The Grateful Dead Love Song Bob Weir Despised: “I Hated What We Did”

Everyone makes mistakes, now, whether what kind they are is an entirely different story. That being so, in the music business, there is almost always one mistake all musicians share—Writing a “bad” song. Every musician, no matter how famous or not, seems to have written a song they have grown to despise. It’s natural to do so, as taste and talent are ever-changing. This is especially true for arguably the best rhythm guitarist of all time, Bob Weir.

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If you are a fan of the Grateful Dead, you know Bob Weir and the band constantly pushed the limits and tried new things. Hence, it comes as no surprise that he looked back at some of his old work and raised an eyebrow. In the Grateful Dead’s enormously expansive catalog, the song that Weir could not stand was the kitschy love song, “Weather Report Suite.”

Bob Weir’s Impromptu Misstep

Like many songs, this one was also written on a whim and was birthed out of sheer improvisation. Most of the time, that seemingly benefits musicians, as it mitigates over-editing and thinking. However, for Bob Weir that was not the case, and he retrospectively drilled the song.

“The fast part was one of the few times [John Perry Barlow] and I sat and wrote words and music simultaneously,” Weir divulged in part 1 of the Weather Report Suite. Weir added, “The slow part was written completely separately. I liked the music but it sounded like a love song, which is not my forte.” So, when it was all said and done and the song was complete, Weir and Barlow wrote “this sappy love song.”

If you know Weir and the Dead, you know this kind of song isn’t necessarily their style. With that in mind, it makes total sense that this song became nearly non-existent in the Dead’s musical catalog, and Weir certainly had a lot to do with it. “I always hated what we did” and “Which is why that part of the song vanished for years,” stated Weir.

Bob Weir concluded his remarks by stating, “Those words couldn’t pass my lips without me visibly retching, and I’m not going to do anything that I’m embarrassed about walking into” and ” I do enough stuff that I’m embarrassed about after the fact!”

Bob Weir’s honesty and self-awareness are incredibly admirable, and frankly, some musicians of the present day could possibly take a page out of his book. Regardless, it’s fascinating to see the true views about this Grateful Dead classic.

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