Biblical Imagery

• “His inheritance was mine…My father favored Esau, Who was eager to obey…Esau holds a blessing; Brother Esau bears a curse. I would say that the blame is mine But I suspect it’s something worse.” – My Brother Esau
• “The Lord made a lady out of Adam’s rib. Next thing you know you got wimmen’s lib.” – Finance Blues
• “Jehovah’s favorite choir” – The Music Never Stopped
• “I AM” – Let It Grow
• “The sea will part before me…Fire wheel burning in the air” – Estimated Prophet

Epistemic Uncertainty Imagery

• “And I don’t know why I came…I didn’t know a stage-line ran from Hell” – Mexicali Blues
• “I ain’t preaching, cause I don’t know” – Walk In Sunshine
• “But I’d like to know what for” – Bombs Away
• “You don’t know how easy it is.You don’t know how easy it is to love you.” – Easy To Love You
• “They just don’t even know” – Shade of Gray
• “If a reckoning comes, maybe we will know what to do then” – We Can Run But We Can’t Hide
• “Cause I wouldn’t know where to begin” – Hell In A Bucket
• “Maybe they’ll know what to do” – I Need A Miracle
• “Someday I know you’ll satisfy me” – Lazy Lighting
• “If it’s love then how would I know” – Feel Like A Stranger
• “Never could read no road map And I don’t know what the weather might do….Well I never know, Sure don’t know, Never know, Never know,Sure don’t know.” – Saint of Circumstance

Being A Stranger, Being Strange, and Strangeness Imagery

• Feel Like A Stranger
• “A man and a woman come together as strangers.” – Blow Away
• “Little stranger, don’t try to hide now.” – Easy To Love You
• “So strange, you’ll do me all that you do” – Picasso Moon
• “I guess that stranger hadn’t heard the news” – Mexicali Blues
• “We’ll meet strangers and be, together again and again” – Me Without You
• “Too well I know that crowd of strangers.” – Shade of Gray
• “She was a stranger when I woke and saw her face.” – This Time Forever
• “Even though I been a stranger, full of irony and spite ” – A Little Light

 Angel Imagery

• “As well to count the angels dancing on a pin” – Let It Grow
• “As certain as angels Of perpetual flight, When we met, we saw the light.” – This Time Forever
• “You must be the angel I thought I’d never find” – Saint of Circumstance
• “Like an angel, standing in a shaft of light” – Estimated Prophet
• “Fallen Angels of earth have forgotten the sky” – Fly Away

Sky/Fire/Lightning/Thunder Imagery

• “Fallen Angels of earth have forgotten the sky….Fly away, yeah, ride the sky away” – Fly Away
• “But up here in the sky” – Shade of Gray
• “Lord, they’re setting us on fire” – The Music Never Stopped
• “Higher and higher, goin’ straight for the light. Feel the fire, or you’ll feel the fright” – Fly Away
• “Yes Lord, they really light my fire”
• “Like the crack before the thunder, like I really ought to hide” – Picasso Moon
• “There’s a hole in the sky where the light pours in” – We Can Run But We Can’t Hide
• “And I’ll call down thunder and speak the same.As my words fill the sky with flame.” – Estimated Prophet
• “Real as thunder” – Easy To Love You
• “Spinning fire, the lightning calls…Picasso Moon, fall into the sky” – Picasso Moon
• “Like the sound of distant thunder ” – A Little Light
• “Picture a bright blue ball, just spinning, spinnin free, Dizzy with eternity. Paint it with a skin of sky, Brush in some clouds and sea, Call it home for you and me” – Throwing Stones
• “As my words fill the sky with flame” – Estimated Prophet
• “Lazy lightning.Sleepy fire in your eyes.” – Lazy Lighting
• “And listen to the thunder shout” – Let It Grow
• “Water bright as the sky from which it came” – Let It Grow

Sight/Blindness Imagery

• “So I give you my eyes…Please help them to learn as well as to see…Of looking at you looking at me.” – Black-Throated Wind
• “But if we open our eyes, we can open our wings…Hey, and sail out of sight” – Fly Away
• “Maybe a face you’ve never seen” – Lost Sailor
• “So good to see you” – Easy To Love You
• “And I know at a glance you could show me all the sights I’d ever care to see.” – Wrong Way Feelin’
• “I’ve changed the eyes I gaze in” – Bombs Away
• “You can close your eyes, the world is gonna let you” – I Will Take You Home
• “Inside you’re burnin’. I can see clear through” – Feel Like A Stranger
• “Picasso Moon, blinding ball” – Picasso Moon
• “Like a blind man shootin’ pool” – Heaven Help The Fool
• “We’re afraid of our dreams, we’re afraid or too blind….But blindness holds better than chains” – Fly Away
• “We were anything but blind” – This Time Forever

Money Imagery

• “They got ‘em packaged up for love and money…I see your face printed on my money,” – Picasso Moon
• Finance Blues
• “Need that cash to feed that jones” – Throwing Stones

Stones

• “And the politicians throwin’ stones….History’s page will thus be carved in stone….We can leave this place an empty stone” – Throwing Stones
• “Plunging like stones from a slingshot on Mars” – Black-Throated Wind
• “Mighty day, yeah the stone rolls away” – Fly Away
• “Time sits like a stone” – Shade of Gray
• “You’re as mighty as the flower that will grow the stones away. ” – A Little Light

Roads/Highway/Street Imagery

• “Long is the road” – I Will Take You Home
• “There’s a band out on the highway.They’re high-steppin’ into town.” – The Music Never Stopped
• “Rainbow’s end down that highway,Where ocean breezes blow….Afternoon, the streets turn grey” – Estimated Prophet
• “Never could read no road map” – Saint of Circumstance
• “But I’m here by the road, Bound to the load….The highway, the moon, the clouds, and the stars.” – Black-Throated Wind
• “Just watchin’ flies and children on the street….I went down to those dusty streets” – Mexicali Blues
• “But out in the streets Well it’s night time on Broadway.” – Shade of Gray
• “This could be just another highway, coiled up in the night. ” – A Little Light
• “It strolls the sidewalks and it rolls the streets, Staking turf, dividing up meat” – Throwing Stones

Moon

• “Ooh, where’s the moon?” – Lost Sailor
• “And comes the moonrise, when the dew falls” – Easy To Love you
• “The highway, the moon, the clouds, and the stars” – Black-Throated Wind
• “Blue moon” – Falling
• Picasso Moon
• “Sun went down in honey. Moon came up in wine.” – The Music Never Stopped

Wind Imagery

• “Today I went walking in the amber wind” – We Can Run But We Can’t Hide
• Black-Throated Wind
• “And there’s a ghost wind blowin’” – Lost Sailor
• “While I was chasin’ dreams? Driven by the wind, Like the dust that blows around…When that wind blows, And the darkness starts to fall” – Saint of Circumstance
• “Or it could have been the wind.” – The Music Never Stopped

Blood Imagery

• “You must mean water when you beg for blood” – Blow Away
• “The silent war that bloodied both our hands” – My Brother Esau
• “blood was on my mind” – Mexicali Blues

Town/City Imagery

• “She said her name was Billy Jean and she was fresh in town…Then a man rode into town some thought he was the law” – Mexicali Blues
• “When she’s in town, I’ll never be alone.” – Gloria Monday
• “There’s a band out on the highway.They’re high-steppin’ into town.” – The Music Never Stopped
• “She comes from a town where they call her the woodcutter’s daughter” – Let It Grow
• “I want a mighty city and I think I want it here…Salt Lake City,  that town of righteousness and fame” – Salt Lake City

While this is more thorough than the feature I did on Robert Hunter’s imagery, the following still applies: Please note that this is in no way exhaustive, I’m sure many more examples could be found to back up these common images–this is just a small sampling.

Imagery: Birds

• “Leaving Texas Fourth day of July Sun so hot, clouds so low The eagles filled the sky” – in Jack Straw
• “With the scream of an eagle on the fly” – Black Muddy River
• “wondering where the nuthatch winters Wings a mile long just carried the bird away” – in Eyes of the World
• Bird Song
• “Bird are winging” – Box of Rain

Imagery: Card Games and The Ups an Downs of Gambling

• “All that I am asking for is ten gold dollars I could pay you back with one good hand You can look around about the wide world over You’ll never find another honest man.” – in Loser
  
• “Since it cost a lot to win and even more to lose You and me bound to spend some time wondering what to chose…I been gambling hereabouts for ten good solid years If I told you all that went down it would burn off both your ears” – in Deal
• “Sitting plush with a royal flush Aces back to back” – Ramble on Rose
• “Watch each card you play and play it slow” – Deal
• “Come on, boys and wager if you have got the bind If you got a dollar, boys lay it on the line” – Candyman
• “When all the cards are down there’s nothing left to see” – in Stella Blue

Imagery: Working Men and Working The Land

• “Gone are the days when the ox fall down he’d take up the yoke and plow the fields around” – in Brown-Eyed Woman
• “Been chippin’ up rocks for the great highway Live five years if I take my time” – Easy Wind
• “Gotta go down to the Cumberland Mine That’s where I mainly spend my time Make good money five dollars a day Made any more I might move away” – Cumberland Blues

Imagery: Roads and Rivers

• You can’t overlook the lack, Jack of any other highway to ride” – New Speedway Boogie
• Lazy River Road
• So Many Roads
• Shakedown Street
• “In a bed, in a bed by the waterside I will lay my head Listen to the river sing sweet songs to rock my soul” – Brokedown Palace
• “Sleepin’ by the river just like he usually done….Riding down the river in an  old canoe” – Alligator
• “Chicago, New York, Detroit, it’s all on the same street” – Truckin’
• “Black muddy river roll on forever” – Black Muddy River
• “Till the morning comes like  a highway sign” – Till The Morning Comes
• Shakedown Street

Imagery: Rain and Sun

• “Sun goin’ up and then the sun it goin’ down” – Black Peter
• “Maybe the sun is shining…or rain is falling from a heavy sky….Walk into splintered sunlight….Just a box of rain” – Box of Rain
• “All I know the sun don’t shine, the rain refuse to fall” – So many Roads
• “Ill show you snow and rain” – Bird Song
• “Ran into a rainstorm…It was all night pouring, pouring rain But not a drop on me” – Bertha
• “Sun so hot, clouds so low” – Jack Straw
• Mission in the Rain

Imagery: Poverty

• “Lott poor  man make a five-dollar bill Keep him happy all the time Some other fellow making nothing at all And you can hear him cryin’” – Cumberland Blues
• “Got no dime but I got time to hear this story” – Wharf Rat
• “Take a look at poor peter” – Black Peter
• “Rich man step on my poor head” – Tennessee Jed

Imagery: Flowers

• Scarlet Begonias
• “Wildflower seed in the sand and wind” – Franklin’s Tower
• “Sugar magnolia blossom’s blooming…Sweet blossom come on under the willow” – Sugar Magnolia
• “Blooming like a red rose” – Sunshine Daydream

Imagery: Transportation (Trains and Ships)

• “Now he’s gone Lord, he’s gone Like a steam locomotive rolling down the track” – in He’s Gone
• “Drivin’ that train” – Casey Jones
• Ship of Fools
• “Gotta get to Tulsa First train we can ride” – Jack Straw
• “It like a diesel train…And when that train rolls in” – They Love Each Other

Please note that this is in no way exhaustive, I’m sure many more examples could be found to back up these common images–this is just a small sampling.