

Roberts, however, said he knows a few people who might carry on the tradition. She's moving to South Georgia to live in a yurt and plans to create a yoga retreat center. This may be the last China Cat Sunflower Festival, though, Walker said. That's what the Grateful Dead represented. No matter what transpires, the festival will always radiate kindness and promote doing no harm to others, she said. It's all in the spirit of having a good time and enjoying life. But as Walker put it: "Who knows with Dave Roberts? With Dave Roberts you never know." The only word that adequately describes the band is "ineffable," she said. Or is that, "most like the Dead?"Īll of this would seem strange if it wasn't coming from Crawfish of Love. China Cat Sunflower Lyrics: Look for a while at the china cat sunflower / Proud walking jingle in the midnight sun / Copperdome bodhi drip a silver kimono. More recently played by The Other Ones, Ratdog and Phil & Friends.

"This version of the Crawfish will be most like the dead," he said. Played by the Dead from 1968 to 1995, almost invariably seguing into I Know You Rider. So don't expect to see Roberts or any other familiar Crawfish of Love member instead, zombies will be on stage performing "syncopated moans." He thinks the band members need to be "dead." The twisted saga is documented over several weeks on the band's Facebook page. Their publicity agent, "Bubby Muente," is a "connected" man who's "tied in with people from the New Jersey area," and he knows nothing of the Grateful Dead.

Roberts' explanation for this being the "last" show was that everyone in the band had been fired and replaced by zombies. But they've had several such shows, and Walker laughed and said all of their shows are the "last." The specific epithet can be interpreted as ( sino) China ( feli) cat ( helianthus) sunflower.When asked about the show being billed as Crawfish of Love's "last," Roberts said this could definitely be the end. Epler named a new species of diving beetle (family Dytiscidae) for the song it is called Uvarus sinofelihelianthus. In the 2009 Ang Lee film Taking Woodstock, the version of the song from Europe '72 is used in the part of the film showing everyone arriving at Woodstock in 1969. Discovered using Shazam, the music discovery app.
China cat sunflower dead series#
The song is featured in the Rock Band video game series as downloadable content, along with 17 other Grateful Dead songs. Listen to China Cat Sunflower (Live in Paris) by Grateful Dead, 29,925 Shazams, featuring on Grateful Dead Essentials, and Open Road Rockers Essentials Apple Music playlists. Anyone out there remember what it was like to be three years old?" In popular culture 'It's about acid' does it less justice than the observation that it's about seeing, sensing, and making connections in a sensuous world. It's one of the very few rock-and-roll lyrics (including Dylan's) that has as much impact on the page as it does sung, if not more. Wybenga described the lyrics as "acid-drenched", and said, further: "China Cat Sunflower's lyric-composed, Robert Hunter has said, in a state where contemplation of a cat served as touchstone for an interplanetary journey-is a real masterwork. Wybenga as "that dodgy little Bobby intro that scratches your brain just behind the ears." This second riff has been described by author Eric F. The first is played by Jerry Garcia and then a second one played by Bob Weir is interwoven on top of it. The song begins with distinct guitar riffs. Only twice during this extended period was "China Cat Sunflower" played without this pairing. Over the next 26 years they would pair these songs together over 500 times, most often as a second set opener. In late 1969 the Grateful Dead began segueing "China Cat Sunflower" into "I Know You Rider" during live performances. Four instances of this arrangement have been released on official recordings, the first on the compilation album So Many Roads (1965–1995), the second on Dick's Picks Volume 22, and the other two on Road Trips Volume 2 Number 2.Ĭhina Cat Sunflower → I Know You Rider During the first year after its introduction into the band's set list, the song was played by itself or often in the middle of an extended jam between the songs " Dark Star" and "The Eleven"-a position more familiarly (to Deadheads) filled by " St. The Grateful Dead first performed "China Cat Sunflower" on January 17, 1968, at the Carousel Ballroom in San Francisco, CA, and played the song well over 500 times in concert. 1.1 China Cat Sunflower → I Know You Rider.
