Row Jimmy
Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Jerry Garcia
© Ice Nine Publishing
Recorded on: Wake of the Flood, Dozin' at the Knick
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Julie catch a rabbit by his hair
Come back step, like to walk on air
Get back home where you belong
and don't you run off no more
Don't hang your head let the two-time roll
Grass shack nailed to a pine wood floor
Ask the time? Baby I don't know
Come back later, we'll let it show
And I say row, Jimmy row
Gonna get there?
I don't know
Seems a common way to go
Get down, row, row, row
row, row
Here's my half a dollar if you dare
double twist when you hit the air
Look at Julie down below
the levee doin the do-pas-o
And I say row, Jimmy, row
Gonna get there?
I don't know
Seems a common way to go
Get down, row, row, row
row, row
Broken heart don't feel so bad
Ain't got half a what you thought you had
Rock your baby to and fro
Not too fast and not too slow
And I say row, Jimmy, row
Gonna get there?
I don't know
Seems a common way to go
Get down, row, row, row
row, row
That's the way it's been in town
ever since they tore the juke box down
Two-bit piece don't buy no more
not so much as it done before
And I say row, Jimmy, row
Gonna get there?
I don't know
Seems a common way to go
Get down, row, row, row
row, row
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The Grateful Dead performed Row Jimmy for the first time on February 9, 1973 at Rose Maples Pavillion, Stanford University. They tiptoed it out as the second song during the first set. It wasn't the only newbie in the bunch. Others included China Doll, Eyes of the World, Here Comes Sunshine, Loose Lucy, They Love Each Other, and Wave That Flag. Not a bad freshman team.
Moving to Orlando in 1997 was a time of intense marital and financial stress. Row Jimmy and the following piece, When I Paint My Masterpiece, from Dozin' at the Knick played over and over basically kept me sane during the first six months here.
The fourth stanza {Broken heart don't feel so bad... ) kept me from ditching everything and running away. My boys kept asking me "Do we have to listen to these songs again?" and kept saying "Quit hugging us so hard!"
When I pop those two in to the rotation these days it is more to enjoy the music and lyrics than reflect on how far removed I and my wife and my family are from those shaky months. "Hey, I remember that song," one of the boys will say.
"It's a good one, isn't it?" I'll say.
"Yeah. Play it again."
I always do.
http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/row.html