Mindbender (
Confusion's Prince)
Lyrics and music:
Grateful Dead Reprinted with permissions copyright
Ice Nine Publishing
Recorded by the Grateful Dead as a demo (
Emergency Crew: demo by
the Warlocks, 11/3/65) and played a couple of times very early in the Dead's career (First verified performance: 1/17/66, at
The Matrix, in
San Francisco). The title sometimes appears as "Mindbender" and sometimes as "Confusion's Prince" in song lists.
Phil Lesh is commonly credited as the author, but his comments on
No Left Turn Unstoned make that doubtful.
If only I could be less blind
If only I knew what to find
Everywhere and all of the time
It's bending my mind
Confusion's Prince is at my door
The crown I wear is the one he wore
He's here to bring me down some more
And bend my mind
The friendly stranger call my name
He only wants me for his game
But it don't matter just the same
I'll bend his mind
I'll wave my flags into the sun
I've fought my wars and now they're won
And I didn't need nobody's gun
I bent their minds