Tales of the Great Rum Runners 50

Rich Mahan (0:05)

The Good Ol Grateful Deadcast, the official podcast of the Grateful Dead. I'm Rich Mahan with Jesse Jarnow, exploring the music and legacy of the Grateful Dead for the Committed And The Curious.

Ladies and gentlemen, fellow Deadheads, welcome to season nine of the Good Ol Grateful Deadcast. I'm your co-host Rich Mahan. As always, thank you so much for tuning in. In this special bonus edition of the Good Ol Grateful Deadcast, we take a 1974 side trip to explore Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter's first solo album, Tales of the Great Rum Runners.

And Rhino has just released the deluxe edition of Hunter's Tales of the Great Rum Runners. It's remastered and expanded with unreleased music in celebration of its 50th anniversary. And there are an additional 16 tracks on the bonus discs that contain alternate versions of six songs that made the album, plus 10 gems that did not. Tales of the Great Rum Runners deluxe edition is available as both a two LP set and a two CD set. More info and orders are happening now over at dead.net. And while you're there, remember to check out the 50th anniversary edition of The Dead's From The Mars Hotel, also on sale now.

Head over to dead.net/deadcast and check out all of our past episodes, including the complete seasons one through eight. You can link from there to your favorite podcasting platforms so you can listen how and where you like to listen. Please help this podcast by subscribing, sharing us with your friends on social media, hitting that like button, and if the spirit moves you, leave us a review. Thank you very much.

We have transcripts for many of your favorite deadcast episodes available for your reading pleasure. Head on over to dead.net/deadcastdashindex and check them out.

And friends, were you at any of the Wall of Sound shows in 74? If so, we have a mission for you. Leave us your recorded stories at stories.dead.net and tell us your experiences hearing the Wall of Sound. We want to hear from you. And we do use them in the deadcast when we get something that fits just right. Record your Wall of Sound tour stories at stories.dead.net. Robert Hunter was as important of a member of the Grateful Dead as any of the other folks in the band. His lyrics have become a part of so many of our lives that we find ourselves quoting him almost daily. Tales of the Great Rum Runners, released in 1974, was Robert's first solo record. And the story behind it is just as fascinating as the beautiful songs it contains. Here's your friend and mine, Jesse Jarnow.

Jesse Jarnow (3:08)

In the spring of 1974, members of The Deadhead's mailing list received a promotional 7-inch record in the mail. On the first side was what we just heard from the then forthcoming Jerry Garcia solo album. Garcia hadn't put out an album outside the dead in like a whole five months, but on the other side of the sampler was a voice that almost certainly would have been new to anybody listening.

Robert Hunter's solo debut, Tales of the Great Rum Runners, issued in June 1974 was RX-101, the first release in the catalog of Round Records, the independent label co-owned by Jerry Garcia and Ron Rackow. Financed by Hunter himself and mixed by Garcia, it was a powerful but humble statement from a familiar but new voice.

Four years earlier, after the best-selling Working Man's Dead, Hunter had gone on salary as the Grateful Dead's full-time on-call lyricist, writing mainly with Garcia, but also occasionally with Phil Lesh, Bobby Weir, Mickey Hart, and even Pigpen. But except for a few brief flashes, Hunter mostly stayed in the shadows. Here's Jerry Garcia talking to Ben Fong-Torres on KSAN in 1975

Jerry Garcia (5:25)

You've seen the rest of us blunder. You guys make those mistakes, not me, man. I want to be able to go into some place and not have anybody know who I am. And I can dig it.

He's real paranoid about it for sure. He doesn't want it in his life.

Robert Hunter (5:38)

Working Man's Dead by The Grateful Dead. Steal one.

Jesse Jarnow (5:46)

There was Hunter doing an advertisement in 1970 when he did a little bit of press around Working Man's Dead where he was depicted but not identified on the front cover. Besides that one image, dead fans largely had no idea what Robert Hunter looked like. That didn't change. When Tales of the Great Rum Runners came out in June 1974, he wouldn't consent to press photos.

Even still, the lyricist embraced a role he would play for the rest of his life, a singer-songwriter. You set my soul on fire You set me on my own Broke down car but the wheels still roll down Dry, dry, dusty roads On the occasion of Robert Hunter's 80th birthday in 2021, we did an episode called Keys to the Rain, giving a broad overview of his work outside the Grateful Dead. And we might repeat a point or two. We've linked to it at dead.net/deadcast.