HUMP Day: #music #humor will see us thru to another day...
- Thomas Tittmann
- Apr 30
- 5 min read
Updated: May 1
MAIN ACT: GRATEFUL DEAD IN EGYPT 1978
The next article contains videos to a few of the songs they did in this place of spiritual energy. included is a short ABC News video about this historic event in which they tell us that it was a fundraiser for handicapped children and the Antiquities Museum in Cairo.
[more from the article] The Dead were joined on this trip by the counterculture author Ken Kesey (not to mention Bill Graham and Bill Walton) who apparently captured footage on Super‑8 reels. (Watch it above.) Kesey himself later tried to explain the symbolism of the visit, saying: “The people who were there recognized this as a respectful and holy event that went back to something we can all just barely glimpse, them and us both. Our relationship to ancient humans. To this place on the planet. To the planet’s place in the universe. All that cosmic stuff is what the Dead are based on. The Egyptians could understand that.”
Comic Intermission
See the 3 AM reflections at the end of this post on what to do BEFORE offering our gifts at the altar...
SECOND ACT
ENCORE: "There's a Grateful Dead song for every occasion"
I've used this observation in other posts...It originated with a comment made by my friend Steve Bermont - a fellow surfer, Steve was my automotive guru and taught me how, as he termed it,
"to play with cars"
...beginning with the Volkswagens we both drove: His Beetle and my Microbus.
"Trouble with you is
The trouble with me
Got two good eyes
But we still don't see"
--Grateful Dead: "Casey Jones"
[from the article] The Eye of Providence or All-Seeing Eye is a symbol depicting an eye, often enclosed in a triangle and surrounded by rays of light or a halo, intended to represent Providence, as the eye watches over the workers of mankind. A well-known example of the Eye of Providence appears on the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States, which is depicted on the United States one-dollar bill.
I grew up learning about life from cartoons....and I'm still learning...like from this CARTUNE...
READER: Folks that associate the Grateful Dead with drugs miss their deeper messages about life...both it light and dark sides...Reflections on this follow this song...
THE SPIRITUAL SIDE OF THE GRATEFUL DEAD
"Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world"
Folks that associate the Grateful Dead with the drug culture miss their deeper messages about life...both it light and dark sides...
My main authority David Dodd on things DEAD...
[from the next article] Thinking about the juxtaposition of the two songs, we have “Estimated Prophet,” with its maniacal raving deluded character, very much inwardly-focused, and then, bam: “Wake up!” as the chorus begins in “Eyes of the World.” Of course, the prophet in Estimated does accuse his listeners with the line...
“you all been asleep, you would not believe me...”
...but “Eyes” seems to say that the sleeper may have been the prophet.
Sometimes criticized, lyrically, as being a bit too hippy-dippy for its own good, “Eyes of the World” might be heard as conveying a message of hope, viewing human consciousness as having value for the planet as a whole. There are echoes in the song of a wide range of literary and musical influences, from Blaise Pascal to (perhaps) Ken Kesey; from talk of a redeemer to the title of the song itself.
The tune...
There was a special relationship between the band and their followers. Here drummer Bill Kreutzmann receives a personalized license from a GRATE-FULL fan:
Here's my version...from a 2022 Half Step gig at the Malverne, NY LIRR station with friend and fellow DEADHEAD Brian Barry:
Eyes Of The World
Lyrics By: Robert Hunter
Music By: Jerry Garcia
Right outside this lazy summer home (note 1)
You ain't got time to call your soul a critic, no
Right outside the lazy gate
Of winter's summer home
Wondering where the nuthatch winters
Wings a mile long
Just carried the bird away
Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world
But the heart has its beaches, its homeland and thoughts of its own
Wake now discover that you are the song that the morning brings
But the heart has its seasons, its evenings and songs of its own
There comes a redeemer and he slowly, too, fades away
And there follows his wagon behind him that's loaded with clay
And the seeds that were silent all burst into bloom and decay
And night comes so quiet, its close on the heels of the day
Sometimes we live no particular way but our own
And sometimes we visit your country and live in your home
Sometimes we ride on your horses, sometimes we walk alone
Sometimes the songs that we hear are just songs of our own
(1) in at least one early performance of the song (28 Feb 1973, on Dick's Picks Vol 28), Jerry sings "Right outside this lazy country home"
AFTER THE SHOW: 3 AM CONSIDERATIONS ON FORGIVENESS AND THE PART IT PLAYS IN THE AWAKENING OF OUR CONSCIOUSNESS...
First, the lighter side...
Got up to go to the bathroom..."Angels PROSTATE fall..."
Seeing King Steve preparing to offer his blender to the gods...I recalled these wise words about the paramount importance of FORGIVENESS:
Now, some grist for the mill...from two fellow travelers who continue to help me walk the path of awakening...
2/3's of the Gospels is about FORGIVENESS and INCLUSIVITY...
[from the next article] Question: I’d like to know about forgiveness as a bridge between the separate self and the awakened soul.
Ram Dass: That’s a nice way of phrasing the question. It’s a step on a ladder that goes from dualism into non-dualism. Because as you forgive or allow or acknowledge or say “Of course you’re human” or “We all do that” or something, you open your heart again which embraces the person or the situation back into you, which allows the play. See, every time you close off something with judgment, it’s as if you take a bit of energy and you lock it away and make it unavailable to you. Until pretty soon you are exhausted. You don’t have any energy, because you are so busy.
Click the next link to continue these reflections...
#music #humor #Wednesday #HumpDay #GratefulDead #DavidDodd #camel #Egypt #JerryGarcia #SteveMartin #KingTut #TheBangles #SteveBermont #surfing #VWBeetle #VMMicrobus #forgiveness #inclusivity #RichardRohr #RamDass
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