China Cat Sunflower (Live at Springer’s Inn, Portland, OR, January 18, 1970) Lyrics

[Verse 1]
Look for a while at the china cat sunflower
Proud walking jingle in the midnight sun
Copperdome bodhi drip a silver kimono
Like a crazy quilt stargown through a dream night wind

[Instrumental break]

[Verse 2]
Krazy Kat peeking through a lace bandanna
Like a one-eyed cheshire, like a diamond-eye jack
A leaf of all colors plays a golden-string fiddle
To a double-e waterfall over my back

[Instrumental break]

[Verse 3]
Comic book colors on a violin river crying a lot of
Words from out a silk trombone
I rang a silent bell, beneath a shower of pearls
In the eagle-winged palace of the Queen Chinee

[Instrumental]

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Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

What did The Grateful Dead say about "China Cat Sunflower (Live at Springer's Inn, Portland, OR, January 18, 1970)"?

Genius Answer

In his A Box of Rain, Hunter wrote:

I think the germ of “China Cat Sunflower” came in Mexico, on Lake Chapala. I don’t think any of the words came, exactly – the rhythms came.

Hunter says:

I had a cat sitting on my belly, and was in a rather hypersensitive state, and I followed this cat out to – I believe it was Neptune – and there were rainbows across Neptune, and cats marching across the rainbow. This cat took me in all these cat places; there’s some essence of that in the song.

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When did The Grateful Dead release “China Cat Sunflower (Live at Springer's Inn, Portland, OR, January 18, 1970)”?

Who wrote “China Cat Sunflower (Live at Springer's Inn, Portland, OR, January 18, 1970)” by The Grateful Dead?