Talk:I Know You Rider

"whatsa rider"? whatsa "know"?
Scuse me if I just missed it, but I've been doing a lot of reading this article, and still don't know what a "rider" is.

I THINK it is a sexual partner, therefore the phrase "I know you rider" means "I know your sexual partner". "I know your STEADY sexual partner" seems implied, since blues is a language that assumes people have a main lover and some on the side.

The "know" part is fuzzy too. Did they mean "know" in the biblical sense? Did they mean they could predict the rider's actions?

These things need to be addressed in a 'pedia right up front - doncha think? Pb8bije6a7b6a3w (talk) 17:10, 11 August 2013 (UTC)


 * Robert Johnson seemed to mean the word in that sense in his "Travel(l)ing Riverside Blues": https://www.robertjohnsonbluesfoundation.org/track/traveling-riverside-blues/ . Acwilson9 (talk) 08:42, 23 November 2021 (UTC)

Relationship to CC Rider / See See Rider / Easy Rider
I was just listening to Odetta's "Easy Rider", which is a close relative of See See Rider, and noticed that it contains the lyrics "If I was a headlight on some western train / I'd shine my light on cool Colorado Springs / I'd shine my light on cool Colorado Springs", which is of course unmistakably similar to I Know You Rider's "I wish I was a headlight, on a north bound train / I wish I was a headlight, on a north bound train / I'd shine my light through cool Colorado rain".

Anyone know an explicit connection between the two?

There's also some material in the See See Rider page explaining what "rider" can mean, maybe answering some of Pb8bije6a7b6a3w's questions.

- Kenahoo (talk) 04:25, 5 January 2024 (UTC)

Other versions
Judy Henske 1963 2001:56A:F03F:5200:7824:F2E7:4A3B:1C6D (talk) 01:21, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

Untitled
I read somewhere that the song goes back to before the Civil War and is about a slave running down railroad tracks singing to keep a steady pace. "Rider" refers to the horseman who would whip the slaves as he patrolled the cotton fields. When singing the song around a campfire and the plantation owner asked who this "Rider" was, they would say it was a nickname for a girlfriend. The Grateful Dead version on their "Vintage Dead" album is labelled traditional (no certain author) and very up-tempo (like a train) and seems to portray running for one's freedom down while being chased by hounds. So "rider" has a double meaning. This makes more sense than being a love song. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Grateful Ed Zeppelin (talk • contribs) 15:39, 2 March 2024 (UTC)

not associated with any particuar band
That's bullsh*t. by far this song is associated with the grateful dead. looking at setlist.fm it's been logged in setlists ca. 5000 times, half of them are either the Grateful Dead, Dead members' bands, reconstituted Dead bands (e.g., Further, Dead & Co.) or Grateful Dead cover bands. Of the first 33 listed:
 * 3 Grateful Dead 565
 * 4 Dark Star Orchestra 435
 * 5 Phil Lesh & Friends 329
 * 7 Ratdog 149
 * 9 Playing Dead 102
 * 10 Forgotten Space 82
 * 11 Joe Russo's Almost Dead 77
 * 13 Dead & Company 63
 * 14 Furthur 61
 * 16 Uncle John's Band 57
 * 17 Deadicated 54
 * 20 Bob Weir and Wolf Bros 39
 * 23 Grateful Shred 32
 * 25 Stu Allen & Mars Hotel 27
 * 26 Mickey Hart 25
 * 26 Splintered Sunlight 25
 * 29 The Dead 22
 * 33 The Other Ones 18

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Vargob (talk • contribs) 16:29, 2 March 2024 (UTC)
 * In the first place, the Grateful Dead's version isn't widely known outside of the Dead's fanbase...which is to say that it's not like they (or anybody else) has ever had a defining hit version of the song that the majority of the general public would recognise. And secondly, setlist.fm isn't a reliable source for Wikipedia due to it being made up of user-generated content, as per WikiProject_Albums/Sources. So, either way, to say that the song is "not overly identified with any particular artist" is probably fine. --Kohoutek1138 (talk) 10:42, 4 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Please look at citation one which is the one that supports the statement IKYR "is not overly identified with any particular artist." That opens to a page in a chapter titled "The Grateful Dead: Alchemy, or Rock & Roll Utopia."  A such, there is no support in [1] for the notion that, IKYR "is not overly identified with any particular artist," since its only about the Dead's IKYR. That's removed as there's no support for it and apparently is only based on someone's opinion....mine's just as valid that that is not true without any other support. Vargob (talk) 00:47, 29 March 2024 (UTC)