Grateful Dead: “Uncle John’s Band”
ALBUM: Workingman’s Dead
YEAR: 1970
WRITERS: Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter
An edited version peaked at number-69 on the Billboard Hot 100, but the album cut was a standard on progressive rock radio.
The debate still goes on as to whether Robert Hunter’s lyrics to “Uncle John’s Band” were inspired by a particular band — possibly even the Grateful Dead, with John substituted for Jerry. Although he doesn’t like talking about what goes into their songs, Dead drummer Mickey Hart said he prefers to look at it another way. ”It was an imaginary band. It could be any band. It was just a metaphor. It was what anybody’s band could be like. It’s the imagination. Talking about them is not nearly as good as imaging what it’s all about. I’d be taking away a very important part of music, which is the imagination.”
Original Grateful Dead organist and occasional singer Ron McKernan, better known as “Pig Pen,” would have turned 70 years old today.
