From: fhh@nofs.navy.mil (Fred Harris)
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead
Subject: Re: The Other One
Date: 15 Oct 92 23:38:48 GMT
Article-I.D.: uvaarpa.1992Oct15.233848.4193
Reply-To: fhh@nofs.navy.mil
Organization: The Internet

be231642@longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu (Bret Egan) wrote:

|Could somebody send me the lyrics to The Other One?

My historical perspective:

Earliest version of "The Other One" I have heard, from November 67 
Shrine Exposition Hall:

  First verse:
    Well I woke up one morning, with no sky in sight,
    I would ask the walls around me, but they vanished overnight,
    I had nothing to tell my name or fly there was no way,
    But the heat come 'round and busted me for smiling on a cloudy day,

  Chorus:
    Comin', comin', comin' around (Phil and Jerry)
    Comin' around (Bobby)
    Comin' around, come in a circle (Phil and Jerry)
                   Comin' around (Bobby)
    Comin', comin', comin' around (Phil and Jerry)
    Comin' around (Bobby)
    Comin' around, come in a circle (Phil and Jerry)
                   Comin' around (Bobby)

  Second verse:
    I was trippin' through the lilly fields, when I came across an
        empty space,
    It quivered and exploded, left a bus-stop in its place,
    The bus come by and I got on, that's when it all began,
    There was Cowboy Neil, at the wheel of a bus to never-ever land,

  Chorus:

By 2-14-68, the first verse had changed to the present form we know and
love, with the chorus as above and a slight change to the second verse:

  First verse:
    Spanish lady come to me, she lays on me this rose,
    It rainbow spiraled 'round and 'round and trembled and explode,
    It left a smokin' crater on my mind, I like to blown away,
    But the heat come 'round and busted me for smiling on a cloudy day,

  Second verse:
    I was trippin' through the lilly fields, when I came across an
        empty space,
    It trembled and exploded, left a bus-stop in its place,
    The bus come by and I got on, that's when it all began,
    There was Cowboy Neil, at the wheel of a bus to never-ever land,

Directly after 2-14-68 the second verse made its last change into its
present form:

  Second verse:
    Escapin' through the lilly fields, I came across an empty space,
    It trembled and exploded, left a bus-stop in its place,
    The bus come by and I got on, that's when it all began,
    There was Cowboy Neil, at the wheel of a bus to never-ever land,

There it has been but for brief variations, such as Harpur 5-2-70, when
first Phil, and then Jerry, change "Comin' around" in the chorus to
"Travlin' around"...

OBS (Obligatory Bobby Story): Some years ago a friend of mine, Eric
Eichhorn, was in the process of selling Bobby a drum machine (for the
sake of practicing, I presume).  Eric had heard my Shrine 67 reels and
commented on the older different words to Bobby.  Weir didn't recollect
the old words and asked Eric if he could get a copy... and Eric asked
me, a cassette was made of the two such performances, given to Eric, and
duly delivered to Bob.  I don't recall hearing what Weir's reaction was,
but it was gratifying to send some good tape karma back to the boyz...

See ya at the bus stop (boom...)

Fred Harris
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead