Brokedown Palace

Written by 
Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir
Tabbed by 
Eyolf Østrem

The second of Dylan’s Grateful Dead covers during the 2023 Japan tour. It is a remarkable song, for two reasons. One is that Dylan tried it three times before he succeeded to get through the whole song. The first attempt, in Tokyo 14 Apr was a complete failure which Dylan ends with the comment “I thought everybody knew this song…!”. The next attempt, two nights later, didn’t go much better, but finally, in Nagoya on the 18th, we got a complete version.

The troubles have to do with the structure of the song. On Grateful Dead’s album American Beauty  where it first appeared, it follows directly from the preceding song, “Ripple”. Ripple is in G, but in first segment of “Brokedown Palace” modulates to F, which is the key of the rest of the song. Furthermore, the song does not have a straightforward verse-refrain structure. There are eight such “segments”, none of them is repeated as a refrain (although one of them repeats the last two lines, so in that sense it works as “the” refrain), and they are played with five different chord sequences – not vastly different, but enough to make it something of a task to navigate through the song, both for the singer and for the band.

G                 Am
Fare thee well my honey
Bb         F            C
 Fare thee well my only true one
G                        Dm
All the birds that were singing
Bb                C      
Have flown except you alone

F

F                               Bb
Going to leave this broke-down palace
F                Dm           Bb          F
 On my hands and knees I will roll, roll, roll
F             Am  Bb               F
Make myself a bed  by the waterside
F           G                  Bb          F
In my time, in my time, I will roll, roll, roll

F         A
In a bed, in a bed
       Bb               F      G
By the waterside I will lay my head
F                   G 
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
   Bb      F
To rock my soul

F        
River gonna take me
Bb6
sweet and sleepy
F                 Dm
Sing me sweet and sleepy
        Bb            F
All the way back back home

       F        A
It's a far gone lullaby
Bb                  F
 Sung many years ago
F                G
Mama, mama, many worlds I've come
Bb                 F
Since I first left home

F           A
Going home, going home
       Bb               F       G
By the waterside I will rest my bones
F                   G
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
   Bb      F
To rock my soul

F                               Bb
Going to plant a weeping willow
F                  Dm           Bb          F
On the banks green edge it will grow, grow, grow
F             Am  Bb            F
Sing a lullaby beside the slow  water
F                  G          Bb          F
Lovers come and go, the river roll, roll, roll

F               A
Fare thee well, fare thee well
  Bb                 F         G
I love you more than words can tell
F                   G
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
   Bb      F
To rock my soul

F               A
Fare thee well, fare thee well
  Bb                 F         G
I love you more than words can tell
F                   G
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
   Bb      F
To rock my soul


F                   G
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
   Bb      F
To rock my soul

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