Lyrics to
Wharf Rat

This version of Wharf Rat was released by Grateful Dead in 1971.

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Old man down, way down down, down by the docks of the city.
Blind and dirty, asked me for a dime, a dime for a cup of coffee.
I got no dime but I got some time to hear his story.
My name is August West, and I love my Pearly Baker best more than my wine.
More than my wine – more than my maker, though he’s no friend of mine.

Everyone said, I’d come to no good, I knew I would Pearly, believe them.
Half of my life, I spent doin’ time for some other fucker’s crime,
The other half found me stumbling ’round drunk on Burgundy wine.

But I’ll get back on my feet again someday,
The good Lord willin’, if He says I may.
I know that the life i’m livin’s no good,
I’ll get a new start, live the life I should.
I’ll get up and fly away, I’ll get up and fly away, fly away.

Pearly’s been true, true to me, true to my dyin’ day he said,
I said to him, I said to him, “I’m sure she’s been.”
I said to him, “I’m sure she’s been tru to you.”

Got up and wandered, wandered downtown, nowhere to go but just hang around.
I’ve got a girl, named Bonnie Lee, I know that girl’s been true to me.
I know she’s been, I’m sure she’s been true to me.

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Grateful Dead has released many songs over the years besides Wharf Rat. 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 1970s music looking for more songs from 1971 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Wharf Rat by Grateful Dead

The lyrics for Wharf Rat are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1971 song by Grateful Dead. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Wharf Rat have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for Wharf Rat - Grateful Dead and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to Wharf Rat by Grateful Dead in multiple ways. 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 Wharf Rat" means the words set to the music of Wharf Rat, 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 Wharf Rat and the lyrics to Wharf Rat 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 Wharf Rat, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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