Bonnie Dobson
"
Morning Dew", also known as "
(Walk Me Out in the) Morning Dew", is a
post-apocalyptic folk rock song written by
Canadian folk singer Bonnie Dobson and made famous by the
Grateful Dead.
The song is a dialogue between the last man and woman left alive
following an apocalyptic catastrophe: Dobson has stated that the initial
inspiration for "Morning Dew" was the film
On the Beach which is focused on the survivors of virtual global annihilation by
nuclear holocaust.
The actual writing of the song occurred in 1961 while Dobson was
staying with a friend in Los Angeles: Dobson would recall how the guests
at her friend's apartment were speculating about a nuclear war's
aftermath and "after everyone went to bed, I sat up and suddenly I just
started writing this song [although] I had never written [a song] in my
life".
Dobson premiered "Morning Dew" in her set at the inaugural
Mariposa Folk Festival that year with the song's first recorded version being on Dobson's
At Folk City live album in 1962. Dobson would not record a studio version of the song until 1969, that being for her
Bonnie Dobson album.(Wikipedia)
"Morning Dew" was not published until 1964 when
Jac Holzman of
Elektra Records contacted Dobson with an offer to sign her as a songwriter as Elektra artist
Fred Neil had heard "Morning Dew" and wished to record it. The first studio recording of "Morning Dew" appeared on the 1964 album
Tear Down The Walls by Fred Neil and
Vince Martin. It was this version which introduced the song to
Tim Rose
who in 1966 recorded "Morning Dew" for his self-titled debut album
after soliciting permission to revise the song with a resultant
co-writing credit. Dobson agreed without having any intended revision
specified and was subsequently much discomforted to learn that the sole
lyrical revision in Rose's version was that the original line "Take me
for a walk in the morning dew" became "Walk me out in the morning dew", a
change already apparent in Fred Neil's recording of the song. As of the
February 1967 release of the Tim Rose single version of "Morning Dew"
the standard songwriting credit for the song has been Bonnie Dobson and
Tim Rose: Dobson, who in 1998 averred she'd never met Rose (d. 2002),
has stated that she's received 75% songwriting royalty as she retains
sole writing credit for the song's music.
Robert Plant
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