Althea – The Grateful Dead

One of the best Grateful Dead songs, and possibly my favorite of Jerry Garcia‘s guitar work, “Althea” has an almost muddied or swampy feel to it, while still maintaining the free-spirited vibe they came to be known for.

Lyrically, “Althea” is pretty dang cool. It tells the story of a fella named Jim having a conversation with the titular Althea. Jim seems to be expressing regret to Althea in some ways, but I won’t say for certain about what. There seems to be a theory online that this song was written by Robert Hunter for Garcia as an attempt to slow down Jerry’s worsening drug addiction. I also love the literary allusions to Hamlet.

You may be a clown in the burying ground
Or just another pretty face
You may be the fate of Ophelia
Sleeping and perchance to dream

As most Dead fans will say, don’t listen to the studio stuff! I actually really like the studio version of Althea, but there are plenty of great live versions to choose from! I’m also linking a version done by Dead & Company because I think John Mayer‘s voice works really well with this song.

Studio – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZNZgtj26Fk

Live – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7HnyEY6ifg

Dead and Co – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npi1zPDgG8s