Robert Hunter is the guy who wrote the lyrics for all those Grateful Dead songs that we love. The first songs that he wrote lyrics to were "Dark Star" and "China Cat Sunflower." He then became the guy who wrote the lyrics to "Sugar Magnolia", "Ripple", "Truckin", "Brokedown Palace", "Box of Rain" and the popular "Touch of Grey." He was not up on stage jamming in the band per se, but he did create the words to songs we all danced to while they were "Playing in the Band" (he wrote the lyrics to that song too).
Robert Hunter was born on June 23rd.
Join me next week as we celebrate some of his finest songs with the Grateful Dead.
Robert Hunter is best known as a non-performing lyricist for the Grateful Dead. He is also a recording artist in his own right, a poet, and a translator. Hunter began contributing lyrics to the Dead at the invitation of his friend, Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia, as of the group's third album, Aoxomoxoa, in 1969. Since then, he wrote some of the Dead's most memorable words, including "Truckin'" ("What a long, strange trip it's been") and the 1987 comeback hit "Touch of Grey." Hunter began recording solo albums on the Dead's record label in 1974 and continued sporadically since.