The Grateful Dead: Bertha Meaning

Bertha Lyrics

I had a hard run
Running from your window
I was all night running, running, running
I wonder if you care?
I had a run-in
Run around and run down
Run around a corner
Run smack into a tree

I had to move
Really had to move
That's why if...

1. anonymous

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   May 18th 2012 !⃝

   bertha was also some kinda saint chic around Germany. in short she was related to the dukes of lorraine, had properties aka well off. She married a pagan who was killed in battle then devoted her life to raising her son a christian. founded many hospice for the poor. visited rome then gave away all thier possessions and became hermits near germany.
   from the pocket books of saints abridged edition by john j. delaney. i was thumbing threw and thought hey shit could be the origin gotta hear again and now im on blogging knee.maybe it ties this way maybe its about a broken heroin dealing fan.
2. anonymous

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   Apr 15th 2011 !⃝

   I agree on the electric fan interpretation. To that one idiot who said "drug dealer"... uhmmm can you be a little less cliche'. Not everything the dead wrote was about drugs you numb nuts moron.
3. anonymous

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   Jan 26th 2011 !⃝

   When the band lived at 710 Haight Ashbury they had a large, mechanical fan named Bertha that wobbled and would "move" across the floor.
   
   Why was it named Bertha? Don't know, but I retrived the following on the name "Bertha" from behindthename.com:
   
   Originally a short form of Germanic names ... also appears in southern Germanic legends (often spelled Perchta or Berchta) belonging to a goddess of animals and weaving.
   
   Independent Thinker
4. outrage....

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   Mar 7th 2010 !⃝

   Bertha is their heroin dealer.
5. CHAD

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   Oct 2nd 2008 !⃝

   I was told by a reliable source that this song is not about a woman named Bertha, but rather a large industrial sized fan they used to circulate the air in their rehearsal space. The fan was out of balance, and would vibrate, and "crawl" across the floor. They called it Big Bertha. Sorry to ruin it for any hardcore deadheads that assumed, as I did,that there really was a living breathing Bertha that inspired this one.Any similarities, or references to an actual woman are purely metaphorical.

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