Lyrics to
Scarlet Begonias

This version of Scarlet Begonias was released by Grateful Dead in 1974.

Our Grateful Dead Songs profile has Scarlet Begonias lyrics from 1974 and most if not all of the lyrics by Grateful Dead that we have here at Decade Lyrics.

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As I was walkin’ ’round Grosvenor Square
Not a chill to the winter but a nip to the air,
From the other direction, she was calling my eye,
It could be an illusion, but I might as well try, might as well try.

She had rings on her fingers and bells on her shoes.
And I knew without askin’ she was into the blues.
She wore scarlet begonias tucked into her curls,
I knew right away she was not like other girls, other girls.

In the thick of the evening when the dealing got rough,
She was too pat to open and too cool to bluff.
As I picked up my matches and was closing the door,
I had one of those flashes I’d been there before, been there before.

Well, I ain’t always right but I’ve never been wrong.
Seldom turns out the way it does in a song.
Once in a while you get shown the light
In the strangest of places if you look at it right.

Well there ain’t nothing wrong with the way she moves,
Scarlet begonias or a touch of the blues.
And there’s nothing wrong with the look that’s in her eyes,

Wind in the willow’s playin’ “Tea for Two”;
The sky was yellow and the sun was blue,
Strangers stoppin’ strangers just to shake their hand,
Everybody’s playing in the heart of gold band, heart of gold band.

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Grateful Dead has released many songs over the years besides Scarlet Begonias. 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.

If you're a fan of popular 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1974 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Scarlet Begonias by Grateful Dead

The lyrics for Scarlet Begonias are defined as the words making up the song released by Grateful Dead in 1974. It also includes the verses and words used by the background chorus in the song. Like many hit songs, the lyrics to Scarlet Begonias have different meanings to different people. While it is clear in some of the lyrics what the artist is trying to really say, only Grateful Dead and those working with them know all of the meanings behind all of the lyrics to their songs.

Some folks are interested in word and phrase etymology. It is easy to understand the lyrics to Scarlet Begonias by Grateful Dead if you think through it. 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 Scarlet Begonias" means the words set to the music of Scarlet Begonias, 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 Scarlet Begonias and the lyrics to Scarlet Begonias 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 Scarlet Begonias, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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