The Annotated "Brown-Eyed Women"

Lyrics omitted. The annotations below are reproduced by permission of David Dodd; the song lyrics themselves are copyrighted and are not reproduced here. Read them at the official source: dead.net/songs.

"Brown-Eyed Women"

• Key: F/Dm
• Time signature: 4/4 (with an occasional 2/4 measure)
• Chords used: Dm, F, B-flat, C, Gm, Cm, Am
• Songbook availability:
  • Anthology
  • Anthology (Guitar)

• Europe '72
  • This version included on What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been
• Dick's Pick's, vol. 5

First performance: August 23, 1971 at the Auditorium Theater, Chicago. It appeared in the first set, between "Beat It On Down the Line" and "Me and My Uncle." It's been a regular in the repertoire ever since.

There has long been confusion over the song's title. Hunter, in A Box of Rain, titles it "Brown-Eyed Women," while the listing on the cover of Europe '72 calls it "Brown-Eyed Woman." According to DeadBase VIII:

"Willy Legate of the Grateful Dead Archives kindly informed us that although the title was copyrighted as Brown-eyed Woman (that's how it appears on the album and/or songbook), Robert Hunter actually wrote and intended it to be Brown-eyed Women, the way Jerry Garcia really sings it. This is a classic case of a typographical error."--p. vii.

1920 when he stepped to the bar

1930 when the Wall caved in

Red-eye

"Redeye: n. 1. Whisky of very poor quality. In full redeye whisky. ... 1819 QUITMAN in Claiborne Life Quitman I. 42 Whiting and I had a treat to 'red-eye,' or 'rot-gut,' as whiskey is here [Ky.] called." -- Dictionary of Americanisms.

Bigfoot County

Follow this link for more information about the mythical Bigfoot.

And here's a note from a reader:

Subject: brown-eyed women-bigfoot county
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 1997 20:45:42 -0800
From: doug shipley

Hello David,

A fellow traveler turned me on to this cool project and I thought I'd send you my interpretation of the line "tumbledown shack in Bigfoot County". I've always taken that to be the nick name of the county just south of my own Jackson Co. on the California/Oregon border- Del Norte or Humbolt County being popular places where Bigfoot was seen in the early days of timber and mining activity . Plus when it snows there it dumps.

Brown-eyed Women is one of my favorite songs, it reminds me of my father, I tend to cry every time I hear it.

Doug

Cost two dollars

"I'll make you one gallon for a two-dollar bill."