What good is spilling blood? It will not grow a thing

I would never argue with anyone who says Workingman's or American Beauty, but my favorite Dead studio album for personal listening has always been Blues for Allah.  I feel very at home within the sound of this record.  This afternoon I was feeling at home with it in my Listening Cave (on an LP passed on by a college roommate who did not own a turntable; thanks, Obie) when I noticed that the inner sleeve helpfully provides Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian translations of the title lyric:

Just in case you needed to know. 

Who knows all the lyrics to "Blues For Allah" off the top of their head?  Like nobody, I'll bet.  There are some real Hunter gems are buried in there, though: Let's see with our heart / these things our eyes have seen / and know the truth will still lie / somewhere in between, and so on.

I also had forgotten and/or never knew that the songwriting credits for the instrumental portions of the album are more finely sliced than most heads (or me, at least) probably think:

Every instrumentalist but Mickey got a credit for Slipknot, but it's nice to see that Donna got one for Sand Castles & Glass Camels -- there's a good one for GD Trivia Night.

The thousand stories have / come round to one again.