And there goes Robert Hunter — a poet, wordsmith, and the secret force behind the Grateful Dead. The band’s instrumentation took us beyond thought and Hunter’s words rendered us lost in thought. Together they provided and continue to provide us with a musical experience that is at times cathartic, refreshing, joyous, and almost always comforting. There are very few songs that make me feel like I’ve been given a hug by the song itself, and almost every one of those songs was penned by Robert Hunter.

In the end there’s just a song comes cryin’ up the night through all the broken dreams and vanished years. So on we go. Hunter’s words are being sung around the world right now and will continue to be sung forever. They’ve been canonized in the American songbook and listened to attentively by small groups who have faith in the Song, who believe in the joy of music, if nothing else. I could never write much of a song or poem, but Robert Hunter, as much as any other author, taught me the power of the word in any capacity. While Jerry accentuated the rests in his music, teaching the importance of silence in noise, Hunter taught me that the words you leave out are just as important as the words you write. He also taught me that every written word should be invaluable to the sentence as a whole. Each Hunter song has an aura around it that is at the same time a mystery in meaning and a space to insert whatever meaning that you feel in the song. He nudged the listener to explore the word and to use feeling as a measure of judgment, in song and life.

It seems like all this life was just a dream. Robert Hunter said that he knew all along that he was writing timeless songs. That was his intention and he truly believed in himself. I wonder if, in our lifetime, we’ll see a songwriter whose lyrics are as captivating as Hunter’s, and I can’t say I’m holding my breath. This guy was a legend. He wrote lyrics for Bob fucking Dylan. More importantly, he wrote his lyrics for all of us. It worked because we felt it, and it didn’t take much on our part. It takes an expert none other than Hunter to write profound, inspiring, and poetic lyrics without making the listener feel that they have to try too hard to feel the song. So thank you for that, and may the four winds blow you safely home.

And the breeze would pause to listen in, before going its way again

Check out this lovely version of Ruben and Cherise sung by Robert Hunter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYSi1BUCfI4