"Beat It Down the Line" is a country-blues song written by

Jesse Fuller Jesse Fuller (March 12, 1896 – January 29, 1976) was an American one-man band musician, best known for his song "San Francisco Bay Blues". Early life Fuller was born in Jonesboro, Georgia, near Atlanta, United States. He was sent by his moth ...

and first recorded in 1961. The lyrics mention "Joe Brown's Coal Mine", which refer to Joseph E. Brown, four times

governor of Georgia The governor of Georgia is the head of government of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and the commander-in-chief of the state's Georgia National Guard, National Guard, when not in federal service, and Georgia State Defense Force, State Defense Fo ...

and president of the Dade Coal Company who ran numerous coal mines in the state. The song was covered by the

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...

and was one of the first songs the band played live, even being performed in their pre-Dead

jug band A jug band is a musical band, band employing a jug (instrument), jug player and a mix of conventional and homemade instruments. These homemade instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making sound, like the washtub bass, washbo ...

incarnation as Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions in 1964 and appeared on their first album. It remained in the band's sets throughout their career, being performed at least 323 times between 3/12/66 and 10/3/94, every year except 1976 and 1995.

References

{{authority control Grateful Dead songs 1961 songs