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Robert C. Hunter (born June 23, 1941) is an American lyricist, singer-songwriter, translator, and poet, best known for his association with Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead.

Biography

He was born Robert Burns in San Luis Obispo, California. An early friend of Jerry Garcia, they played together in bluegrass bands (such as the Tub Thumpers) in the early sixties, with Hunter on mandolin and upright bass.

Around 1962, Hunter was an early volunteer test subject (along with Ken Kesey) for psychedelic chemicals at Stanford University's research covertly sponsored by the CIA in their MKULTRA program. He was paid to take LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline and report on his experiences, which were creatively formative for him: "Sit back picture yourself swooping up a shell of purple with foam crests of crystal drops soft nigh they fall unto the sea of morning creep-very-softly mist...and then sort of cascade tinkley-bell like (must I take you by the hand, every so slowly type) and then conglomerate suddenly into a peal of silver vibrant uncomprehendingly, blood singingly, joyously resoundingbells....By my faith if this be insanity, then for the love of God permit me to remain insane."

The first lyrics he wrote for the Grateful Dead were composed on LSD, and mailed to the band from Arizona: a suite that would later become "China Cat Sunflower"/"The Eleven" (these were originally performed together for a short time). China Cat Sunflower would later find a partner in I Know You Rider. After battling moderate drug addiction, he abandoned his Joycean/Western vision quest and joined his old friend's band, the Grateful Dead, on the first weekend in September 1967, at the small Rio Nido, California gigs. The association was at first informal, but began on an auspicious note, as that weekend he wrote the first verse of one of his better-known songs, "Dark Star". It is perhaps not a coincidence that some Deadheads argue that the Rio Nido gigs were the first in which the band accessed the full power of their psychedelic improvisation style.

Hunter's relationship with the band grew, until he was officially a non-performing band member. When the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, Hunter was included as a band member, the only non-performer so honored. The majority of the Grateful Dead's original songs are Hunter/Garcia collaborations, where Garcia composed the music, and Hunter wrote the lyrics. Garcia once described Hunter as "the band member who doesn't come out on stage with us." Hunter also collaborated as a lyricist with the other voices in the Dead, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, although over time Weir, the other principal songwriter besides Garcia, switched to using John Perry Barlow as a lyricist.

Hunter called 1970's "Friend of the Devil" the closest he and Garcia came to writing a classic song. Hunter's most-known line is What a long, strange trip it's been, from that year's "Truckin'". Perhaps the apex of Hunter's lyricism came with two suites written in the mid-1970s, "Help on the Way"/"Slipknot!"/"Franklin's Tower" (1975) and "Terrapin Station" (1977).

In 1974 Hunter released the solo album Tales of the Great Rum Runners featuring himself as a singer songwriter. It was followed the next year by Tiger Rose. Neither attracted a large audience. Another of his solo efforts is the extremely rare recording Jack O' Roses, containing the extended version of "Terrapin Station Suite" (sans the non-Hunter "At A Siding") and a solo rendition of "Friend Of The Devil".

In 1983, Hunter convinced Relix Magazine Founder, Les Kippel, to start a record company. Hunter wanted an American outlet for his new project Jack O'Roses.

Since the dissolution of the Grateful Dead in 1995 Hunter has successfully continued his writing career, working on new songs with Steve Kimock, David Nelson, and Rob Barraco, among others. He also is seen occasionally playing solo acoustic guitar and performing his classic works, as well as newer songs. In 2004 he opened most of The Dead's summer tour. Hunter co-wrote most of the songs on the 2009 Bob Dylan album Together Through Life. Hunter and Dylan had sporadically worked together during the 1980s. He also co-wrote, with Nelson, many of the songs on the 2009 New Riders of the Purple Sage album Where I Come From. Hunter is a former Scientologist.

Translations and poetry

Hunter published translations of Rainer Maria Rilke's Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus and has published several volumes of his own poetry.

Discography

• Tales Of The Great Rum Runners (1974 - Round Records, RX-101)
• Tiger Rose (1975 - Round Records, RX-105)
• Alligator Moon (recorded but unreleased - 1978)
• Jack O'Roses (1980 - Dark Star Records, DSLP8001)
• Promontory Rider: A Retrospective Collection (1982 - Relix Records, RRLP2002)
• Amagamalin St. (1984 - Relix Records)
• Live '85 (1985 - Relix Records)
• Flight Of The Marie Helena (1985 - Relix Records)
• Rock Columbia (1986 - Relix Records)
• Liberty (1988 - Relix Records)

Books

• Duino Elegies (1987). ISBN 0938493043
• Box of Rain (1990). ISBN 9780670834129
• Night Cadre (1991). ISBN 0670834130
• Idiot's Delight (1992). ISBN 0937815497
• Sentinel (1993). ISBN 0140586989
• Duino Elegies ; The Sonnets to Orpheus (1993). ISBN 0938493213
• Dog Moon (1996). ISBN 1563892375
• Glass Lunch (1997). ISBN 0140587772
• The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics (2005); foreword by Robert Hunter. ISBN 9780743277471

Footnotes

1. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
2. "Bob Dylan Rep Confirms Robert Hunter Co-Wrote 'Together Through Life' Lyrics". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2009-04-15.
3. Jackson, Blair (1999). Garcia: An American Life. Viking Adult. p. 62. ISBN 0-67-088660-2.
4. "Standing in the Soul - Robert Hunter Interview". University of California Santa Cruz. Retrieved 2009-04-13.

References

• Hunter, Robert. A Box of Rain. Penguin Books, 1993. ISBN 0-14-013451-4. The complete lyrics of Robert Hunter to date.
• McNally, Dennis. A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead. Broadway Books, 2002. ISBN 0-7679-1186-5.
• The Grateful Dead Family Discography (Located at http://www.deaddisc.com/GDFD_RHPerformer.htm).

• 1941 births
• Living people
• Grateful Dead
• American songwriters
• American poets
• Former Scientologists