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.
Performance history: One documented performance only, July 17, 1966, at the Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco. "Cardboard Cowboy" followed "In the Pines" and preceded "Nobody's Fault But Mine."
This note from Alex Allan, who provided the words above as best he could:
Yes well! Words in square brackets are just the nearest phonetic sounds to what I hear. There's clearly a lot of psychedelic imagery and heaven's knows if the "true" lyrics even exist now. But perhaps others have better tapes and/or better ears. I don't know anything about the song other than that it was recorded during the summer on 1966 during studio sessions somewhere, and was played live on 7-16-66.