Songfacts®:

• Dead rhythm guitarist Bob Weir wrote the song when he was 20 years old. The band released it as a single two months before putting it out on their second album, Anthem Of The Sun. On the original single the Grateful Dead were listed as songwriters, but on the album it's properly listed as just Weir.
• The lyrics "in the sweet by and by" reference a Christian hymn by that title from 1868.
• Over the course of the song there are some abrupt, brief breaks in the music. During recording, Bob Weir said he wanted those pauses to sound of "thick air." The strange request compounded with all the other odd experimentation of this and the other Dead songs irritated studio producer Dave Hassinger so much that he left the scene. David Dodd at Dead.net believes this moment occurred just before the lyrics "my how love you are, my dear" at about 1:32 in the song.
• "Born Cross-Eyed" was the B-side to the "Dark Star" single.