China Cat Sunflower -> I Know You Rider
March 9, 1981
Madison Square Garden
I was hitchhiking to see a girl I met at a GD show. A guy picked me up and I tossed this China>Rider into his cassette player. As he dropped me at my destination, I offered to send him some tapes. He said, please send the one you just played. My pleasure. (Who knows maybe he’ll read this.) Anyway, the creativeness of Jerry Garcia is in full-on here as he invents on the fly/ in the moment throughout the Chinacat and transition. And the mix-up, accidental or otherwise, in the “sun’s gonna shine” verse just provides another opportunity to take this to new places. Likewise, after the “headlight” lyrics. As a suite, this one is top-shelf. Oh yeah, the girl and I have been married for 20 years. Thanks for the ride, man.