Dead Songs in Depth

    
Picasso Moon
w: Barlow m: Weir, Bralove
AGDL: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/picasso.html
LASF: http://www.whitegum.com/songfile/PICASSO.HTM
  

    
Picasso Moon 
Lyrics: John Barlow
Music: Bob Weir 

Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

South of Market in the land of ruin
You'll find all manner of action
Got your tinsel tigers in the metal room
Stalking satisfaction
They got them packaged up for love and money
Tatooed tots, chrome spike bunnies
Pop on my mirrored shades, the better to see
And roll on in, gonna roll in it, honey

I get a feeling like when big things collide
Like the crack before the thunder, like I really ought to hide
Here comes metal angel, she looks ready to ride
What's that she's tryin' to show me?
What's that she's tryin' to show me?

Picasso moon, shattered light
Diamond bullets ripping up the night
Picasso moon, liberate me
Ah, life's infinite diversity
Great, amazing, majesty
And it's bigger than a drive-in movie, oo-wee
And it's bigger than a drive-in movie, oo-wee

Hanging ten out on space and time
Redefining distance
The next skull on your necklace is mine
Cheap for such assistance
I had a job trading bits for pieces
We'd make wrinkles, advertise them as creases
Please find my resignation enclosed
Roll with it, come on let's roll with it

Dark angel, what's bothering you
So strange, you do me all that you do
Dark angel, you're making me blue
I guess it doesn't matter
I guess it doesn't matter

Picasso moon, blinding ball
I feel the quickening, I hear the call
Picasso moon, fill the sky
Amaze and blaze and mystify
With the lunar wind, I want to fly
And it's bigger than a drive-in movie, oh my
And it's bigger than a drive-in movie, oh my

Strikes the morning, the atomic dawn
Scramble back to cover
Quick, gotta get your sunglasses on
My little leather-winged lover
I see your face printed on my money
Your brazen ways really move me, honey
Heart of darkness, yeah, yeah
Why am I laughing, this ain't funny

Dark angel, now just don't start
You'll break my spirit, you'll wreck my heart
You must have a licence for practicing that art
I don't presume to imagine
No, I don't presume to imagine

Picasso moon, fractal flame
Blazing lace filling every frame
Picasso moon, wheels within wheels
The bells are ringing, it's way unreal
Trying to tell y'all about just how it feels
And it's bigger than a drive-in movie, for real
And it's bigger than a drive-in movie, for real

Picasso moon, shattered light
Diamond bullets ripping up the night
Picasso moon, liberate me
Picasso moon, blinding ball
I feel the quickening, I hear the call
Picasso moon, fill the sky
Picasso moon, fractal flame
Blazing lace filling every frame
Picasso moon, wheels within wheels
Picasso moon, shining bright
The universe is working fine tonight
Picasso moon, illuminate me
  

    <scribbled by tnf Mon 20 Aug 07 06:01>
  

    

Previous posting deleted at the request of the poster.
  

    
I posted on dead.net drawing on the various periods assigned to
Picasso's work - Blue, Rose, Cubist etc:

The Picasso Moon has several phases, beginning its cycle as a Blue
Moon, showing respect for the great American songbook, as well as
paying homage to the Blues. It morphs into a Rose Moon, elemental
Grateful Dead iconography, where new life is watered by the rain and
love blooms. Next is an African Moon, tapping elemental percussion,
powering the dance. Then comes the Sugar Cube Moon, an angular
perspective, acid that strips away pretence and artifice and exposes
the truth of lust, greed and revenge alongside hope, kindness and
enlightenment, where murder coexists with play. Finally, the Surrealist
Moon illuminates a world where everyday experience takes on new
meaning, where shadows lean towards the light and there are ripples on
still water.
  

    
nice!
  

    
Yes, I loved that! Thanks, Robin!
  

    
Now <4> makes sense out of Picasso Moon.....

Interesting to read the lyrics, too. I could never understand them.
Perhaps I never tried.
  

    

There's a doc about the making of BUILT TO LATE, it begins with work on
"Picasso Moon." I heard this line go by; it didn't make it to the final cut.

I want a novel
But I'm getting TV
  

    <scribbled by alexallan>
  

    

(wrong topic, Alex?)
  

    
Proves the point.
  

    
Oops - sorry!
  

    
David. I see that AGDL says lyrics were by Barlow with Weir and​
Bralove, with music by Bob Weir. Did Bob Bralove really contribute​
to the lyrics? I'd assumed he was more likely to have contributed to​
the music?
  

    

I'll ask Bob!
  

    

Bralove replies:


Well the authorship of that song was split three ways evenly. Bobby and I got
the groove going and Barlow brought in the lyrics. But then Bobby wanted some
changes in the lyrics.  As the new lyrics came in Bobby and I would discuss
them. I feel my contribution to the lyrics was more about - The music is ex-
pansive at this point and the lyric is  kind of small.  If there was a dif-
ferent word or two here the emotion would better match the music. - That kind
of thing.  A little subtle but Bobby must have felt it important enough to
divide up the song that way.
  

    

More from Bralove, after I remarked that I thought the song sounds a bit like
the Rolling Stones:


Bobby was working to a drum groove in his studio when he did the opening riff
and I immediately turned to him and said - I want to hear that again.  So he
played it twice. Then he played it again.

Not sure that he was thinking stones but at one point when we were working he
did one of his chromatic modulations through a series of chords and said "I'd
like to see Keith Richards play that!"
  

    
HA!
  

    
Fascinating - thanks
  

    
!!!
  

    
I always wondered if Picasso’s painting Guerinca inspired that​
song.