Track 5 – “Mountains of the Moon/TVQ” (Grateful Dead cover/original instrumental)

“Blankets and Covers: Volume One” – Track 5 – “Mountains of the Moon/TVQ” (Grateful Dead cover/original instrumental) (recorded October 6th 2010 at “Bayside” Keyport, NJ )

“Mountains of the Moon” was originally released on “Aoxomoxoa”, the 1969 “Grateful Dead” album. The lyrics were written by the ever grateful Robert Hunter. The studio version is really pretty and is highlighted by what I think is a harpsichord. The recording I’m presenting here segues into an original instrumental composition in it’s early stages called, “TVQ”. Probably not the best idea to play my mournful version in a crowded bar, but if it’s in your heart you got to let it out. People clapped at the end in support anyway, plus love hearing my older brother Chris shout, “KFC!”

Cold mountain water, the jade merchant’s daughter
Mountains of the moon, Electra, bough and bend to me
Hi-ho, the carrion crow, folderol-de-riddle
Hi-ho, the carrion crow, bough and bend to me

Hey, Tom Banjo
Hey, a laurel
More than laurel you may know
More than laurel you may sow
Hey, the laurel, hey, the city in the rain

Twenty degrees of solitude, twenty degrees in all 
All the dancing kings and wives assembled in the hall
Lost is the long and lonely time, fairy Sybil flying 
All along the, all along the mountains of the moon

Hey, Tom Banjo
It’s time to matter
The earth will see you through this time
The earth will see you through this time
Down by the water, the marsh king’s daughter, did you know
Clothed in tatters, always will be, *Tracy where did you go?

Mountains of the moon, Electra, mountains of the moon
All along the, all along the mountains of the moon
Heigh ho, the carrion crow, folderol-de-riddle
Heigh ho, the carrion crow, bough and bend to me
Bend to me

*Lyric change, original is “Tom”