Terrapin, Some History Behind the Grateful Dead Tune
I did not write this. It was written and posted on Facebook by Scott W. Allen, author of Aces Back to Back: The History of the Grateful Dead.

Although they worked individually, “Terrapin Station Part 1” is the only song that Jerry and Hunter wrote start to finish in a single sitting, the lone example of having words pour effortlessly from Hunter’s inkwell and Garcia’s six-string.
“I was in my studio overlooking the San Francisco Bay, and I sat down in a very inspired frame of mind,” recalled Hunter. “It was a grey day, and the water was being whipped up. There was lightning. The words just came out of this very visual sight. It came rather quickly and easily, I hadn’t been that inspired in years. I knew I had something special.”
Jerry experienced a similar magic while composing the music for “Terrapin Station."
“I’ve written from inspiration...had a song go ‘bing!’ [only] twice. [One was] ‘Terrapin.’”
The “Terrapin” tale is part of an expansive lyric cycle written by Hunter that went mostly unused by the Grateful Dead on the Terrapin Station album (July 1977).
“Jerry set some of the lyrics to music but there just wasn’t enough space for it on the album,” Hunter once lamented. “One of my few regrets is that [Jerry] never wanted to finish it, though [he] approved of the final version I eked out many years later.”
Bobby and Phil and the Terrapin Family Band featuring Nicki Bluhm performed the Terrapin Station album start to finish at the Lockn’ Festival in 2017 and their take on “Terrapin Station Part 1” came close to the completed aggregation that Hunter had envisioned:
If you would like to hear Hunter’s full vision of the “Terrapin” suite, the link below will allow you to access his 1980 album, Jack O’ Roses, which features his complete take on the “Terrapin Station” symphony. Included are several tunes — “Ivory Wheels,” “Rosewood Track” and “Jack O’ Roses” — that bring the colossal tale to a conclusion. Please fast forward to the 26:33 mark to listen to Hunter’s “Terrapin” opus:
There are only two other Grateful Dead songs that Hunter and Garcia were able to write beginning to end in one effort: Jerry wrote the music to “Wharf Rat” (photo of Hunter's handwritten lyrics below) with a single stroke of his brush, and Hunter penned “Box of Rain” for Phil in one breath.
“‘Terrapin’ and ‘Wharf Rat,’” Jerry once observed. “Twice in a lifetime of writing.”
Of Jerry’s reluctance to finish the “Terrapin” suite, Hunter would later explain with his usual eloquence: “Garcia once said, apologetically, ‘I love it, but I’ll never get the time to do it justice.’
“I realized that was true. Time was the one thing [he] never had in the last decade and a half. Supporting the Grateful Dead plus [his] own trip took all there was of that.”
— Scott
Terrapin
if anyone should ask of you
who made this song
say the Jack O’ Roses
and all who played along
who rise, climb, fall to win
Terrapin