Copyright notice; © 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 David Dodd
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.
[The 20 Jan 1968 version is essentially the same as the 2 Feb one, but with the first verse
only. The 26 Jan 1969 version is rather different (this comes from Ihor Slabicky):]
First performance: Saturday, January 20, 1968 at the Eureka Municipal Auditorium in Eureka, CA. It only appearead twice more in live performance. The version on the box set is from February 2, 1968.
In a canyon, in a cavern
Excavating for a mine
Lived a miner, forty-niner
And his daughter, Clementine
[Chorus]
Oh my darling, Oh my darling,
Oh my darling, Clementine,
Thou art lost and gone forever
Dreadful sorry, Clementine.
Light she was an like a feather,
And her shoes were number nine,
Herring boxes without topses,
Sandals were for Clementine.
Drove she ducklings to the water,
Every morning just at nine,
Stubbed her toe against a splinter,
Fell into the foamy brine.
Ruby lips above the water,
Blowing bubbles soft and fine,
Alas for her, I was no swimmer,
So I lost my Clementine.
It might be stretching the point, but there does seem to be some connection between the narrator of Hunter's lyric and the miner who lost his daughter among the cold rock canyons at the bottom of a cold spring.