Both of these guesses at meaning are way off base. Gracie was going through an animal rights thing at this time, and combined thoughts from this philosophical position with the usual psychedelic symbolism Slick and Kantner lyrics often encoded.
Pebbles blocking the flow of a river, as well as the reference to "a thousand different reasons you can't go," refer to our ego-drive fears and attachments that hold us to Earth, prevent the experience of ego-dissolution.
The use of double-meanings is as old as language, and was heavily empolyed by the more intelligent writers working in the genre of REAL "acid rock." King Crimson's song writer (Peter Sinfield) was especially skillful at layering ideas.
For someone under the influence of 600 mcg of REAL LSD (LSD-25) such encoding and decoding (comprehension of the true 'psychedelic' message encoded 'between the lines') was par for the course. One needed a few smarts and some ability to comprehend symbolism to begin with, but this was what that period was all about: consciousness.
Both of these guesses at meaning are way off base. Gracie was going through an animal rights thing at this time, and combined thoughts from this philosophical position with the usual psychedelic symbolism Slick and Kantner lyrics often encoded.
Pebbles blocking the flow of a river, as well as the reference to "a thousand different reasons you can't go," refer to our ego-drive fears and attachments that hold us to Earth, prevent the experience of ego-dissolution.
The use of double-meanings is as old as language, and was heavily empolyed by the more intelligent writers working in the genre of REAL "acid rock." King Crimson's song writer (Peter Sinfield) was especially skillful at layering ideas.
For someone under the influence of 600 mcg of REAL LSD (LSD-25) such encoding and decoding (comprehension of the true 'psychedelic' message encoded 'between the lines') was par for the course. One needed a few smarts and some ability to comprehend symbolism to begin with, but this was what that period was all about: consciousness.
Today it is "Conspicuous in its absence."