Grateful Dead's "Casey Jones"

An oft-repeated line in the song is “And you know that notion just crossed my mind.”

What notion would that be?

Driving that train, high on cocaine
Casey Jones you’d better watch your speed
Trouble ahead, trouble behind
And you know that notion just crossed my mind

Sometimes Capt’n Trips sang the line as “And you know that notion just cost my mind”

I think it refers to the use of cocaine. Not as a matter of coincidence, I usually listen to some Dead while posting on the SDMB. As a matter of coincidence, the song that came up by itself while writing this post is, “Casey Jones”

“…high on cocaine.”

I don’t know but I’ll ask my cousin; she followed them and Phish around the country for several years.

She turned into a vegan and preached about all the toxins and nitrates in stuff like bacon, while chain smoking cigarettes and doing all kinds of street drugs.

Maybe it has something to do with being an idiot?

Well, the straightforward syntax of the lyric would suggest that the notion that just crossed his mind is that there is both trouble ahead and trouble behind. Makes sense to me, especially if you consider Jones’ ride not only in itself, but as a metaphor for a life.

This may also be of interest: Who was the real Casey Jones? - The Straight Dope

The notion of driving the train high on cocaine.

I always interpreted “that notion” to mean to watch his speed. I.e. - SLOW DOWN!!!

Also, while I may be in the minority, I think the GD never meant to imply that Casey Jones, the actual real railroad engineer mentioned in the song, was the guy using cocaine. I always interpreted this as (of all things from this band) an anti-drug song. Cocaine was just coming into vogue in the early 1970’s, and it seems to me that the song is comparing cocaine users and their reckless amp-ed up behavior to a railway car careening towards an ugly crash. And the legend of Jones’ tragic end was a well-known folk legend at the time, so it made for a good metaphor.
Maybe it’s not preaching complete abstinence (as I think Jerry was busted for coke sometime after the song became popular), but perhaps moderation, or caution. Coke certainly didn’t mesh well with the relaxed, laid back, easy-going vibe of the Dead’s music. That’s more weed, hashish and shrooms music.

I didn’t stop to think about the lyrics until recently, but that’s the conclusion I came to. Before that I just wondered why the heck they were saying the historical Casey Jones was on coke.

I’ve always figured it was the notion of “trouble ahead, trouble behind”. Knowing you are screwed no matter what you do.

I prefer, “Monkey and the Engineer”.

I remember someone from the band, probably lyricist Robert Hunter, said they tried to find other words to rhyme with “train” such as “propane”. But none as well as “high on cocaine”.

I saw many dozens of Dead shows and still see shows from the surviving members more than a few times a year. Robert Hunter wrote those lyrics and they had nothing to do with the real Casey Jones. Like many of his lyrics they are meant to evoke feelings rather than have a specific meaning. It’s totally open to your interpretation. As I recall from a Hunter interview by Alan Jackson, he meant it to be an anti-cocaine song and the part about Casey Jones was meant to be allegorical. The meter and rhyme fit.

That was a cover song that the Dead performed. Jesse Fuller wrote those lyrics.

If I wasn’t drunk, I’d feel like I just had My Ass Handed To Me. But I’m sure you didn’t mean it like that…

As for “Monkey”, its just such a happy song.

Of course I didn’t mean it like that, Bro.

Monkey is a great song. I heard the Grateful Dead play it at the Inglewood Forum in 1990 with Bob Dylan gusting in. I was front row center on the rail.

I enjoy a lot of Dead music. Virtually all of their songs about drugs or alcohol really condemn the usage. Wharf Rat, Casey Jones, Brokedown Palace, Birdsong. Same with the Rolling Stones. Listen closely to Sticky Fingers and virtually every song on the album deeply condemns the ravages of drug usage.

These guys knew from experience what it did to the band members who died or were impossible to work with due to drugs.