Box of Rain
So you have to "look into any eyes" to find value, or simply "look out fo any window" Meaning is less tangible than answers. Its abstract, you find pockets of it in special places, but by no means can anyone ever find the meaning of life the most abstract of any idea "Believe it if you need it or leave it if you dare" All you can do is realize that you have a "short time to be there" and maybe "love will see you through".
RIP jerry Flag dgsukit on October 15, Your tongue is twisted with words half spoken and thoughts unclear.
From the Heavy, intense, sky. The first time through it was pretty much how I always heard it. General Comment Kind of late now, but I believe fikus was correct. Hunter has discussed where this one came from.
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He wrote it with Phil when Phil's dad was dying. Hunter described to the effect that "the words wrote themselves". In a very, very short period of time. No Replies Log in to reply. General Comment There's always the one guy on these things that says the meaning to every dead song is LSD Flag easyjim on October 20, General Comment I understand that it has personal meaning to the band members, but I believe the overall message GD was trying to send was how amazing experiencing life is, and how small of an opportunity it is - take risk, and enjoy it. Don't live a sheltered life only to die safely.
Then there's another part about embracing the people you get to meet and cherish the love you share. The ending resonates inside your mind All in all, just another amazing tune from GD. General Comment i guess phil wrote this when riding in a car to see his father fo the last time You are exactly right.
Flag Hammstah on February 10, I find it difficult to believe that they said this "exactly," since Robert Hunter, not Phil Lesh, wrote the lyrics. Flag sunshipballoons on August 29, Man, yous are messin' it up for me. The first time I heard that Phil Lesh wrote this for his father while he was on his death bed I thought it was absolutely the most powerfully beautiful thing I'd ever heard. I didn't find it sad at all. It makes sense to me. And I love it.
So I'm stickin' with that explanation. Flag Rankoutsider on May 24, Phil was there seeing the entire thing through I believe. Flag wkpggrv83 on June 22, General Comment This is my all time favorite GD song. It is so beautiful. Simply beautiful because it is so significant. That one line represents in my opinion how long you have on earth but how short it can pass by. Make it the best. The final words of the song are very affecting, you're right. They also have a number of Biblical and old folk music precursors, warning people to appreciate what and who they have in this life before those things and people are gone: I'm a short time here, but I'm a long time gone.
BTW, all the people who were writing that PL wrote this song as a tribute to his father while the latter was dying of cancer in a hospital are correct. In fact, while GD was recording this album American Beauty , PL would visit his dad either on the way to or back from the studio. It's true Hunter wrote most of the lyrics, but the idea was PL's, and referred to his feelings for his dying dad. The performing members of GD may sing lyrics that are largely written by either Hunter or Barlow, but they are not just automatons; their own lives, thoughts, feelings, etc.
As for the song being about acid, I'm afraid you're wrong, kemosabe. Such a great, great tune; on that much I think that we all might agree.. And thanks to DD for the essay and annotations. The dead are important, but the dying causes so much pain! We are all on a simmilar trip. Our mothers and fathers die, before us, if they are so lucky! I choose not to be a father, but life goes on, and i will die!
My mother is in the hospital for the twelth time in seven years. Knowing she will die and her suffering will end, brings no peace to my soul! I have to go through the transitive light axis! I give a nodd to the dodd! Thankyou for this outlet. Few understand, and fewer care, but so easily i go into despair. It must be the direction that was waiting there! The dead are the one constant in my life over the last 20 plus years!
I never heard box of rain live. I am grateful they recorded most of it! I got a tape labeled with abox of rain, and that was the date of my first birthday on this world with four corners! What was that old folk song pretty boxes every ones in boxes, i am not translating correctly, but the truth is there! When i drove my father home from the diagnosous of cancer i didnt hear the dead , but some country song i have forgotton!
I listened to the dead to comfort my soul as my father died in , 10 years and a several days after Jerry died. My dad was 76 and i was 33! He had a full life, and he often commented that he had seen and done all that he wanted to do and see! Open your window and look out the door!
Any thing is possible, all you have to do is explore, and turn the knob to that sound device! The dead are still alive, as i listen to the tapers section, and the many hours i have purchased of commercial releases!
BOX OF RAIN CHORDS by Grateful Dead @ www.newyorkethnicfood.com
The dead commfort me! My misery will not last forever! Such a long, long time I listened to this song a LOT while I was splitting up from my ex-wife in the dark autumn of and its bittersweet, optimism from grief lyrics and chord structures were a refuge for me at the time. Still listen to the song 11 years later from the perspective of a totally new life but it always brings to my mind, anyway a feeling of shelter from an emotional storm.
Well, I guess words are what you make of them, sentiments Mr Hunter would no doubt approve of. Greetings to all you Deadheads. A little off topic, but in A little off topic, but in terms of songs to listen to after a hard breakup When I had a tough breakup in college long time ago , I listened to the Jerry version of Positively Fourth Street a lot.
Still really love that song, and now married almost 25 years to someone else. Very Apropo Its weird how the universe works. We had to put our family dog down yesterday of 15 years. As much as it was her time, its never easy. I listened to this song on repeat over and over yesterday. Then today I jump on here and this song is the blog. Everything happens a reason. I love this song. It blends acoustic and electric instruments to perfection.
And as a previous poster noted, it has a wonderful logic - and the suspended ending; kinda leaves you off balance - in a good way. When the first notes of Friend of the Devil ring, it's back to terra firma. Have always wondered why Jerry didn't play the break in it - though I think David Nelson's is great. Glad to hear these stories from everyone. And hey, I think from now on I will simply have to state that any and all facts included in my little essays are open to correction!
First performances seem to be one thing I almost always get wrong This song has gotten a lot of us through a lot of hard times--just knowing that there's a commonality in our sorrow is helpful. A paragraph written this week by David Gans comes to mind: The songs on Blues For Allah, or some of them anyway, were written that way, with the music firmly in place prior to the lyrics.
The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.
I'll try to round up that info when I can find it. That was right around the time that NRPS started and they were all really close with the band and may have simply just been around. Also, Jerry played quite a bit of pedal steel guitar on American Beauty and probably spent a lot of time working out his parts. Guitar is one instrument but pedal steel I dont know if you have ever tried playing a pedal steel guitar but its not an easy instrument to play, not as easy as a regular guitar at least But Jerry learned how to play it really fast and really well, of course, and I think this shows how talented and "deadicated" Jerry really was, haha!
Box of Rain
I believe Jerry was tickling the ivories on this one. Interestingly, upon my waking journey, a rather hip woman who realized the truth of the lyrics, " There's nothing you can hold for very long," came my way and gave me a book titled, "A Box of Rain. I combed through pages and found a poem titled, "Row Jimmy. An age upon being old enough to ask a teacher, "If I swallow an orange seed, will it grow out of me? None the less, I was intrigued with the opening lyrics "Julie catch a rabbit by his hair. I must have been moving at a turtles pace to find the song years after it had been written, as many people had danced to the tune within many concerts.
It was a enlightening moment, because I came to realize there wasn't a particular Julie in mind. Later, within the time frame, I decided to lay the book down with the CD on top of it.
Box of Rain by Grateful Dead
Aside from not knowing a particular Julie during that time frame, I'll save the rest for another time, should there be a moment when the Greatest Stories Ever Told continues with the featured song "Row Jimmy. I like the song, especially the words, "Love will see you through. There have been many many times when I really didn't know what to do next, and this line has always given me great comfort that some energy -within me, or from some universal source - was waiting for me to just keep going and Grateful Dead music has always been "my religion" and lyrics like this just reinforce the cosmic connectedness that is always happening I have to think that you all have found the same magic in this music Played it for my dying dad too Right up there with Dylan's Mr.
Tambourine Man, this song more than any other set the Grateful Dead apart for me. I just can't say enough good things about the lyrics and I finally got to hear them play it live while standing in the rain at RFK during their final tour. After having followed them for over thirty years, I can't think of a better way to have said goodbye. I sure do miss those guys. Fist Song When I heard the first song on side one of American Beauty for the first time, it was like stepping into a beautiful new dimension, and seeing the world in a new way.
Family Values counterculture style The sorrowful yet beautiful back-story of this song Phil Lesh constantly driving back and forth from the Bay Area to Livermore to visit his dying father poignantly illustrates a pattern I've seen play out many a time over the past several decades.
Phil Lesh, the acid-eating longhaired hippy freak rock musician, was faithfully spending long hours on the road daily, to visit and comfort his cancer-stricken father. When he the dad was unconscious through medication, etc. Well please don't be surprised when you find me dreaming too". This was during the era when rest homes like Hill Haven Hell Haven were starting to boom because 'good,' 'upstanding' short-haired, establishment, conservative people didn't want to be bothered with aging relatives, and thought it a good idea to warehouse the unfortunate gomers instead.
I've seen this happen numerous times. Including the case of my old friend R. He's been a lifetime deadhead and is a fine bay area musician. A decade ago he left his well-paying job to care for his ailing, dying parents full time. He lost several years of work and all that money, so he could care for them unto death.
He did that because he's tuned in and turned on. Next time you meet a Bible-thumping family values agitator, check the background: And while divorce is always tragic, it takes a right-wing family values champ like Gingrich to hand divorce papers to his wife when she was dying in the hospital from cancer. In real life, turned on people are much more likely to show care and compassion to their ailing or aging relatives.
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