I May Be Going to Hell in a Bucket Baby

"You lot analyze me, tend to despise me..."

The Annotated "Hell In a Bucket"

An installment in The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics.
By David Dodd
Library, Academy of Colorado at Colorado Springs

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"Hell In a Bucket"
Words by John Perry Barlow; music by Bob Weir
Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

Well, I was drinking concluding dark with a biker
And I showed him a film of you
I said, "Pal, go to know her. You lot'll like her."
Seemed like the least I could do...

'Cause when he's driving his chopper
Upward and down your carpeted halls,
You will remember me by contrast quite proper.
Never mind how I stumble and fall.
Never listen how I stumble and autumn.

[Chorus:]
You imagine me sipping champagne from your boot
For a sense of taste of your elegant pride
I may be going to hell in a bucket, babe,
But at least I'm enjoying the ride.
At to the lowest degree I'1000 enjoying the ride.
At least I'm enjoying the ride.

Now miss sweet fiddling soft-core pretender,
Somehow baby got hard every bit it gets.
With her black leather chrome spiked suspenders,
Her chair and her whip and her pets.

Well nosotros know you're the reincarnation
Of the ravenous Catherine the Great.
And we know how you dear your ovations
For the Z-rated scenes you create.
The Z-rated scenes yous create.

[Bridge:]
Y'all clarify me, pretend to despise me,
You laugh when I stumble and fall.
At that place may come a 24-hour interval I will dance on your grave
If unable to dance, I will crawl across it
Unable to dance, I'll still crawl.

Y'all must really consider the circus
'Cause it just might be your kind of zoo
I tin't retrieve of a place that's more perfect
For a person as perfect as you.

And information technology'south not like I'one thousand leaving y'all lone
'Cause I wouldn't know where to begin
But I know that y'all'll retrieve of me only
When the snakes come marching in
When the snakes come marching in

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"Hell In a Saucepan"

Written in Cora, Wyoming, August-Dec, 1982

Musical details:

• Songbook availability:
  • In The Night

Recorded on

• In the Night
• Dick'due south Picks, v. 6
• Dozin' at the Knick

Offset performance: May xiii, 1983, at the Greek Theatre, U.C. Berkeley. The song appeared in the kickoff set, following "W 50.A. Fadeaway", and preceding "Loser". Information technology remained in the repertoire thereafter.

Hither'south an interesting piece forwarded past a reader:

Subject: Annotated Grateful Expressionless Lyrics : Hell in a Bucket : Variant Lyrics!
Date: Fri, xi April 1997 10:31:07 -0700 (PDT)
From: David Schwarm

Howdy David,

Holy cow! You are not going to believe this exchange from rmgd:

---begin--- >From tnf@well.com Fri April eleven 10:23:37 PDT 1997 Article: 371095 of rec.music.gdead From: David Gans                          Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead Subject area: Unused lyric Appointment: Fri, 11 April 1997 09:59:48 -0800  Steven Finney wrote:  > I posted this a few years ago, just it bears a repeat...I read an > interview with Barlow (aka "the Barlitos"...to those who know the ring) > many years ago in an English music magazine, and the following was > one of the original lyrics to "Hell in a Bucket" which Bobby chose > non to sing...(hey! This could even exist taken as an HS reference!) >  > "And while you were proverb your mantra > I was humping your very best friend > And comparing myself to Sinatra > 'Crusade I did it my manner in her terminate".  It'southward true!  I was hanging out at Weir's a bit in those days, and at that place were some gnarly ideas batted effectually for that song.  Gerrit Graham (who wrote "Victim or the Crime" with Bobby) was effectually for some of these sessions, too.  I was actually able to contribute a niggling to "Hell in a Bucket": I suggested to Bob that he change "You imagine me kissing the toe of your kicking" to "You lot imagine me sipping champagne from your boot."  Barlow seemed slightly miffed about it, but I'm pretty sure he got over it.  ---terminate---                      

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hell in a bucket

Conjures up the line from "St. Stephen":

"Bucket hanging clear to hell..."

The phrase in American colloquial spoken language is "going to hell in a handbasket."

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at least I'm enjoying the ride

One of my favorite "mis-hearings" of a Grateful Dead lyrics came when Alice Kahn, the Bay Area writer, wrote in a review in the East Bay Express that this vocal was "Police force on a Joy Ride."

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Catherine the Cracking

A reference to the Empress of Russia, 1762-1796, who was an intellectual and, as hinted at in the song, a famous libertine.

Hunter also uses her in 1 of his songs, "Do Deny (Lying Man)":

"I who ate with Kate the Dandy
On Chinese silver plate..."

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When the snakes come up marching in

A reference to the spiritual, "When the Saints Get Marching In."

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Kickoff posted: Jan 30, 1996
Last revised: May 1, 1997

dobbinsbaceaven.blogspot.com

Source: http://artsites.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/buck.html

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