based on liner notes from Wake of the Flood's 50th Anniversary Edition
Wake of the Flood was the band's 1st album since American Beauty and their 1st to be recorded at The Dead's own studio called The Record Plant.
Prior to recording, the band lost members Pigpen and Mickey Hart.
There are plenty of biblical references throughout the songs on the album. Hunter's lyrics got at a deeper set of truths including the sense of promise that followed the great flood in the book of Genesis. God ended the cataclysm with a new covenant and Rick Griffin drew on that story for the cover with not only the water on the front cover but also with the raven on the back cover which symbolized the raven sent out by Noah to see if the flood was receding. The bird also evoked that context; it came from the old card game Rook, marketed as a Christian alternative to traditional playing cards.
Thoughtful observers noted wakes followed both floods and deaths and much of what the band recorded August 1973 would also honor their fallen friend Pigpen.
"Mississippi Half-Step reads like an allegory, a story that revolves around fate and ends in transition, crossing a river that defines America and symbolizes hope for those who cross it."
The Wake of the Flood album weaves the fabric of the Dead's history into its themes in ways that highlight its ambition and achievement.
In one line of this song, the narrator loses his boots in transit which is a veiled reference to the 1961 car crash that took the life of Jerry Garcia's friend Paul Speegle Jr. Garcia always called that accident a turning point, "the slingshot for the rest of my life" as he put it. "It was my 2nd chance and I got serious." This was not a well known story back in 1973, but it was an allusion that resonated deeply with everyone in the band's inner circle who also saw the new label and studio as a 2nd chance for the band.
There are so many other elements covered by the lyrics on just this one song that require a deeper dive. Generally some can feel stuck in what they were handed in life or just let ones' past and connections to negative thoughts GO by philosophically sealing them away in a silver mine and setting a powder charge to let them all GO away and next taking a small dose of medicine "half cup of rock & rye" and "nailing retreads to your feet" and pray for good weather as you journey on with a new sense of optimism.
based on liner notes from Wake of the Flood's 50th Anniversary Edition
Wake of the Flood was the band's 1st album since American Beauty and their 1st to be recorded at The Dead's own studio called The Record Plant.
Prior to recording, the band lost members Pigpen and Mickey Hart.
There are plenty of biblical references throughout the songs on the album. Hunter's lyrics got at a deeper set of truths including the sense of promise that followed the great flood in the book of Genesis. God ended the cataclysm with a new covenant and Rick Griffin drew on that story for the cover with not only the water on the front cover but also with the raven on the back cover which symbolized the raven sent out by Noah to see if the flood was receding. The bird also evoked that context; it came from the old card game Rook, marketed as a Christian alternative to traditional playing cards.
Thoughtful observers noted wakes followed both floods and deaths and much of what the band recorded August 1973 would also honor their fallen friend Pigpen.
"Mississippi Half-Step reads like an allegory, a story that revolves around fate and ends in transition, crossing a river that defines America and symbolizes hope for those who cross it."
The Wake of the Flood album weaves the fabric of the Dead's history into its themes in ways that highlight its ambition and achievement.
In one line of this song, the narrator loses his boots in transit which is a veiled reference to the 1961 car crash that took the life of Jerry Garcia's friend Paul Speegle Jr. Garcia always called that accident a turning point, "the slingshot for the rest of my life" as he put it. "It was my 2nd chance and I got serious." This was not a well known story back in 1973, but it was an allusion that resonated deeply with everyone in the band's inner circle who also saw the new label and studio as a 2nd chance for the band.
There are so many other elements covered by the lyrics on just this one song that require a deeper dive. Generally some can feel stuck in what they were handed in life or just let ones' past and connections to negative thoughts GO by philosophically sealing them away in a silver mine and setting a powder charge to let them all GO away and next taking a small dose of medicine "half cup of rock & rye" and "nailing retreads to your feet" and pray for good weather as you journey on with a new sense of optimism.