1969 Song of the Day–“China Cat Sunflower” by The Grateful Dead. China Cat Sunflower is on The Grateful Dead’s  third album Aoxomoxoa.  The lyrics were written by Robert Hunter- who wrote the lyrics to a lot of their songs- and the music by Jerry Garcia with Garcia singing the song Hunter had written the song a couple years earlier and it would be the first one he wrote for The Dead. Since the death of Jerry Garcia and the demise of The Grateful Dead- Hunter is still writing songs with many artists including Bob Dylan. Over the years it was a popular song for them in concert-they would play it over 500 times. They would usually sing China Cat Sunflower and I Know Your Rider paired together. In concert it was the 5th most played song by the band and the one that Jerry Garcia sang the most.  The song lyrically makes references to a few literary works- Alice In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Krazy Kat by George Herriman and Polka by Dame Edith Sitwell.