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Passenger Lyrics
Firefly, can you see me?
Shine on, glowing, brief and brightly
Could you imagine? One summer day,
That same night be on your way
Do you remember? Hearts were too cold
Seasons have frozen us into our souls
People were sayin' the whole world is burning
Ashes have scattered too hard to turn
Upside out or inside down
False alarm, the only game in town
No man's land, the only game in town
Terrible, the only game in town
Passenger, don't you hear me?
Destination seen unclearly.
What is a man deep down inside,
What a raging beast with nothing to hide.
Upside out or inside down
False alarm, the only game in town
No man's land, the only game in town
Terrible, the only game in town
Shine on, glowing, brief and brightly
Could you imagine? One summer day,
That same night be on your way
Do you remember? Hearts were too cold
Seasons have frozen us into our souls
People were sayin' the whole world is burning
Ashes have scattered too hard to turn
Upside out or inside down
False alarm, the only game in town
No man's land, the only game in town
Terrible, the only game in town
Passenger, don't you hear me?
Destination seen unclearly.
What is a man deep down inside,
What a raging beast with nothing to hide.
Upside out or inside down
False alarm, the only game in town
No man's land, the only game in town
Terrible, the only game in town
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At this late date, surprised (Halloween Day, 2021), surprised no comments on this song. A deep cut off 1977's "Terrapin Station," an album I'm not deeply familiar with (though it includes a number of their well-known standard, e.g. "Estimated Prophet" and their cover of "Sampson and Delilah"). I stopped buying their studio albums with the one immediately preceding, 1975's "Blues for Allah," then also bought "In The Dark," released in 1987.
This is an outlier in the Dead's oeuvre: melody by bassist Phil Lesh with lyrics by the Buddhist monk Peter Monk (that's his actual name)- Monk's only songwriting credit with the Dead, and his only credit listed in AllMusic and Discogs. Though Lesh was the primary band member in the writing, the lead vocal duties are shared by guitarist Bob Weir and vocalist Donna Godchaux. Lesh has said the song began as "a joke," a parody of Fleetwood Mac's "Station Man." It is a good, uptempo rocker featuring Garcia on soaring slide guitar, very reminiscent of his slide work on his song "Deal," which first appeared on a studio album on his solo debut "Garcia," 1972.
In any case, a very unique origin story for this song- written by Lesh (who usually ceded songwriting duties at this point to Garcia or Weir) with lyrics by a one-off contributor, and lead vocals not by the songwriter but by other members of the band.
I'm 66 years old and just heard this song on the radio for the very first time today (as I was driving back from a Covid-19 screening, in fact). Immediately downloaded it from iTunes when I got home. Learn something new every day, even at my age.