Doin' That Rag

Music By Jerry Garcia
Words By Robert Hunter

Released June 1969

Sitting in Mangrove Valley chasing light beams
Everything wanders from baby to Z
Baby baby pretty young on Tuesday
Old like a rum drinking demon at tea
Baby, baby, tell me what's the matter
Why, why tell me, what's your why now
Tell me why will you never come home
Tell me what's your reason if you got a good one
Everywhere I go the people all know
Everyone's doin' that rag
Everywhere I go the people all know
Everyone's doin' that rag

Take my line, go fishing for a Tuesday
Maybe take my supper, eat it down by the sea
Gave my baby twenty, forty good reasons
Couldn't find any better ones in the morning at three
Rain gonna come but the rain gonna go
Stepping off sharply from the rank and file
Awful cold and dark like a dungeon
Maybe get a little bit darker 'fore the day
Hipsters, tripsters, real cool chicks, sir
'Cause everyone's doin' that rag
Hipsters, tripsters, real cool chicks, sir
'Cause everyone's doin' that rag

You needn't gild the lily, offer jewels to the sunset
No one is watching or standing in your shoes
Wash your lonely feet in the river in the morning
Everything promised is delivered to you
Don't neglect to pick up what your share is
All the winter birds are winging home now
Hey, love, go and take a look around you
Nothing out there you haven't seen before now
But you can wade in the water and never get wet
If you keep on doin' that rag
Wade in the water and never get wet
If you keep on doin' that rag

One eyed jacks and the deuces are wild
And the aces are crawling up and down your sleeve
Come back here, baby Louise
And tell me the name of the game that you play
Is it all fall down; is it all go under
Is it all fall down; is it all go under

Everywhere I go
The people all know
Everybody's doin' that rag

Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission