Listening to a live Bruce Hornsby album this weekend, I became fascinated with a Grateful Dead song he covered, "Black Muddy River." The song really sounds much older than it is (it appeared on the same album as their hit, "Touch of Grey"). At least the way Hornsby performs it, it rests somewhere between a church hymn and a mournful folk song. Beautiful Robert Hunter lyrics. Beautiful Jerry Garcia melody.

Then I did some digging for the lyrics out of curiosity. I don't know if there are Dead fans out there who do this with every song, or Robert Hunter fans, but good lord! There must be a dozen sites with annotations, explanations, line-by-line exegeses, etc. of the song!

Talk about overanalysis.

It's still a lovely song. I'm gonna learn it.