Box of Rain

Lesh composed the music and sang it, the first Grateful Dead record with him as lead vocalist. Hunter said Lesh had composed a piece with every vocal nuance but the words. On the record Lesh plays acoustic guitar, Dave Torbert plays bass, David Nelson plays lead guitar and Garcia plays piano. Hunter said that by box of rain he meant the world we live on, and that ball of rain did not have the right ring.

It debuted on 17 September 1970 at the Fillmore East and was then dropped for nearly two years. It was revived on 20 March 1986 in Hampton, Virginia, and was the final encore on 9 July 1995 at Soldier Field, the last song the band played at a concert. It was also the first song at the opening Fare Thee Well show on 3 July 2015. Phish opened their concert in Albany, New York, on 25 October 2024 with it, in tribute to Lesh. Rolling Stone ranked it 364 on its 2024 list of the 500 greatest songs.