Dead Songs in Depth

    
The Music Never Stopped
w: Barlow m: Weir
AGDL: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/mns.html
LASF: http://www.whitegum.com/songfile/MUSICNEV.HTM
  

    
The Music Never Stopped 
Lyrics: John Barlow
Music: Bob Weir

Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

There's mosquitoes on the river
Fish are rising up like birds
It's been hot for seven weeks now
Too hot to even speak now
Did you hear what I just heard?

Say, it might have been a fiddle
Or it could have been the wind
But there seems to be a beat now
I can feel it in my feet now
Listen here it comes again

There's a band out on the highway
They're high-stepping into town
It's a rainbow full of sound
It's fireworks, calliopes and clowns
Everybody's dancing

Come on children, come on children
Come on clap your hands

Sun went down in honey
And the moon came up in wine
You know stars were spinning dizzy
Lord the band kept us so busy
We forgot about the time

They're a band beyond description
Like Jehovah's favourite choir
People joining hand in hand
While the music plays the band
Lord they're setting us on fire

Crazy rooster crowing midnight
Balls of lightning roll along
Old men sing about their dreams
Women laugh and children scream
And the band keeps playing on

Keep on dancing through to daylight
Greet the morning air with song
No one's noticed but the band's all packed and gone
Was it ever here at all?
But they kept on dancing

Come on children, come on children
Come on clap your hands

Well the cool breeze came on Tuesday
And the corn's a bumper crop
And the fields are full of dancing
Full of singing and romancing
The music never stopped
  

    

I received this query in email today:

> Wanted to ask you something that has been on my mind for over 20 years now.
> Did Bob Weir have Rahsaan Roland Kirk's "Old Rugged Cross" in mind when
> creating the ending jam section for "The Music Never Stopped"?   To these
> ears, the melodic structure seems oddly similar.   "Old Rugged Cross" was
> written in the early-70's, so it is a feasible hypothesis, timeline-wise.



Forwarded it to Weir, who is on the road so I wasn't expecting to get an
answer any time soon (if ever).  But he responded right away!


> No, but now I Gotta check that out...
  

    
cool beans
  

    
"...and the music plays the band."

Is a way to describe this band beyond description