“Cassidy” by The Grateful Dead

Bob Weir wrote the music for "Cassidy" and John Perry Barlow the words, and the Grateful Dead made it a harmony song, usually sung in two parts. It made its live debut on March 23, 1974, at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California, and it turned up on the Dead's Reckoning and Without a Net, where Brent Mydland sings it with Weir; it also appears on Weir's own album, Ace.

The title honors a girl born in 1970 to a Dead crew member and Weir's former housemate, but the lyric casts a wider net. It nods to Neal Cassady, who ran with the Beats in the 1950s and with the 1960s Acid Test scene the Dead grew out of, and part of it came from the death of Barlow's father. The Economist quoted it in Barlow's obituary.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.