The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #3132   Message #797113
Posted By: GUEST,Bruce, Nonmember
04-Oct-02 - 07:13 PM
Thread Name: The death of Louis Collins
Subject: RE: The death of Louis Collins
I went looking for the lyrics, some of which I could not quite understand from the recording. I found this explanation of the "dressed in red" business:

"A posting I found from Catherine Yronwode helpfully explains a bit more about the reference to "dressed in red":
"White folks, accostomed to black being the colour worn both for funerals and for post-funereal mourning, sometimes think that references in blues songs to dressing in red signify a party atmosphere or happiness over a person's death. Not so. In Africa, and among African-Americans in earlier times, drssing in red has been a funerary custom. As such, it is reminiscent of burial with red ochre pigment, which was used among neolithic poeople (the "red paint people") the world around. The religious idea behind this custom is that as a baby is born from the mother's womb through blood, so will rebirth occur (after interrment in Mother Earth) through blood."

I found this here. It seems to be a Grateful Dead website of some sort.