| Grateful Dead – Dark Star Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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Dark star crashes pouring its light into ashes Reason tatters the forces tear loose from the axis Searchlight casting for faults in the clouds of delusion shall we go, you and I While we can? Through the transitive nightfall of diamonds This is a song about the destruction and rebirth following death. It is a celebration of the cycle of death and rebirth. The dark star is a symbol for death but when it crashes it is reborn into ashes. Following the dark star crashing, there is a renewal where delusions are destroyed and the old way has to give way to the new. This may refer to any change - whether it be a personal, spiritual change, or a change in society or government. The ‘transitive nightfall of diamonds’ refers to a new age of transition where the future is still uncertain and being constructed. Mirror shatters in formless reflections of matter Glass hand dissolving to ice petal flowers revolving Lady in velvet recedes in the nights of goodbye Shall we go, you and I While we can? Through the transitive nightfall of diamonds The second verse lists objects that then are broken down into their components. These components are now available for us to use however we want to create the future that we want for ourselves. |
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| Grateful Dead – Franklin's Tower Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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In another time’s forgotten space Your eyes looked from your mother's face Wild flower seed on the sand and stone May the four winds blow you safely home The “four winds” here refer to the four winds of the Bible, or God’s power on Earth. I like the reference to the “four winds” from Revelation 7:1 (I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree) as a cleansing force of God’s judgment. The first verse refers to the “4th dimension” of time - generally perceived to be a dimension that we are unable to interact with. Time flows and we are pushed along with it. However, the narrator of the first verse seems to be able to view the entire continuum of time, and describes ‘your eyes looking from your mother’s face’ and ‘wild flower seed on the sand and stone’ as occurring simultaneously as he is outside of time. Roll away the dew Roll away the dew Roll away the dew Roll away the dew The ‘dew’ refers to the leftover vestiges of night and the day prior. Rolling away the dew is a power that is only wielded by the force of time and represents the passage of time and the promise of a new day. Here, the ‘four winds’ roll away the dew and Robert Hunter transforms time into the cleansing force of God’s judgment. I'll tell you where the four winds dwell In Franklin's tower there hangs a bell It can ring, turn night to day It can ring like fire when you lose your way The second verse introduces the concept of Franklin’s tower housing the bell that releases the four winds and the power of the passage of time. ‘It can ring, turn night to day’ supports the ringing of the bell as the passage of time. The passage of time again is used as a cleansing force to heal wounds (it can ring like fire when you lose your way). I am uncertain who Franklin is. I don’t think it refers to Benjamin Franklin. What is clear is that Franklin’ tower is a lighthouse, as this is stated in the final verse. There is a Franklin lighthouse in Maine, though I doubt this is related at all to Franklin’s tower in this song. The concept of Franklin’s tower helping one that is lost find one’s way is another lighthouse analogy, however, I think that Franklin’s tower is a symbolic, rather than an actual lighthouse. Roll away the dew Roll away the dew Roll away the dew Roll away the dew God save the child that rings that bell It may have one good ring, baby, you can't tell One watch by night, one watch by day If you get confused listen to the music play In this verse the ringing of the bell seems to refer to the cold comfort of death’s embrace. ‘God save the child that rings that bell’ seems to refer to a child passing away, especially since ‘it may have one good ring’. However, I do not think that the ringing of the bell always indicates the death of an individual. Alternatively, it may indicate that a trauma has occurred early in a child’s life, necessitating the ringing of Franklin’s tower to cleanse the trauma, however, I am confused why it may have only one good ring. The ‘music’ here refers to the ringing of the bell, indicating that if one is lost/confused, stop struggling, and listen to the bell ring and allow time to heal. Some come to laugh their past away Some come to make it just one more day Whichever way your pleasure tends If you plant ice you're gonna harvest the wind This verse supports the notion that the ringing of the bell of Franklin’s tower unleashes a cleansing force to heal wounds. The final line of the verse, ‘If you plant ice you’re gonna harvest the wind’ indicates that all past actions, even planting ice, regardless if they are positive or negative, will be erased by the four winds, allowing a new future to start. Roll away the dew Roll away the dew Roll away the dew Roll away the dew In Franklin's tower the four winds sleep Like four lean hounds the lighthouse keep Wildflower seed on the sand and wind May the four winds blow you home again Once again, the narrator views time as a continuity, describing ‘wildflower seed on the sand and wind’, again indicating that Franklin’s tower sits outside of time. ‘May the four winds blow you home again’: the passage of time will heal all wounds. Roll away the dew Roll away the dew Roll away the dew You'd better roll away the dew |
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| Grateful Dead – Help On The Way Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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Paradise waits, on the crest of a wave, her angels in flames. She has no pain, like a child she is pure, she is not to blame. Poised for flight, wings spread bright, spring from night into the sun. Don't stop to run, she can fly like a lie, she can't be outdone. -The song begins after Eve has eaten from the tree of knowledge. Satan is the voice and is speaking to Adam prior to him having eaten from the tree himself. Satan refers to Adam’s lover Eve as ‘paradise’, for to him, she is more important than the physical garden of eden. Satan states that Eve is now in a different state of mind, in a new world that Adam, in his current mindset, cannot understand and that she is lost to him now. Tell me the cost; I can pay, let me go, tell me love is not lost. Sell everything; without love day to day insanity's king. I will pay day by day, anyway, lock, bolt and key. -The voice shifts to Adam’s now and he offers to pay anything, to ‘sell everything’ to be with Eve. Crippled but free, I was blind all the time I was learning to see. Help on the way, well, I know only this, I've got you today. Don't fly away, cause I love what I love and I want it that way. -This verse takes place after Adam eats from the tree of knowledge to be with Eve. He is now mortal but is ‘free’. Adam begs Eve to stay with him one final day. This is contrary to the biblical story of Adam and Eve in that Adam seems to sold everything for just one more day with Eve. I will stay one more day, like I say, honey it's you. Making it too, without love in a dream it will never come true. -Eve agrees to spend one last day with Adam in the garden of eden, knowing that tomorrow, they may never see each other again. -I don't know the meaning of the final line. |
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| Grateful Dead – China Doll Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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There is a dialogue between a person that attempted suicide and the ferryman who carries the dead across the river Styx. Charon asks, “tell me what you done it for”, and the dead person says, “no, I won’t tell you a thing.” The dead person is bitter that Charon did not grant his request that “all I leave behind me is only what I found”, suggesting that he wanted no memory of himself left in the world of the living. The boatman offers to return the dead person to the world of living, by “letting the hurdy gurdy play”. This suggests that he is not dead yet and has not yet crossed the river to the realm of the dead. The boatman has seen many stranger ones return to life when they were on his side of the shore. Charon refuses to condemn the dying man and offers that if their positions were switched, he would want to live again. The china doll represents the dying man’s life and fragile ego. Charon pleads to the man to give life a second chance and that his life and ego is not broken, but “it’s only fractured, and just a little nervous from the fall”. |
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