Dark Star

"Dark Star" is a song released as a single by the Grateful Dead on Warner Bros. records in 1968. It was written by lyricist Robert Hunter and composed by lead guitarist Jerry Garcia; however, compositional credit is sometimes extended to include Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, and Bob Weir. "Dark Star" was an early Grateful Dead classic, which the group often used as a vehicle for extended jam sessions during live performances. One such performance, lasting 23 minutes, was included on the Dead's breakthrough 1969 album Live/Dead and is the best-known version of the song. "Dark Star" is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list and was ranked at number 57 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time. Composition and release In May 1967, Garcia composed the preliminary chords of the song, but it was at the time without lyrics. A handful of months later, Robert Hunter, who would become a longtime collaborator with the Grateful Dead, arrived back in California and overheard the band playing around with the track. While in Rio Nido, a small town on the Russian River just north of San Francisco, he immediately sat down and wrote the opening line, contributing the lyrics and name of the song. As Hunter has explained on multiple occasions, he reworded the opening lines of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" as the chorus. "Dark Star" was initially released as a single in 1968, backed with "Born Cross-Eyed", a track written by rhythm guitarist Bob Weir. The single, to quote Phil Lesh, "sank like a stone." Of the 1600 copies that made up the original shipment in 1968 by Warner Bros., only about 500 actually sold. A classic live version appeared in 1969 on Live/Dead, the Dead's first live album. It also appeared on later compilations What a Long Strange Trip It's Been in 1977 and The Best of the Grateful Dead in 2015. It also appears as a bonus track on the 2001 reissue of Live/Dead. It also features Hunter's only appearance on a Grateful Dead record, reciting a monologue at the end of the song. Performance history