This is possibly my favourite Dead song. As said on this wonderful Grateful Dead annotations website: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl Jack straw is a game about you're options running out.
Which is what this song is about. Shannon (who is the Jack Straw in the song title) is running out of options, he's on the run from the law and has nowhere to hide, he then has to kill his friend because he's moving too slow as he doesn't agree with what Shannon is doing.
The meaning is that once you start being a criminal it's a downward spiral. You keep going one stage further, deeper and deeper into crime untill you're forced to do very bad things.
So in the end there's no real sharing or friendship amongst bad people....
This is possibly my favourite Dead song. As said on this wonderful Grateful Dead annotations website: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl Jack straw is a game about you're options running out.
Which is what this song is about. Shannon (who is the Jack Straw in the song title) is running out of options, he's on the run from the law and has nowhere to hide, he then has to kill his friend because he's moving too slow as he doesn't agree with what Shannon is doing.
The meaning is that once you start being a criminal it's a downward spiral. You keep going one stage further, deeper and deeper into crime untill you're forced to do very bad things.
So in the end there's no real sharing or friendship amongst bad people....