| Grateful Dead – Box Of Rain Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Don't underestimate the wisdom of a child.... Children carry wisdom... They often lose it as they get older. You might have lost it yourself...! |
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| Grateful Dead – Cosmic Charlie Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Cosmic Charlie is the Dead poking fun at some of their own (psychedelically challenged) fans... The thing is, when you are trippin' on acid a lot, you tend to get "concerned about the deep unreal" a little too much. And you don't pay enough attention to the basics and the nitty gritty of daily life. I grew up in the 70's and I remember guys that had blown their minds with too much acid. And had kinda lost their grip on reality. Fit the description of "Cosmic Charlie" perfectly. We used to call these folks "burn outs" because something in their brain got fried... The ones I remember were very dependent on family members to take care of them as otherwise they would have ended up homeless. So think about a "space cadet" acid head that took it too far "out there" and has lost his or her grip on consensual reality and then some of these lyrics start to make sense, like: "Go on home your mama's calling you." - Childlike and dependent. Rosy red and electric blue I bought you a paddle for your paper canoe - Living in fantasy land. Say you'll come back when you can, whenever your airplane happens to land - Flying high in the chemical skies? You ever coming back down? Maybe I'll be back here, too. It all depends on what's with you. - I'll be here whenever you come down from your cosmic acid trip... Then there's that incredibly classic line: "I just wonder if you shouldn't feel, Less concerned about the deep unreal". - Having tripped on acid a couple hundred times, I can tell you that when you are on a STRONG psychedelic kick, you become VERY concerned about the deep unreal and NOT very concerned about basic day to day survival issues, like even food and shelter become secondary.... The very first word is "How do you do?", The last "Go home your mama's callin' you." Calling you, calling you, calling you, calling you, Go on home your mama's calling you. - This last section is like they're singing to the person that's taken too much acid "Just relax man, you'll be allright" go on back to a space of safety (home), addressing the Cosmic Acid tripper like if they are a child. (If you've ever been with someone who is tripping heavily on acid, they ARE vulnerable like a child.... Anyone who's done A LOT of psychedelics will understand this song. However, it's not something I recommend (other than in moderation). You gotta be VERY strong to handle messing with your psyche that heavily... Hope this helps.... |
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| Grateful Dead – Lost Sailor Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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This song always reminded me of folks that took too much acid over the years and kinda LOST touch with reality. Lost Sailor... You're a lost sailor, been away too long at sea. Now the shorelines beckon, there is a price for being free. (meaning there's a price for all those acid trips...) |
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| Grateful Dead – Loser Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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A couple of corrections: Don't you push me baby 'cause I'm all alone should read: Don't you push me baby 'cause I'm moaning low Everybody's praying and drinking that wine should read: Everybody's bragging and drinking that wine Man, what an AWESOME song... One of my absolute favorite Jerry songs. I used to LOVE to hear him sing this one. It felt real personal to him, like it was autobiographical. Like this was HIS BLUES. The BLUES that he was LIVING. If you think about the fact that Jerry was a Heroin addict for many many years,.. And the desperation involved in that lifestyle... The joys and SORROWS..., the ups, the downs... The needing to score, the wanting desperately to score and the payoff when you finally DO score... Anybody that has ever been addicted to drugs KNOWS the desperation of the gambler in this song... Hell, gambling ITSELF is an addiction... Jerry always sang this song with A LOT of feeling. And I got the feeling from him that it was confessional. Just a singer being HONEST about his jones. Jerry's jones was heroin. Most people have their own jones... Whatever it happens to be. Having kicked hard drugs myself, maybe that's why I've always LOVED this song. Boy do I know that FEELING of desperation... |
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| Grateful Dead – Althea Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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The song Althea, one of my favorites by the amazing Jerry G and Robert Hunter, is a profound meditation on death, on world weariness, on the inner anguish that life can put you through and that your own mind can lead you to. And on the process of having the divine speak to you and point out the path that can free you. And how so many times, we ultimately reject that path, we reject the guidance. Alethea in Greek Mythology is the daughter of Zeus and is the personifiation of TRUTH. My sense of this song is that the singer is having a dialogue with the GODDESS/the divine in it's manifestation as TRUTH. In the first three lines, the singer is describing his anguish to the divine: "I told Althea I was feeling lost, lacking in some direction. Althea told me upon scrutiny that my back might need protection. I told Althea that treachery was tearing me limb from limb." In the next number of lines, the divine is speaking to him about his predicament: "Althea told me better cool down boy, settle back, easy Jim." "You may be Saturday's child, all alone, moving with a tinge of grace. You may be a clown in the burying ground, or just another pretty face. You may meet the fate of Ophelia, sleeping and perchance to dream. Honest to the point of recklessness, self-centered in the extreme." Here Althea spells out the singers troubles. Ophelia is a character from Shakespears Hamlet who lost her mind. The "clown in the burying ground" suggests laughing in the face of death, perhaps even contemplating suicide. "Sleeping and perchance to dream" is from Hamlet's soliloquy in the same play where he is contemplating whether life is even worth living. But, then Althea (TRUTH) smacks the singer with a dose of reality. That his thoughts of death and suicide although "Honest to the point of recklessness" are also "self-centered in the extreme". Self-centered in the sense that he can't see beyond his own pain and is refusing to connect to the divine inspiration which ultimately could prove to be his salvation. Then Althea spells it out even clearer to him: "Ain't nobody messing with you, but you, your friends are getting most concerned. Loose with the TRUTH, baby, it's your fire, but baby don't get burned." It is your own mind, your disconnect that is fucking up your life she tells him. It's also your choice. But be careful, you might get burned. Then she goes on instructing him: "When the smoke has cleared, she said, that's what she said to me. Gonna want a bed to lay your head and a little sympathy." Once the passion of your madness has cooled, youre going to want some connection, with divine LOVE. Althea goes on illuminating his path: "There are things you can replace, and others you cannot. (like your life) The time has come to weigh those things. This space is getting hot, you know this space is getting hot." Again, she is spelling out that he has a choice. He has free will. He has decisions and commitments to make. And the time to make them is now. After digesting this massive dose of TRUTH, the singer speaks to her: "I told Althea I'm a roving son, and I was born to be a bachelor." I cant be married to THE TRUTH, he tells her. I'm not ready for it. I have to hold on to my own ego, my own separate identity. She answers: "Althea told me, okay, that's fine," (God is infinitely patient) And having missed the TRUTH, the singer goes back to the game of divine hide and seek, claiming to want to know the truth (and rejecting her when she shows up at his doorstep). "so now I'm trying to catch her". Having missed the TRUTH, having missed the connection to the divine, the singer then reflects: "Can't talk to you without talking to me, we're guilty of the same old thing." Cant talk to God without talking to ourselves... and yet... "Been talking alot about less and less and forgetting the love we bring." We're back in the soup again, talking about less and less and forgetting all about the divine, about LOVE, about TRUTH. I have tremendous love and respect for Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter as some of the premier poets of our generation. This amazing songs spells out some of the struggles Jerry himself was going through. On the one hand, he identified with and studied the Christian mystics so he was obviously a deeply spiritual man. On the other hand, he struggled mightily with Heroin addiction, with obesity and undoubtedly with depression. The song Althea in a sense spells out that conflict within Jerry. Seeing God, being so close to God through the creative process of music but ultimately being unable to fully embrace God, falling again and again back into Heroin and self-destruction. Like the song Black Muddy River, and on so many others, Robert Hunter often wrote lyrics that reflected what he saw happening with the Dead. It's amazing that he wrote these lyrics for Jerry and that Jerry chose to sing them, sharing with us all his (and our) perennial struggle to know God. |
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