The Annotated 'Ramble On Rose' - fredallen.netfredallen.net/pdfs/GD-RambleOnRose.pdf · I'm gonna...

"I know this song it ain't never gonna end"

The Annotated "Ramble On Rose"An installment in The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics.

--David DoddResearch Associate, Music Dept., University of California, Santa Cruz.

Copyright notice

An analysis of the lyric is available.

"Ramble on Rose"

Words by Robert Hunter; music by Jerry Garcia("Ramble On Rose" composed and written by Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia. Reproduced byarrangement with Ice Nine Publishing Company, Inc. (ASCAP)).

Just like Jack the RipperJust like Mojo HandJust like Billy SundayIn a shotgun ragtime bandJust like New York City,Just like JerichoPace the halls and climb the wallsGet out when they blow

(Chorus)Did you say your name wasRamblin' Rose?Ramble on, babySettle down easyRamble on, Rose

Just like Jack and JillMama told the sailorOne heat up and one cool downLeave nothin' for the tailorJust like Jack and JillMy Papa told the jailerOne go up and one come downDo yourself a favor

(Chorus)

The Annotated "Ramble On Rose" http://artsites.ucsc.edu/GDead/agdl/ramble2.html#analysis

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(Bridge)

I'm gonna sing you a hundred verses in ragtimeI know this song it ain't never gonna endI'm gonna march you up and down the local county lineTake you to the leader of the band

Just like Crazy OttoJust like Wolfman JackSittin' plush with a royal flushAces back to backJust like Mary ShelleyJust like FrankensteinClank your chains and count your changeTry to walk the line

(Repeat chorus and bridge)

Goodbye, Mama and PapaGoodbye, Jack and JillThe grass ain't greener, the wine ain't sweetereither side of the hill.

Did you say your name wasRamblin' Rose?Ramble on, babySettle down easyRamble on, Rose

Analysis and Interpretation

PROSODY

The song lyric is structured in trochaic rhythm, with paired verses consisting of two lines of triameter,one of quadrameter, and another of triameter, for a total of 13 strong feet (!) per verse. The verses'rhyming pattern is A, B, C, [C], B; with the bracketed [C] being an optional internal rhyme: halls, walls;chains/change; and plush/flush. There are seven verses, with the first six in pairs. The final verse standsalone, carrying into the final chorus.

The chorus' rhythm stays in trochees for the first line of five beats, then switches to dactylic quadrameterfor the second line, and a punchy single dactylic line of two beats to wind up. The chorus contains norhymes. It is repeated three times.

The bridge is less easy to pin down, moving from iambic to trochaic to dactylic rhythms. It similarlydispenses with any firm rhyming pattern, relying solely on the assonances contained in "ragtime" and"county line." The bridge is repeated twice.


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INTERPRETATION

Perhaps the main point made by this song is that a lyric doesn't need a firm interpretation in order to beevocative. Depending on the listener, this song could be about American music itself, or about a cardgame, or about a man saying so long to an immature lover. At least three Jacks are invoked: Jack theRipper, Jack (of Jack and Jill), and Wolfman Jack, which could easily be construed as constituting a pokerhand. Tin Pan Alley, the Blues, Ragtime, Spirituals, Folk, Nursery rhymes, Country & Western, and Rockand Roll are all brought into the song, as noted in subsequent links, below. And the narrator seems to beaddressing a lover who is determined to leave him on the subject of growing up, of settling down, of notalways trying to find greener grass elsewhere.

How could one person be "just like" so many varied characters and situations? Look at any one person'slife, and you will find the answer. There is no black and white answer to this song, just as there is noblack and white answer to the questions of life itself. Hunter's hyperbolic use of the "just like" simile is away of granting us the freedom to find our metaphors where we may, depending on the situation.

"Ramble on Rose"

Recorded on

Europe '72This version included on What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been

Dick's Picks, vol. 11

It was introduced on Tuesday, October 19, 1971 at the Northrop Auditorium at the University ofMinnesota in Minneapolis. The show is noteworthy for a number of reasons. First performances at theshow, besides "Ramble on Rose," included "Comes a Time," "Mexicali Blues," "Saturday Night" (on aTuesday!), and "Tennessee Jed." It was also Keith Godchaux's first show. "Ramble On Rose" occupied the#2 spot in the second set, following "Truckin'," and preceding "Me and Bobby McGee." Since then, it hasremained in the repertoire, placing 38th in frequency of performance as of 1986.

( DeadBase)

Numbering the song among his favorites, Robert Hunter stated in an interview in Relix (vol 5, no. 2, p.25) that "Ramble on Rose is a particular favorite--there's something funny about that song."

In Gans' Conversations..., Hunter says:

"I think "Ramble On Rose" is the closest to complete whimsy I've come up with. I just satdown and wrote numerous verses that tied around "Did you say..."" --p. 28

Blair Jackson, in Grateful Dead: the Music Never Stopped, had this to say:

"Most of Garcia's songs from this period feature unusual rhythms that make them hard to pegin a specific musical genre. 'Ramble on Rose,' written around a whimsical, completelyundecipherable bit of nonsense verse by Hunter, has a beat that sounds like a slowed-downshuffle with every other beat taken out, and bits of old-time American pop music thrown in."


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(Jackson p. 135)

An interview with Garcia in The Rolling Stone Rock N Roll Reader offers this perspective on Garcia'sapproach to musical styles:

"You have to get past the idea that music has to be one thing. To be alive in America is tohear all kinds of music constantly--radio, records, churches, cats on the street, everywheremusic, man. And with records, the whole history of music is open to everyone who wants tohear it. ... Nobody has to fool around with musty old scores, weird notation, and scholarshipbullshit: you can just go into a record store and pick a century, pick a country, pick anything,and dig it, make it a part of you, add it to the stuff you carry around, and see that it's allmusic." (pp. 259-260)

Jack the Ripper

Opening the song is Jack #1, a notorious, mysterious, frightening, just plain bad individual whose identityremains unknown. Between August 31 and November 9, 1888, five prostitutes in London were murderedby an assailant who identified himself in anonymous letters to the press as "Jack the Ripper." The killerused a knife to cut throats and mutilate bodies. Over the years, many suggestions have been made to solvethe puzzle of the madman's identity. "Jack," of course, is the colloquial equivalent of "John Doe." Themost famous theory is that the Ripper was Prince Albert--"Eddy"--of Wales, Duke of Clarence. For athorough exploration of this theory see Michael Harrison's Clarence: Was He Jack the Ripper? (1972).The book concludes that a tutor of Eddy's, one J.K. Stephen, a poet was the actual murderer. Part of theevidence given by Harrison is an alleged similarity between poems sent to the press by the Ripper andStephen's own poetry.

Another theory, which enjoyed brief popularity, was that "Jack" was actually "Jill" the Ripper--based onthe assumption that a woman would be less suspect, and could escape undetected while everyonesearched for a male killer.

For more information, or for entertainment, you can read from the list of books below:

1. Robert Bloch. The Night of the Ripper. (1984) A horror novel by the author of Psycho.2. Tom Cullen. When London Walked in Terror. (1965)3. Stephen Knight. Jack the Ripper. (1976)4. Donald Rumbelow. The Complete Jack the Ripper. (1975)5. Frank Spiering. Prince Jack. (1978)

Mojo Hand

A note in Golden Road, Winter, 1984, stated that "'Mojo Hand'... was a common term among rural blacksfor a person with extraordinary or seemingly magical abilities, and was the name of a song recorded byLightnin' Hopkins. This reference brings the blues into the song.

There is also a 1986 book by J.J. Phillips entitled Mojo Hand, published by City Miner Books.


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The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed.) does give a definition for "mojo": "local U.S. [Prob. of Afr.orig.:cf. Gullah moco witchcraft, magic, Fula moco'o medicine man.] Magic, the art of casting spells; acharm or amulet used in such spells."

Further down in the definition, an example of usage speaks of a synonym for "mojo" being "lucky hand."

And yet another definition in the OED equates "mojo" with morphine.

According to Hoodoo--Conjuration--Witchcraft--Rootwork: Beliefs Accepted by Many Negroes andWhite Persons, These Being Orally Recorded Among Blacks and Whites by Harry Middleton Hyatt(Hannibal, Mo.: Alma Egan Hyatt Foundation, 1970):

"A hand is a magic helper, an object or act, which aids a person in obtaining a desire... handhas other names, among them--toby, guide, shield, roots, mojo, jomo (transposition ofsyllables in mojo), and hoodoo bag."

Billy Sunday

Billy Sunday, listed in the Baseball Encyclopedia as WilliamAshley (The Evangelist) Sunday, was one of the founders ofthe American evangelistic movement--his heirs of todaybeing Billy Graham, et al. He started out as a baseball playerfor major league teams in Chicago, Pittsburgh andPhiladelphia, beginning his sports career in 1883, quittingthe game in 1890. He then began his religious career, startingout as a desk clerk at the YMCA, working his way up as ahelper to itinerant preachers, and finally becoming the mostpopular evangelist of the time, preaching to huge crowds.

Sunday's style was highly flamboyant, and includedcolloquial baseball lingo, which won him a mass audience.One important aspect of his road show was the music whichaccompanied it, which consisted of a huge choir, with pianoand trombone accompaniment. The music is said to havebeen "far from unctuous; it approached the jazzy."

[They Gathered at the River.

Shotgun

"Shotgun: passing into adj. Made or done hastily or under pressure of necessity."--Oxford EnglishDictionary, 2nd ed.

Ragtime Band


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This note is for the phrase "ragtime band", which, in popular music, conjures up the famous Irving Berlinsong, "Alexander's Ragtime Band." Evoking Irving Berlin is a way of evoking all of the Tin Pan Alleytradition of American popular music. The phrase "in a shotgun ragtime band" matches the rhythm of theIrving Berlin title perfectly.

"Alexander's Ragtime Band" was published in March of 1911, and was first popularized by Emma Carus.According to James J. Fuld, in his The Book of World-Famous Music, "The `Alexander' in the title isreportedly Jack [!] Alexander, a cornet-playing bandleader who died in 1958. It has been frequentlypointed out that the song is not in real ragtime. Berlin was born in Temun, Russia, in 1888." (p. 79)

Alec Wilder, in his book American Popular Song: the Great Innovators, 1900-1950, devotes 30 pages tothe role of Irving Berlin, and comments as follows on the subject of "Alexander's Ragtime Band": "I haveheard enough ragtime to wonder why Alexander's Ragtime Band was so titled. For I find no elements ofragtime in it, unless the word `ragtime' simply specified the most swinging and exciting of the newAmerican music. It is a very strong, solid song, verse and chorus. More than that, it is not crowded withnotes. There are constant open spots in it. At the outset, in the verse, the first three measures begin on thesecond beat. This `kicks' the song, and immediately. Incidentally, this is the earliest popular song I knowof in which the verse and chorus are in different keys....Could the slight, chromatic opening phrase of thesong have cuased all the furor, the grass fire that spread over the face of Europe? Or was the restatementof this phrase a fourth higher the device which did the trick? In any event, the song was a high point inthe evolution of popular music." (pp. 94-95)

Hunter, in alluding to Berlin's song, manages to evoke two strains of American popular musicsimultaneously, ragtime and Tin Pan Alley. This becomes significant as the song progresses, evokingmore and more tributaries to the mainstream of American music.

[Sources.]

Alexander's Ragtime Band

Words and music by Irving Berlin (1911)

Oh! ma honey, Oh! ma honey, Better hurry, and let's meander;Ain't you goin', ain't you goin'To the leader man, ragged meter man?Oh! ma honey, Oh! ma honey,Let me take to to Alexander's grandstand, brass band,Ain't you comin' along?

[Chorus]

Come on and hear, come on and hearAlexander's Ragtime Band;Come on and hear, come on and hear,It's the best band in the land.They can play a bugle callLike you never heard before,So natural that you want to go to war;


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That's just the bestest band what ma, honey lamb!Let me take you by the handUp to the man, up to the manWho's the leader of the band;And if you care to hear the Swanee River played in ragtime,Come on and hear, come on and hearAlexander's Ragtime Band.

Oh! ma honey, Oh! ma honey,There's a fiddle with notes that screechesLike a chicken, like a chicken,And the clarinet is a colored pet.Come and listen, come and listenTo a classical band what's peaches, come now, somehow,Better hurry along!

Jericho

This is a fairly obvious reference, but two things deserve note.

1. The Biblical account of the fall of Jericho is found in the Book of Joshua, Chapter 6, vv. 1-20.

2. The reference to Jericho also calls to mind the spiritual "Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho." Sinceso much of this song evokes various aspects of American popular music, this evocation gainssignificance.

In Wade in the Water,, Arthur Jones entitles one entire chapter "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho:Struggle and Resistance."

"A song like "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho," for example, could honor the actions ofany number of "Joshuas" in the African community who led their people in battle inmany different "Jerichos." It could also be used as bibliocal support for planned batles.For example, in his meetings with co-conspirators in Charleston, South Carolina,Denmark Vesey preached from the Bible, using verse from the book of Joshua to drawparallels between the biblical story of Joshua and the plans for the insurrection inCharleston." -- p. 52.

This comment from a reader:

"From [email protected]: Wed, 01 Mar 1995 10:42:18 -0600 (CST)From: Gary HartmanTo: [email protected]: Annotated GD Lyrics

I have one minor comment on Ramble on Rose. I think the end of the Jericho verse -- "getout when they blow" -- resonates with the musical allusions you have so correctly identified."To blow" is, especially in the jazz argot, to play music. And, of course (this may be soobvious that you intentionally don't mention it), the walls of Jericho were brought down bythe power of music. It even seems that earlier in the verse, "pace the halls" could refer to the


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rooms in which the musicians play (and the backstage areas in which they anxiously awaitthe time to blow).

Peace,Gary"

Ramblin' Rose

Hunter might well have written "You never said your name was Ramblin' Rose," but chose not to, leavingthe ambiguity of the song firmly in place.

A rambling rose is an old-fashioned and now rarely cultivated type of rose which would spread lowacross the ground on long, whippy canes. Ramblers are now grown usually as climbers, instead.

Three songs in American popular music have borne the name "Ramblin(g) Rose." The most famous ofthe three is the 1962 "Ramblin' Rose," words and music by Joe and Noel Sherman. It was introduced byNat King Cole, who at first did not wish to record it. He was talked into it, however, by his 12-year-olddaughter, (Natalie?) and her instincts were good, because it was a hit, reaching the #2 position on thecharts in August, 1962. It has since been recorded by Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Willie Nelson,among others.

The second most popular tune of this title is the 1948 "Rambling Rose" by JosephMcCarthy (not the infamous Joe McCarthy) and Joe Burke.

The third is of unknown date, titled "Ramblin Rose" by Wilkin and Burch, recorded by Slim Whitman.

A fourth song, dating from 1931, is entitled "Marta (Rambling Rose of the Wildwood)" by Gilbert andSimons.

And a reader points out that "Rambling Rose" was also the title of a movie, starring Laura Dern.

Jack and Jill

A well-known, perhaps the best known nursery rhyme is ingrained in our memories from early childhood.

Jack #2 of the song is thus introduced, along with his feminine counterpart. References to this pair


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predate even the nursery rhyme, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, which dates therhyme from the first half of the 17th century. Shakespeare says "Jack shall have Jill, Nought shall go ill,"(Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 3, scene 2, line 461) using the names in the general sense of "lad andlass." (And, in Love's Labours Lost, there is the line "Jack hath not Gill," [5.02.875]--but that's a differentstory, and there's already plenty written on Shakespeare.)

Many theories have arisen regarding the origin of the rhyme, but most agree that it can be traced to theScandinavian Edda epic, and that it may have pagan ritualistic significance. To most listeners, however,Jack and Jill conjure up an image of childhood, just like Mama and Papa.

As with much of this song, there is music associated with the words, and it is likely that most of us havechanted this nursery rhyme, so that the inclusion of Jack and Jill adds still another component to the swirlof music conjured up by this song.

Jack and Jill

and

Old Dame Dob

Jack and JillWent up the hill,To fetch a pail of water;Jack fell down,And broke his crown,And Jill came tumbling after.

Then up Jack got,And home did trot,As fast as he could caper;To old Dame Dob,Who patched his nobWith vinegar and brown paper.

When Jill came in,How she did grinTo see Jack's paper plaster;Her mother, vexed,Did whip her next,For laughing at Jack's disaster.

Now Jack did laughAnd Jill did cry,But her tears did soon abate;Then Jill did say,That they should play


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At see-saw across the gate.

Source: The Oxford Nursery Rhyme Book. Assembled by Iona and Peter Opie.Oxford, 1955.

One go up...

The Annotated Mother Goose contains the following rhyme: "Gay go up and gay go down/ To ring thebells of London Town." --p. 253.

Percy Green, in his A History of Nursey Rhymes, explains the rhyme as a children's game:

"This almost forgotten nursery song and game of "The Bells of London Town" has adescriptive burden or ending to each line, giving an imitation of the sounds of the bell-pealsof the principal churches in each locality of the City and the old London suburbs. The gameis played by girls and boys holding hands and racing sideways, as they do in "Ring a Ring aRosies," after each line has been sung as a solo by the children in turns. The

"Gay go up and gay go downTo ring the bells of London town"

is chorussed by all the company, and then the rollicking dance begins; the feet stamping out anoisy but enjoyable accompaniment to the words, "Gay go up, gay go down." "--p. 180

The line is also echoed in the folk song "Maid Freed from the Gallows, "and may therefore be a referenceto hanging. (Sharp #28, version H) The song is also registered as a Child Ballad, #95, "The PricklyBush."

As a side note, which relfects another aspect of Grateful Dead lyrics in general, namely, how it is possibleto mis-hear lyrics in concert.

At the closing of Winterland concert, I distinctly remember being so glad that I finally understood thisline of Ramble on Rose. What I heard was: "Buckle up and buckle down: do yourself a favor."

And it still makes more sense to me than the "real" lyric.

Leader of the band

See the interview with Robert Hunter in Relix, vol. 5, no. 2:

"Relix: We're interested in the 'Leader of the band' concept ... Do you feel that there is a leader ...?

Hunter: [partial response] Well, it would be hard to imagine the Grateful Dead without Garcia, wouldn'tit?

Relix: Were you getting at anything like that in 'Ramblin' Rose?' [sic] Was talking about taking someone


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to the leader of the band talking about the Dead per se?

Hunter: I suppose there's an element of the Dead in a lot of my songs. It's hard to scramble it out fromwhat's pure fancy."

This seems a fairly noncommittal reply, and is therefore consistent with the song: don't tie it down,package it; don't say: this is what it means. It also seems worth noting the extensive parallels to"Alexander's Ragtime Band", with all its talk of a leader of the band.

Crazy Otto

This reference is to one (or both?) of two pianists who were known by that name in the 1950's. The firstwas the German pianist Fritz Schulz-Reichel, whose career was comparable to that of Peter Schickele,who composes under the pseudonym of P.D.Q. Bach. Schulz-Reichel alternated between playing"serious" music and playing ragtime, for which he donned an absurd-looking fake goatee and KaiserWillie mustache, along with the moniker "Otto der Schrage." (Crazy Otto).

Most reference works on ragtime that mention a Crazy Otto, however, arereferring to Johnny Maddox, another popular piano player. A phone call fromMaddox to me on October 22, 1997, revealed the entire story of Maddox'sassociation with the Crazy Otto name and music. Maddox says that a returningGI brought back a copy of the Otto der Schrage record from Germany, andbrought it to the deejay Walt Henrich at WERE radio in Cleveland. Henrich inturn brought it to Bill Randall, also a deejay at that station, who played sometracks from the record on the air. Such was the reaction of the listening public,that Randall got in touch with Randy Wood, who was a producer of "copy"records, and who, in turn, commissioned Maddox to record a copy of theragtime pieces as a medley, which was released as "The Crazy Otto Medley-

Played by Johnny Maddox."

At the time, (1954), Maddox was rated the number one jukebox artist in America, independent of anyassociation with Crazy Otto. According to Maddox, it was a common practice at the time for independentproducers to commision "cover records"-virtual note-for-note copies of records which were not readilyavailable. Maddox never wanted to be known as Crazy Otto, though, and he only released one otherrecord which contained a reference to the character, Crazy Otto Piano. He released over forty albums ofragtime and other popular piano pieces under his own name. His biggest album, mentioned in moststandard ragtime discographies, was Authentic Ragtime. (As an interesting side note, Maddox noted thatmany of today's reverential ragtime performers make the music sound like it belongs in a funeral home,rather than for dancing.) Maddox hailed from Gallatin, Tennessee.

Sources:

David Jasen. Rags and Ragtime: a Musical History. Seabury Press, 1978.1.Terry Waldo. This is Ragtime. Hawthorn Books, 1976.2.Life Magazine, May 2, 1955, p. 113-114: "Otto, Real and Crazy."3.

This note from a reader:


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From: Warren Hurley [mailto:[email protected]]Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2003 4:18 PMSubject: crazy otto

FYI:Johnny Maddox still plays piano (and still hails from Gallatin), particularly summer stints atthe Diamond Belle Saloon in Durango Colorado.W

Wolfman Jack

An elusive character in more ways than one, Wolfman Jack's realname is Bob Smith. Born in Brooklyn in 1938, Wolfman says "We allemulated the Black culture. There wasn't any other." His major earlyinfluence was a Black deejay named Dr. Jive, and while still ateenager he dropped out of school and hit the road, heading south,working for rhythm and blues radio stations. Finally, in 1957, hebecame station manager and late night deejay at XERF in CiudadAcuna, just over the Mexican border from Del Rio, Texas. On a goodnight, you could hear him north to Canada and west to California, asMexican stations were allowed far higher wattage than Americanstations.

Throughout the late 50's and all through the 60's, Wolfman cultivateda vocal persona that led everyone to think he was actually a Blackdeejay. With his first appearance in the flesh, in the movie "AmericanGraffiti," he shocked everyone with the revelation that he was,indeed, white. "Nobody knew if I was shite or black or whatever," hesaid in an interview with Time in 1973, "and I kept the mystique up.

No pictures, no interviews."

The appellation "Wolfman" conjures up a wild and supernatural being, as introduced into American popculture with the 1941 movie "The Wolf Man," starring Lon Chaney, Jr. (See "Werewolves of London" byWarren Zevon, for mention of Chaney in song.) Bela Lugosi as Frankenstein's monster met Chaney as theWolf Man in a 1943 sequel, "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man." They reunited in the 1944 film "Houseof Frankenstein." And, of course, they meet again in this song.

The Dead are not the only ones to have included Wolfman Jack in a song. Leon Russell's "Living on theHighway" is about him.

Wolfman Jack appears as Jack #3 in the song.

As a side note, it is probable that Hunter assumed, as did everyone else, that Wolfman Jack was Black, asthe song predates his public appearance.

Sources:


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1. Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll, Jim Miller, editor. Random House, 1980.2. Time Magazine, August 27, 1973, p. 62: "Wolfman's New Lair."

Royal Flush, Aces Back to Back

The phrase "Back to back" is said of the first two hole cards in seven card stud poker, or of the hole cardand the first upcard when they are paired or "wired." Thus, the hand being bescribed is a seven-card studpoker hand just prior to the dealing of the final down card, made up of 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace allof one suit (the highest hand in poker), with an extra Ace in the hole.

Mary (Wollstonecraft) Shelley

(1797-1851)

Author (1818) of Frankenstein. Her mother was the famous early feminist theorist Mary Wollstonecraft.She married Percy Shelley, the poet, at age 16, and wrote Frankenstein at the suggestion of her husbandand Lord Byron, after beginning the story as impromptu entertainment around the fire in Geneva, in thesummer of 1816.

Frankenstein

Hunter probably means to refer, not to Victor Frankenstein, the doctor who created a monster in MaryShelley's book, but to the monster himself. Castle Frankenstein still stands near Darmstadt, WestGermany. Konrad Dippel (1673-1734) spent his youth there, and later studied alchemy at GiessenUniversity under the name "Frankensteina," and had particular interest in the theories fashionable at thetime concerning the life force.

Walk the Line

This saying seems to have its origin in an old sobriety test given to sailors: walking between two parallellines chalked onto the deck--also known as "Walking the chalk." The meaning of the saying in the presentday is inclusive of sobriety, but is much broader, having to do with good behavior, usually under someform of pressure or even duress.

The line also summons up echoes of Johnny Cash and his 1956 song "I Walk the Line," adding somecountry flavor to the stew that already includes everything from ragtime to Dark Star.

Source: Picturesque Expressions: a Thematic Dictionary. L. Urdang, Gale, 1980.

The Grass Ain't Greener

For an incredible essay on the proverb, see Wolfgang Mieder's article, "The Grass Is Always Greener Onthe Other Side of the Fence: An American Proverb of Discontent" in De Proverbio: An Electronic


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Journal of International Proverb Studies (Vol. 1, n. 1: 1995).

Old proverbs are usually a breeze to track down, as they have been the subject of study for years, and alarge number of books cataloging and indexing proverbs have been written, dating back to the biblicalbook of Proverbs. However, a determined search for the origin of the saying "The grass is always greeneron the other side of the hill (or fence)" yielded not a clue.

An inquiry sent to the Bay Area Library and Information Service turned up a file on the phrase, luckily,and its origins turn out to be quite ancient, most likely predating the Latin authors whose work containsthe seed of the quotation. Both Ovid and Juvenal wrote lines which, in translation, turned into the proverbwe know. Ovid's appears in his Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love), Book 1, line 349: "Fertilior seges estalienis semper in agris" or "The crop seems always more productive in our neighbor's field." Juvenal'sSatires, in Satire XIV, Line 142, says "Majorque videtur et melior vicina seges," or "And the crop of ourneighbor seems greater and better than our own."

The earliest notation of The grass is greener as an American phrase is found in an article by Helen Pearcein the California Folklore Quarterly, vol. 5, July 1946, entitled 'Folk Sayings in a Pioneer Family ofWestern Oregon.' She recorded the phrase as "The greener pasture's over yonder (or The grass is alwaysgreener on the other side of the fence.)"

All this is very well, but it seems unlikely that even Robert Hunter was actually familiar with Ovid andJuvenal and their versions of this phrase. I believe the source is much closer, and that the line meritscomparison with the line about Jericho earlier in the song, as a couple of possible sources in Americanpopular song of the 1960's are much more easily identified--namely, the two songs "Green, Green" and"The Grass is Greener." Most of us can hum the first, which dates from 1963, words and music by BarryMcGuire and Randy Sparks, and based on fragments of traditional material, according to its authors.(This "fragmentary material" has yet to come to light.) The song was a hit record for the New ChristyMinstrels. The second tune was written by Barry Mann and Mike Anthony, and was a best-selling recordfor Brenda Lee, also in 1963.

First posted: February, 1995Last revised: June 26, 2003


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