The Annotated "Victim Or The Crime"

"Even the purest of romantics compromise"

The Annotated "Victim Or The Crime"

An installment in The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics.
By David Dodd
Copyright notice; © 1995-2004, David Dodd

"Victim Or The Crime"
Words by Gerrit Graham and Bob Weir; music by Bob Weir
Copyright Ice Nine Publishing (1988)

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.

"Victim Or The Crime"

Gerrit Graham has kindly sent an essay about the song. Many thanks, Gerrit! Musical details:

Key: Four sharps; ambiguous key (B/C#m)
Time signature: 4/4
Chords used: B5, Bsus2, Bm, G/B, E7/B, Esus4, E+5, E5, E6, C, A9, A/G#, A, B/A, Asus2, Am, F/A, D, Csus2, C#m, F#m.

Recorded on

Songbook availability:

First performance: June 17, 1988, at Metropolitan Sports Center, Bloomington, Minnesota. "Victim" appeared as the last song in the first set, following "Althea". It remained in the repertoire steadily thereafter.

Gerrit Graham

The following information on Weir's lyricist for this song comes from an article in the December 27, 1999 & January 3, 2000 New Yorker magazine, "The Musical Life: A Moonlighting Lyricist's Day is Made" by Alec Wilkinson, pp. 44-46.

Graham is a 25-year friend of Weir. He is an actor who plays Roger Bender on the TV show "Now and Again." According to the article, "Victim or the Crime" was written in the early 1980s, and Weir's musical inspiration for the song was a piece by Bela Bartok.

Graham is still writing with Weir, and has several songs in the current Ratdog repertoire.

Patience runs out on the junkie

I seem to remember an interview with Garcia, in which he stated that the line was originally sung as "Patience runs out on the bunny."

Can anybody help verify or debunk this?

See Gerrit Graham's essay for the final word on this!

horns of the dilemma

First recorded use of the cliche/metaphor is by Laurence Sterne, in his Tristram Shandy (1760):

"One of the two horns of my dilemma." (Book IV, chapter 26)

And so I wrestle with the angel

Image is Gustav Dore's "Jacob Wrestling With the Angel" (1855) from Carol Gerten-Jackon's Fine Art site.

A reference to Genesis 32: 24-32, in which Jacob wrestles with a supernatural being, often rendered as "angel," who is trying to prevent him from crossing a stream. Jacob's thigh is put out of joint in the melee, but eventually he prevails, and insists on receiving the being's blessing. The being blesses Jacob (under duress) and names him Israel.

Worth noting is that this story follows immediately the story of Jacob and his brother Esau.

Keywords:
@drugs, @angel, @dark DeadBase code: VICT

First posted: February 21, 1997
Last modified: May 10, 2004