Heard this the other night driving late and had the same thought

Jerry Garcia wrote this before the Zodiac, but he always equated the song with the Zodiac…

As Garcia soon discovered, the song also tapped a deep vein of American paranoia:
“I wrote that song when the Zodiac Killer was out murdering in San Francisco. Every night I was coming home from the studio, and I’d stop at an intersection and look around, and if a car pulled up, it was like, ‘This is it. I’m gonna die now.’ It became a game. Every night I was conscious of that thing, and the refrain got to be so real to me: ‘Please don’t murder me…’ It was a coincidence in a way, but it was also the truth at the moment.”

The Zodiac Killer became known in August ’69 after sending messages to the newspapers about his killings; he became even more well-known in October after another letter to the Chronicle proving he’d killed someone in a car one recent night in San Francisco, and threatening to kill more. He continued to send letters with more threats over the next year, though his actual victims seem to have been few, and he eventually vanished.
So the Zodiac actually emerged some months after the song was finished – but, as we’ll see, Garcia immediately made the connection between the killer and the song in live shows that October, when Zodiac frenzy gripped San Francisco. (He was recording pedal steel in the studio for CS&N on October 24; and on October 26 he mentions the Zodiac and “paranoid fantasies” onstage; so his memory of driving home in fear seems to be quite literal.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKRUfVlZJok

Thanks Boilermaker & Curious Cat,
Interesting!

Zam*

Riders on the Storm, by the Doors. Didn’t come out until 1971, but always seemed haunting.

https://youtu.be/lS-af9Q-zvQ

Zamantha*!

Excellent song! And here is a cool fun fact… The sweater that Morrison is wearing on the Waiting for the Sun album belonged to my guitar teacher and mentor, Glen Buxton (RIP).

Robert Hunter Garcia’s songwriter wrote the lyrics to the song. I don’t know if Garcia played the song to Hunter or Hunter wrote the lyrics and Garcia came up with a melody. I know hunter spent time in England where he wrote a lot of the songs that were on American Beauty.

Robert Hunter Garcia’s songwriter wrote the lyrics to the song. I don’t know if Garcia played the song to Hunter or Hunter wrote the lyrics and Garcia came up with a melody. I know hunter spent time in England where he wrote a lot of the songs that were on American Beauty.

And, of course, Hunter was discussed for quite a while as possibly having some involvement in the Zodiac case.

Having the last name of HUNTER is interesting, and he lived near Washington & Cherry, but I think it was later discovered that he did not move there until shortly after the Stine murder. The Grateful Dead used to be called the Zodiacs, and the band always seemed to have a great interest in the case.

Anyways… The Doors and Grateful Dead are both great bands.

Excellent song! And here is a cool fun fact… The sweater that Morrison is wearing on the Waiting for the Sun album belonged to my guitar teacher and mentor, Glen Buxton (RIP).

Cool.

A lot of people say Freddy Mercury had the best rock voice ever, and I agree, but I’d rate Jim Morrison very high too.

A lot of people say Freddy Mercury had the best rock voice ever, and I agree, but I’d rate Jim Morrison very high too.

Check out a guy named Dax Riggs. He is my favorite musician. Somewhat of a modern day Morrison, but his lyrics are even darker and he has the most amazing voice I have ever heard.