The Grateful Dead’s “Casey Jones” is not the old railroad ballad but a new song that borrows its hero’s name. The music is by Jerry Garcia and the words by Robert Hunter, and it appeared on the band’s 1970 album Workingman’s Dead, the record on which the Dead turned toward concise, roots-grounded songwriting.
Hunter built the song around a line that had simply come to him — “driving that train, high on cocaine” — and kept the drug reference despite its being risky for radio at the time. The result is a sardonic portrait of a doomed run: a reckless engineer, a sleeping switchman, two trains on one track. It keeps only the danger and the name from the historical story.
Garcia had come up through bluegrass and old-time music, and Workingman’s Dead reflected that grounding; “Casey Jones” has since been taken up by string bands drawn to the Dead’s deep roots-music streak.
