OPO: Robert Hunter lyric

Eyes of the World features a nuthatch

But where can a man go
That's sweet to his soul
When his time is not ready
But he's still turning old

Here's a dram for the piper
And a tune for his lady
Outside the thin wall
The waves are still raging

Here's one for the harp tree
And one for his song
One for the morning
When the night was too long

Here's one for the candle
That lights you to bed
And one for the sword
That hangs over your head.

When the shadows grow, it'll do you fine,
when the cold winds blow, it'll ease your mind

the shape it takes could be yours to choose,
what you may win, what you may lose.

Eyes alight, with glowing hair, all that fancy paints as fair
She takes her fan and throws it in the lion's den

My personal take on the “secret” of DMT: it was long, hard work making this world real. It was, and is, done for a purpose. To have others. To believe in them fully in order to experience love. It goes against common sense to try and see through it. Ignorance is the primary condition of Eden. But entropy is at work and a world made for love is not satisfied with the transformational edict “eat and be eaten” but kills and does not eat. A sense of ultimate unity is lost and the delusion of fundamental diversity breeds alienation. This is not Eden. Yet the monad doesn’t face itself and subsume Its creation. The failing would be eternal. Therefore, doors are opened and enough of the plot is “made flesh” to allow orientation regarding the surface gist of the matter. Collectivism is a wrong approach to nostalgia for the purity of the monad. Healthy diversity perpetuates the rationale of the creation, such as it is. Healthy men, women, races and nations evolving gladly to a recognition of the source, rejoining it in a gradual and rejoicing manner, “bringing in the sheaves,” would be a better solution to the human aspect of this work, and is the substance of sacred ceremonial.

My take could be way off base but anything more Gnostic is off-putting. Phil Dick fell down that sink. And Lovecraft, I wouldn’t doubt, though he professed no belief in what he wrote.

See here how everything
lead up to this day
and it's just like
any other day
that's ever been
Sun goin up
and then the
sun it goin down
Shine through my window and
my friends they come around

Everybody's breakin' and drinkin' that wine
I can tell the Queen of Diamonds by the way she shines
Come to daddy on an inside straight
Well I've got no chance of losin' this time
Well I've got no chance of losin' this time
And I've got no chance of losin' this time

One way or another, this darkness has to give.

If I had a gun for every ace I've drawn
I could arm a town the size of Abilene

See here how everything
lead up to this day
and it's just like
any other day
that's ever been
Sun goin up
and then the
sun it goin down
Shine through my window and
my friends they come around

― earlnash, Tuesday, March 6, 2012 8:35 PM (five years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

I been gambling here abouts
for ten good solid years
If I told you all that went down
it would burn off both your ears

Nine mile skid
on a ten mile ride
Hot as a pistol
but cool inside

The bottles stand as empty, as they were filled before.
Time there was and plenty, but from that cup no more.
Though I could not caution all, I still might warn a few:
Don't lend your hand to raise no flag atop no ship of fools.

Once in a while
you can get shown the light
in the strangest of places
if you look at it right
― chaki (chaki), Wednesday, February 26, 2003 8:40 AM (sixteen years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm less gaga on Hunter a lot of the time than most deadheads -- his poker/jack of diamonds/ace of spades/stuff is all hokey as hell to me -- but this right here the prime distillate good stuff

lately this one has been on my mind a lot

Since the end is never told
We pay the teller off in gold
In hopes he will come back
But he cannot be bought or sold

also lovely from the same song

Counting stars by candlelight
All are dim but one is bright:
The spiral light of Venus
Rising first and shining best
(Oh)
From the northwest corner
Of a brand-new crescent moon
Crickets and cicadas sing
A rare and different tune

Terrapin Station
In the shadow of the moon
Terrapin Station
And I know we'll be there soon

RIP

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/robert-hunter-grateful-dead-dead-889788/

Pour one out...

Today it’s “See here how everything leads up to this day, and it's just like any other day that’s ever been
Sun goin up and then the sun it goes down
Shine through my window and my friends they come around.”

Or maybe “mama, mama many worlds I’ve come since I first left home. Goin’ home, goin’ home, by the waterside i’ll rest my bones, listen to to river sing sweet songs to rock my soul.”

uncle john's band is such beautiful gibberish, probably my favorite lyric of his even tho (because?) it makes no sense.

and obviously, "such a long long time to be gone and a short time to be there" rings loudly today.

http://artsites.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/dowling.html

My college english professor wrote this excellent, if a bit rigid, close-reading of ripple years ago.

RIP ... his and garcia's run in the late 60s/early 1970s is pretty astonishing.

rip robert hunter... his 1st solo is one of my favourites of all those early to mid-seventies albums which feature a who's who of the sf scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GswPO2eX_VI

& otm to the above mention of harp tree lament

gbnb hs yrbk pg included not only Bill Clinton but also "Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile"

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, September 18, 2006 7:11 AM (thirteen years ago)

incidentally, just read the Franklin's Tower essay on the same site I posted -- I had no fucking idea that song was about Benjamin Franklin, and that "roll away the dew" referred to part of the bell casting process, that's just insane.

What a beautiful and ridiculous man Robert Hunter was. RIP.

I have a poodle/bichon mix that loves to roll away the dew, he’s like a mop head in grass on morning walks, I always figured hunter must’ve had a similar behaving dog. Thanks for the Franklin fact, man!

I remember reading that essay about bell casting before. It is a total prank. Some of the contributions to Dodd's site were half-baked. However, Hunter himself wrote in (in reponse to a different speculative essay) and explained Franklin's Tower quite well here:

http://artsites.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/fauthrep.html

Here, however, is a nice little essay by Dodd (and more correspondence with Hunter) about the writing of Help on the Way - including a discarded verse.

https://www.dead.net/features/greatest-stories-ever-told/greatest-stories-ever-told-help-wayslipknot

The bottles stand as empty, as they were filled before.
Time there was and plenty, but from that cup no more.
Though I could not caution all, I still might warn a few:
Don't lend your hand to raise no flag atop no ship of fools.

― mizzell, Tuesday, May 28, 2019 10:25 AM (three months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ship of Fools hitting extra hard today. I've had the 6/28/74 version (from Dick's Picks 12) on repeat--definitive imo.

I also can't think of any lyrics more moving than the last verse of Box of Rain:

And it's just a box of rain
I don't know who put it there
Believe it if you need it
Or leave it if you dare
And it's just a box of rain
Or a ribbon for your hair
Such a long long time to be gone
And a short time to be there

Oh, I see it's been noted upthread:

and obviously, "such a long long time to be gone and a short time to be there" rings loudly today.

― Mommy...can I go out and VAPE tonight? (voodoo chili), Tuesday, September 24, 2019 2:39 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Grass shack nailed to a pinewood floor

spent a little time listening to some of Hunter's solo shows on Archive.org yesterday (https://archive.org/details/RobertHunter) -- while he's not the most amazing performer, it's still interesting to hear his interpretations of Dead tunes ...

The wheel is turning and you can't slow down
You can't let go and you can't hold on
You can't go back and you can't stand still
If the thunder don't get you then the lightning will

Yes!

The wheel is turning and you can't slow down
You can't let go and you can't hold on
You can't go back and you can't stand still
If the thunder don't get you then the lightning will

― J. Sam, Wednesday, September 25, 2019 7:58 PM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah I think these might be the rawest lyrics ever written

The earth will see you on through this time