Grateful Dead Lyrics

* Ben Vaughn is correct (letter, Aug. 25) regarding drug references in Grateful Dead lyrics: Yes, in the song “Truckin”’ the Dead sing the line, “livin’ on reds, vitamin C and cocaine” and in “Casey Jones” they sing the line, “Drivin’ that train, high on cocaine.” Neither of these lines, in the context of the full songs, advocates drug use. If anything, they are negative depictions of public intoxication, as Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir pointed out in numerous interviews.

Grateful Dead lyrics are ambiguous, malleable and inferential, by design, so it is often tricky to pin down exact meanings. I am often startled at how few drug references occur in Grateful Dead songs, given the band’s (and its audience’s) reputation for wild psychedelic excursions over the course of its 30-year “long strange trip.”

BARRY SMOLIN

Host/Producer

The Music Never Stops

KPFK FM, Los Angeles