Uncle John's Band - Music and Lyrics

Music and Lyrics

"Uncle John's Band" has one of the Dead's most immediately accessible and memorable melodies, set against a bluegrass-inspired folk arrangement with acoustic guitars. The song's close harmony singing was inspired in part by Crosby, Stills and Nash. Both the music and the lyrics summon up the Dead's feel for Americana, with the song making allusions to both past — Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band" — and present — the fate of the American counterculture at the turn of the decade. In particular, at the end of the tumultuous sixties, when the hopes and dreams for an Age of Aquarius with its Summer of Love became undermined with the hard edges of reality illustrated by the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the stabbing death at Altamont, the lyrics encapsulate the core concern of those who survived with the line, "Whoa-oh, what I want to know is are you kind?"

Robert Hunter's lyrics ("It's a buck dancer's choice my friend; better take my advice") may have been influenced by James Dickey's 1965 poem/poetry collection "Buckdancer's Choice."

It is quite possible that "Uncle John" is referring to Mississippi John Hurt who was an influence on the band and was known by that alias. Another possibility is that Uncle John's Band refers to the New Lost City Ramblers as Uncle John was a nickname for John Cohen. Also, Uncle John may be a biblical reference to John the Baptist, who baptized in a river. Such an explanation may correlate to the lyrics "He's come to take his children home."

Part of the lyrics mention 'Don't Tread On Me'.