It Must Have Been the Roses – Robert Hunter acoustic guitar & vocal solo cover by Jack Straw

First released on Robert Hunter's Tales Of The Great Rum Runners in 1974. Then by Jerry Garcia on his 1976 Reflections LP. The Grateful Dead included it on the Steal Your Face album later in '76 as well.

It is often credited as a Garcia/Hunter song, however, Garcia's is not listed as a co-composer on his own Reflections album. It is purely a Robert Hunter creation. One of two songs the Dead did with Hunter's music.

Not a lot of popular covers have been done of it. Maybe necrophilia is a topic other musicians do not want to touch (no pun intended). Still a great song.

Lyrics:
Annie laid her head down in the roses
She had ribbons, ribbons, ribbons in her long brown hair
I don't know, maybe it was the roses
All I know, I could not leave her there

I don't know, it must have been the roses
The roses or the ribbons in her long brown hair
I don't know, maybe it was the roses
All I know, I could not leave her there

Ten years the waves rolled the ships home from the sea
Thinking well how it may blow in all good company
If I tell another what your own lips told to me
Let me lay 'neath the roses and my eyes no longer see

One pane of glass in the window
No one is complaining, though, come in and shut the door
Faded is the crimson from the ribbons that she wore
And it's strange how no one comes round any more

@jackstrawvibes