Words by
Robert Hunter
Music by
Jerry Garcia
Reprinted with permissions copyright
Ice Nine Publishing
First known performance:
December 19,
1969, at the
Fillmore Auditorium in
San Francisco by the
Grateful Dead.
There are
15 known live performances, all in
1969-1970, after which it was dropped from the repertoire.
Mason died on Monday
We bricked him in the wall
All his children grew and grew
They never grew so tall before
They may never grow so tall again
We dug him up on Tuesday
He'd hardly aged a day
Taught us all we ever knew
We never knew so much before
We may never know so much again
Mason was a mighty man
A mighty man was he
All he said: when I'm dead and gone
don't you weep for me
The wall collapsed on Wednesday
We chalked it up to fate
All his children ran and hid
We never hid so well before
Swore we'd never show our face again
Thursday came and Friday
with fires tall and bright
Mason's children cooked the stew
and cleaned up when the feast was through
Swore we'd never had such times before
Take me to the Reaper Man
to pay back what was loaned
If he's in some other land
write it off as stoned
Mason was a mighty man
A mighty man was he
All he said: when I'm dead and gone
don't you weep for me
------------------------------------------------
Hunter's note in the Box of Rain anthology says:
"An unrecorded GD song dealing obliquely with Altamont."
Mason
Possibly a reference to the order of Freemasons?