Songs › Grateful Dead › Brokedown Palace
Grateful Dead
Brokedown Palace
The song the band used to say goodnight. It did not need to change.
Hollow marks: the other 49 scored songs · Hatched band: the Crossover Zone
The case
The strongest honest argument for each side, then the ruling.
The Garcia argument
It began in the acoustic sets of 1970 and later became an electric encore, and it carried over. A 1980 live version runs a minute and a half longer than the record, and the difference is all in pacing. Like Ripple, it does not depend on its recording.
The Lennon argument
Hunter wrote the lyric in an afternoon and Garcia set it as a slow hymn with harmony vocals. There is no improvised section. After 1974 it had one job, the last song of the night, and it did that job the same way each time.
The verdict: GLI 84
A finished song performed as written. It sits between Ripple and Box of Rain: more settled in performance than the first, less intricate than the second.
What is fixed
- Melody
- Lyric
- Harmony vocals
- Form
What is open
- Pacing
- Acoustic or electric
Evidence dimensions
Each runs from 0, Garcia, to 100, Lennon. Their weighted composite is 83. The published GLI is 84, 1 higher after comparison with neighbouring songs. The allowed margin is 6.
A hymn-like form with nothing unmeasured.
Used as the closing song for fifteen years and played alike each time.
Lyric and melody were finished before the session.
Composed. There is no solo section to speak of.
No one recording owns it.
Transformational tolerance
It moved from acoustic sets to electric encores without changing.
Confidence: 82%
One performance count was found, and sources disagree on the last performance.
Keep arguing
Every placement is relative. These are the songs this one was measured against.
Cross-band twin
Closest song from the other band
Within You Without YouGLI 83One Beatle, a room of Indian musicians, and a string score written to imitate them.Compare the twoEditorial counterpart
Chosen because it argues back
In My LifeGLI 89Two short, fully written songs about looking back. Only the Beatles' has a passage that cannot be played as recorded.
Compare the twoThe record
- Hunter wrote the lyric in London in one afternoon, along with Ripple and To Lay Me Down.Source ↗
- After 1974 it appeared almost only as the last song of the night.Source ↗
- The Dead Set live version from October 1980 runs 5:42 against 4:09 in the studio.Source ↗
- The studio track adds guest pianist Howard Wales.Source ↗
Where the sources disagree
- Last performance: 25 June 1995 (JamBase) or December 1994 (deaddisc).
- Only one performance count was found (setlist.fm).
Catalog facts
- Catalog no.
- GLI·GD·016
- Artist
- Grateful Dead
- Writers
- Jerry Garcia / Robert Hunter
- Release
- American Beauty (1970)
- Released
- 1 November 1970
- Duration
- 4:09
- Performed
- 221 times (setlist.fm)
- First played
- 18 August 1970
- Last played
- 25 June 1995
Sources
- Wikipedia: Brokedown Palace (song)
- dead.net: Greatest Stories Ever Told, Brokedown Palace
- deaddisc: Brokedown Palace
Classified 5 October 2026