Lyrics to
High Time

This version of High Time was released by Grateful Dead in 1970.

Our About Grateful Dead page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for High Time from 1970 as well as all of the other lyrics from Grateful Dead that we have in our lyrics database.

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You told me goodbye, how was I to know
you didn’t mean goodbye, you meant please don’t let me go?

I was having a high time, living the good life, well I know

The wheels are muddy, got a ton of hay,
now listen here, Baby, ’cause I mean what I say.

I’m having a hard time, living the good life, well I know.

I was losing time, I had nothing to do,
no one to fight, I came to you.
Wheels broke down, leader won’t draw,
the line is busted, the last one I saw.
Tomorrow come trouble, tomorrow come pain,
now don’t think too hard Baby, ’cause I know what I’m saying.

I could show you a high time, living the good life, don’t be that way.

Nothing’s for certain, it could always go wrong,

We could have us a high time, living the good life, well I know.

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Grateful Dead has released many songs over the years besides High Time. Grateful Dead released songs from 1967 to 1989 spanning across albums like The Grateful Dead, Anthem Of The Sun, Live / Dead, Aoxomoxoa, American Beauty, Workingman's Dead, Grateful Dead (Skull & Roses), Europe '72, History Of The Grateful Dead, Vol. 1 (Bear's Choice), Wake Of The Flood, Grateful Dead From The Mars Hotel, Blues For Allah, Steal Your Face, Terrapin Station, Shakedown Street, Go To Heaven, Reckoning, In The Dark, and Built To Last. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Grateful Dead.

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About Lyrics and High Time by Grateful Dead

The lyrics to High Time are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that Grateful Dead used when the song was created in 1970. The lyrics to High Time have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only Grateful Dead and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to High Time by Grateful Dead. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to High Time" means the words set to the music of High Time, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Grateful Dead. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to High Time and the lyrics to High Time are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Grateful Dead who came here looking just for the lyrics to High Time, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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