The lyricist who doesn’t play in the band is an interesting case, at least for Rock. There was Pete Brown with Cream/Jack Bruce, Keith Reid for Procol Harum, and King Crimson had Pete Sinfield and then Richard Palmer-James. I’m sure you can come up with others, but probably only Bernie Taupin’s partnership with Elton John is on a par with Hunter and Garcia (and occasionally other GD members.) Hunter could write high-minded stuff that wasn’t pretentious, and had a way with Americana that made originals seem like part of the folk tradition. He lived up to his quote: “What we were doing was almost sacred. The spirit of the times. … there was a time I felt this was the way the world would be going in a spiritual way, and we were an important part of that. I didn’t feel we were a pop music band. I wanted to write a whole different sort of music.” Insofar as lyrics are more explicit than instruments, he made clear the bond between the band and their audience, particularly around the Workingman’s/American Beauty period. When the lyric says “you,” you knew they meant you, personally.

“If I knew the way, I would take you home.”