This song was written for Phil Lesh's father who was dying. Lesh wanted a song to sing to his father before he died. He wrote the music and recorded it and gave the tape to Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. Hunter listened to the music and wrote the lyrics after listening to the tape only a few times. Lesh would practice singing the song in the car on the way to the hospital. He was able to sing the song to his father before he died.
This song was often sung in response to Deadheads chanting "We Want Phil!" It was also the last song the Grateful Dead ever played. On July 9, 1995, they played it as a second encore after "Black Muddy River" during their last show, which took place at Soldier Field in Chicago.
Robert Hunter says in his lyrics anthology, which is named after this song, that "If if a lyric wrote itself, this did-as fast as the pen would pull."
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