"Good time hippy music" says some pretty bad time stuff

I told some guy last night what 'Sledgehammer' was all about. He said 'That's Nice!' and didn't really talk to me again all night (I know him from work). Peter Gabriel has some of the best euphemisms ever.

Hotel California is on the radi0...they stab it with their steely knives, but they still can't kill the beast!"

{Refrain}
Hey hey, hey, hey in every way
I'm a comin', uhuh honey, every day
Yeh hey, hey, hey in every way
I'm a comin', uhuh honey, every day

Well everybody's dancin' in a ring around the sun
Nobody's finished, we ain't even begun
So take off your shoes, child, and take off your hat
Shine your wings and fly me out where it's at

{Refrain}

Take a vacation, fall out for a while
Summer's coming in, winter's goin' out in style
Well, light out smokin', honey, have yourself a ball
'Cause your mama's gone to Memphis
She won't be back 'til the fall

Chronologically I am a post-Baby Boomer. I feel that way, at least, because I never experienced the fun and exciting parts of the whole Boomer scene--just spent a lot of time dutifully chuckling at Boomers' maddeningly pointless anecdotes about just how stoned they got on various occasions, and politely fielding their assertions about how great their music was. But even from this remove it was possible to glean certain patterns, and one that recurred as regularly as an urban legend was the one about how someone would move into a commune populated by sandal-wearing, peace-sign flashing flower children, and eventually discover that, underneath this facade, the guys who ran it were actually control freaks; and that, as living in a commune, where much lip service was paid to ideals of peace, love and harmony, had deprived them of normal, socially approved outlets for their control-freakdom, it tended to come out in other, invariably more sinister, ways.

Is it just my overactive imagination, or is China Doll about reincarnation (seems to be a recurring theme?). Maybe that's why the Dead were so carefree about life and death, in general.

Eyes Of The World

Right outside this lazy summer home
you ain't got time to call your soul a critic no.
Right outside the lazy gate of winter's summer home,
wond'rin' where the nut-thatch winters,
wings a mile long just carried the bird away.

Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world,
the heart has it's beaches, it's homeland and thoughts of it's own.
Wake now, discover that you are the song that the mornin' brings,
But the heart has it's seasons, it's evenin's and songs of it's 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, it's close on the heels of the day.

Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world,
the heart has it's beaches, it's homeland and thoughts of it's own.
Wake now, discover that you are the song that the mornin' brings,
But the heart has it's seasons, it's evenin's and songs of it's own.

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.

Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world,
the heart has it's beaches, it's homeland and thoughts of it's own.
Wake now, discover that you are the song that the mornin' brings,
But the heart has it's seasons, it's evenin's and songs of it's own.

Mason's Children

Mason died on Monday, we bricked him in the wall
All his children grew and grew, they ain't never grown so tall before
They may never grow so tall again

We dug him up on Tuesday, he hardly aged a day
Taught us all we ever knew, we ain't never known so much before
We may never know so much again

The wall collapsed on Wednesday, we chalked it up to fate
Mason's children ran and flew, they ain't never run so fast before
Swore they'd never show their face again

Mason was a mighty man, a mighty man was he
Always said when I'm dead I'm gone, don't you weep for me

Thursday came then Friday, with buyers tall and bright
Mason's children cooked the stew and cleaned up when the feast was through

Take me to the repo-man to pay back what is owed
If he's in some other land write it off as stole

Now I'm off to the thread to see if it's true! Thanks, Julio.

I posted "Mason's Children" over there where it should rightfully be.

Reading these lyrics is great. Man, I fuckin' love the Dead. I'm gonna go listen to that great live version of "Eyes of the World" from So Many Roads right now.

1965, Cowboy Booking, 180 min. "I understand your mind is rebelling against improbable phenomena," someone murmurs in Polish director Wojciech Has’ legendary occult masterpiece -- a mesmerizing cascade of shadow boxes and cul-de-sacs, in which a Napoleonic officer (Zbigniew Cybulski) finds himself trapped within the story told by an ancient manuscript, one that sends him back repeatedly through time to challenge Death itself. Based on the 18th-century novel by Egyptologist and Freemason Jan Potocki, the film almost became one of history’s lost occult treasures -- until it was rescued recently by the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, with the help of Martin Scorsese and Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead (who acknowledged the film’s enormous influence on his music.) [Please note the 3 hour running time of THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT -- presented here in its full-length version.]

I wonder why no one mentioned the Dead's use of LSD as a contributing factor to their interest in life and Death, that stuff does make you rather contemplative?
Please pardon my earlier sarcasm, no offense was intended.

... and ask about the fucking 'transitive nightfall of diamonds' in "dark star" ...

... but i love the dead, really.

(a friend of mine said that "all hippies are liars hiding their true motives." seems pretty wise.)