would like to not be stating there, comes rushing through to me. I understand dogs. I can talk to babies." Many of the lyrics to this song are reminiscent of the song "Ripple", which opens the second side of the album. Images of water abound in both, as well as references to "broken" or "hand-me-down" thoughts. According to Hunter: "By 'box of rain,' I meant the world we live on, but 'ball' of rain didn't have the right ring to my ear, so box it became, and 'I don't know who put it there.'" The line "moth before a flame" echoes several proverbs, such as "the fate of the moth in the flame"—Aeschylus, Fragments (Fragment #288). The line "long long time to be gone and a short time to be there" echoes the old-time classic "Little Birdie", which includes the line "I've a short while to be here, and a long time to be gone." In one of Carl Hiaasen's novels, the main character is in a shelter for children stranded by a hurricane, and in a particularly tender moment, sings "Box of Rain" to the child. Performance history "Box of Rain" debuted on September 17, 1970, at the Fillmore East in New York City during the acoustic portion of the show. That performance was (perhaps significantly given the song's emotional burden for Lesh) its sole appearance for nearly two years. The Grateful Dead reintroduced it during the fall of 1972 and played it on and off for the remainder of the year and 1973 before dropping it again. Between 1976 and 1985, Lesh seldom sang with the group (confining his contributions to harmony vocals on "Truckin'") due to vocal cord damage from improper singing. Over 750 concerts after its last performance, "Box of Rain" was permanently revived on March 20, 1986 at the Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia. After that, the song was frequently played in response to chants from the audience. Before the death of Jerry Garcia, "Box of Rain" was the last song ever performed live at a Grateful Dead concert, during the final encore at Soldier Field in Chicago on July 9, 1995. Symbolically, it was the first song played at the first Fare Thee Well show at Soldier Field on July 3, 2015, bringing fans full circle. Hunter recorded the song on his Jack O'Roses album (1980). Reception In 2021, Rolling Stone ranked the song at