One More Saturday Night

Lyrics: Bob Weir
Music: Bob Weir

Played by Bob Weir with the Grateful Dead and with most of his other bands.

I went down to the mountain, I was drinking some wine
I looked up into heaven, lord I saw a mighty sign
Writ in fire across the heaven, plain as black and white
Get prepared, there's gonna be a party tonight

Chorus
Uh huh, hey, Saturday night
One more Saturday night
Hey, Saturday night

Everybody's dancing down at the local armory (note 1)
With a basement full of dynamite and live artillery
Temperature keeps rising, everybody getting high
Come the rocking stroke of midnight, the whole place is gonna fly

[chorus]

I turn on Channel Six, the President comes on the news (note 2)
Says I got no satisfaction, that's why I sing the blues
His wife says don't get crazy, Lord you know what to do (note 3)
Just crank that old Victrola, put on your rocking shoes

[chorus]

Then God way up in heaven, for whatever it was worth
Thought he'd have a big old party, thought he'd call it planet earth
Don't worry about tomorrow, Lord, you'll know it when it comes (note 4)
When the rocking, rolling music meets the rising, shining sun

[chorus]
Notes
(1) variations Bob Weir has sung include "Everybody's dancing at the local skating rink" (thanks to Dan Franzen for spotting this)
(2) variations include "I turn on my TV ..." (thanks to Dan Franzen for pointing this out)
(2) on 17 April 1982 (and perhaps on other occasions during Ronald Reagan's presidency), Bob Weir sang "Nancy says don't get crazy Ron, you know just what to do." Similarly, in the late 80's during George Bush Senior's Presidency, he sang "His wife says don't get crazy George, you know just what to do." He also sang this version with The Dead in reference to George Bush Junior (eg on 9 August 2003) (thanks to Jay Tenewitz, Brian Schnapp and Michael for the info)
(3) in an early version of the song, on 26 October 1971, Bob Weir sang these two lines as:
I may be young and crazy, but I can't see Reason One
For fightin' or complainin' when we should be havin' fun

Grateful Dead Recordings
     Date Album
     26 Oct 1971 Download Series Vol 3
     28 Mar 1972 Dick's Picks Vol 30
      8 Apr 1972 Steppin' Out with the Grateful Dead: England '72
     24 Apr 1972 Rockin' The Rhein
     26 Apr 1972 Hundred Year Hall
     26 May 1972 Europe '72 (note b)
     22 Jul 1972 Download Series Vol 10
     21 Sep 1972 Dick's Picks Vol 36
     10 Nov 1973 Winterland 1973 - The Complete Recordings
      5 Aug 1974 Dick's Picks Vol 31
     19 Oct 1974 Grateful Dead Movie (video, DVD & CD soundtrack)
      9 Oct 1976 Dick's Picks Vol 33
     31 Dec 1976 Live At The Cow Palace
     30 Apr 1977 Download Series Vol 1
     21 May 1977 Dick's Picks Vol 29
      5 Nov 1977 Dick's Picks Vol 34
      7 Aug 1982 Dick's Picks Vol 32
     24 Mar 1990 Without A Net
     16 Jun 1990 View From The Vault III (video, DVD & CD soundtrack)

Recordings from dead.net Tapers Section
 
Bob Weir Recordings
     Date Album Recorded By
     studio 1972 Ace Bob Weir (note a)
      3 Apr 1976 In Concert (King Biscuit Flour Hour) Kingfish

"The Dead" Concert Recordings

Ratdog Live CD Series
 
Other Recordings
     Date Album Recorded By
     1982 Block S Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band
     1996 Dark Star David Murray Octet
     2000 Might As Well The Persuasions
     2003 The Tussler (re-issue) Motorpsycho
     2003 Back On Track Bees Make Honey
      8 Feb 2006 Live At The Fillmore Grateful Grass
Notes
(a) also on the compilation Weir Here: The Best Of Bob Weir
(b) also on the compilation The Very Best Of The Grateful Dead

Background
Dennis McNally's book, "A Long Strange Trip" has an account of how this song was written:
"[Weir and Hunter] clashed again over "One More Saturday Night." Having gotten Hunter's lyrics, Weir rewrote them--badly in Hunter's opinion--and then asked to call the resulting song "U.S.Blues," which Hunter refused to permit. In the end, he declined any association with the song and it was credited to Weir alone." [p393]
[This also adds irony to the line "You can call this song the United States Blues"].

Mike Scheier has an early vinyl copy of "Ace" and says the song is credited to "Weir/Hunter" there--this was changed on later pressings.

David Gans asked Bob Weir about this in an interview on 2 March 2004
Gans: A story that ... I wanted to check out with you is, I've heard rumors over the years that "One More Saturday Night" actually began as a Hunter lyric and he took his name off it. Is that true?
Weir: Yeah, it began as a Hunter lyric. "One more Saturday night" was his line. I wrote the rest. [laughs]
Gans: How did that happen?
Weir: I don't remember. I think he had a verse or something, a sketch he gave me. I got started working on it and, it all happened in one night. I got up a head of steam and cranked the song out, and I used that one line. And as I was writing, the rest of that verse wasn't ringing my lofty bells, and I kept intending to work it back in to the tune, and then take everything I'd written and submit to Hunter and let him correct it, but he... as far as he was concerned, the song was done, so he took his name off it.

Futher Information
For an online discussion of the lyrics to this song see the deadsongs.vue conference on The Well.
For more information on recordings see Matt Schofield's Grateful Dead Family Discography
For information on references in the lyrics see David Dodd's Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics
For online chords and TAB see www.rukind.com
For sheet music, see:
          Grateful Dead Anthology Volume 1 (piano arrangement)
          Grateful Dead Authentic Guitar Classics Volume 2 (guitar TAB)
          Without A Net Songbook (piano arrangement)
          Hundred Year Hall songbook (guitar TAB)
          Very Best Of The Grateful Dead (guitar TAB)

 

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