not to get killed in the process.

I once heard Jerry say at the start of this song during a 69 show- This song is dedicated to the zodiac, and to paranoid fantasies everywhere.

The song is brilliant. He begs and begs not to be murdered, yet is helpless before the greater powers. It's one of those songs with a lot of possible meanings.

It could be a reference to Robert Hunter's participation in CIA drug testing- the government being the wolf. The "boys" being the test subjects. Hence, as soon as he wakes up- the wolf is right there smiling with another dose and battery of questions (the game.) But the deck is soon cut to the queen of spades (death). Naturally, it would become something of a mantra to not want to be murdered- praying that this trip won't be so bad.

It could also be a larger reference to all the inherent misunderstandings (possibly resulting from the aforementioned zodiac) between us, and the burden of responsibility we place on one another which, in effect, "murders us" with guilt. Or else just behaving shabbily towards one another.

The best part of the song, by far, is the chorus, which on many occasions during shows, Jerry would stop to remind of us saying something like- "This is a song with a real easy chorus- you can even sing with it- it's fun." Given the catchyness and almost mandatory sing-along effect of the song, we have to assume this was intentionally made to be a mantra repeated over and over- a message of better understanding between us and our fellow humans.

Dire wolf

What a great image. Not just any wolf but a Dire Wolf.

of course Dire Wolves are a species of gigantic wolves extinct since the Pleistocene.

But what genius in imagery. Just the name conveys the desired image.

It's about Altamont and the Dire Wolf represents the Hell's Angels. "New Speedway Boogie" from that same album is also about Altamont.