Brokedown Palace (song)
| "Brokedown Palace" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Grateful Dead | |
| from the album American Beauty | |
| Released | November 1970 |
| Genre | |
| Length | 4:09 |
| Label | Warner Bros |
| Composer | Jerry Garcia |
| Lyricist | Robert Hunter |
| Producers |
|
| Official audio | |
| "Brokedown Palace" on YouTube | |
"Brokedown Palace" is a song by the American rock band Grateful Dead, released as the seventh track on the band's fifth studio album American Beauty (1970).[1]
Background
Robert Hunter, the band's lyricist wrote the lyrics for "Brokedown Palace" alongside "Ripple" and "To Lay Me Down" in about two hours on his first trip to England, as he recalled: "I sat there with a case of retsina and I opened up a bottle of that stuff", he continued by saying that "for some reason this creative energy started racing through me and I could do no wrong".[2] It was originally considered for included on Workingman's Dead, but did not make the final tracklisting.[3]
Composition and lyrics
The music of "Brokedown Palace" has been described as a "simple, slow gospel-inspired blues melody" by Matthew Greenwald.[1] Lyrically, it takes inspiration from the experiences Hunter had around the time of the album, with a hope for the future.[1]
Release and reception
"Brokedown Palace" was included as the second track on the second side of the American Beauty record. And is seen as a highlight on the album as well as one of the band's best songs and ballads.[4] When ranking the 20 best Grateful Dead songs for Paste magazine, Matt Mitchell placed it at number 18, calling it "sublime and gentle", while noting that "it’s saccharine in a way that the band just never gets hit in the same way ever again." he concludes by saying that he personally prefers the track as a "tender, solemn moment of farewell and of soul’s set adrift."[4] When ranking every song on American Beauty for Screen Rant, Chris Hedden placed it at number 6, stating that it "latches on to just the right echo of an aching sigh to make the lyrics jump even higher and more profoundly off the page."[5] Various writers of Rolling Stone placed it at 46 in a ranking of Jerry Garcia's 50 greatest songs, Stating that "Garcia paired Hunter’s lyrics about letting go with a dollop of Southern gospel, heightened by the Dead’s woodsy harmonies"[6] Writing for Pitchfork Andy Cush called it an "uncomfortably intimate window on their process, which hardly anyone needs to hear more than once."[7]
Personnel
Grateful Dead
- Jerry Garcia – lead vocals, electric guitar
- Bill Kreutzmann – drums
- Bob Weir – rhythm guitar
- Phil Lesh – bass
- Mickey Hart – percussion
Other musicians
- Howard Wales – piano
References
- ^ a b c d e Greenwald, Matthew. "Brokedown Palace Review". AllMusic. RoVi Corporation. Retrieved 2026-02-01.
- ^ Jackson 1999, p. 195.
- ^ "Review: The Grateful Dead accidentally invent the alt-country movement on American Beauty". Louder. 2024-11-04. Retrieved 2026-02-01.
- ^ a b Mitchell, Matt (January 13, 2024). "The 20 Greatest Grateful Dead Songs of All Time". Paste Magazine. Retrieved 2026-02-01.
- ^ Hedden, Chris (2025-06-23). "55 Years Later, We're Ranking All 10 Songs From The Grateful Dead's American Beauty Album". ScreenRant. Retrieved 2026-02-01.
- ^ Browne, David; Cummings, Corinne; Grow, Kory; Hermes, Will; Marchese, David; Sheffield, Rob; Wolk, Dougles (2020-08-05). "Jerry Garcia's 50 Greatest Songs". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2026-02-01.
- ^ Cush, Andy. "Grateful Dead: American Beauty / The Angel's Share". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2026-02-01.
Sources
- Jackson, Blair (1999). Garcia: An American Life. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-670-88660-2.