Dead Songs in Depth

    
<I know we've all seen this sky>

At The Gorge this summer, as the "sun went down in honey, and the moon
came up in wine" for The Dead's first song, the moon was just a sliver
and a star to the right of the stage off in the northwest direction
toward Vancouver, BC. They weren't playing "Terrapin" though, but that
Barlow/Weir number.  
  

    
quibbly: doesn't "brand new" mean totally absolutely new?

but of course language is poetical not scientific
  

    
Oh, from the upper left hand quadrant
Of a relatively new crescent moon
Crickets and cicadas rapidly rub their legs together, generating sound
A rare and different tune
Terrapin Station
  

    
I love that! But remember about the crickets and cicadas singing at
different times of day; how would you capture that and make it scan?
  

    
plus it's pronounced sih-KAY-das (and don't get me started on the
nuthatches)


sure, from the upper left hand quadrant
of a relatively new crescent moon
crickets and cicadas rapidly rub their legs together, generating sound
a unique and yet familiar sound approximating a tune
railroad depot for turtles
in a place where you can see the moon
railroad depot for turtles

and i'm convinced i will arrive there in the not-too-distant future

turtles
but i still am bemused
turtles
about the orientation of time
turtles
but the locomotive is belatedly attempting an emergency stop
turtles
and the rising sound of the increasing steam pressure escaping through
a valve has taken on the feeling of a terror shriek
turtles
  

    
Yay!
Yes, same here about nuthatches...different topic, though.
  

    
But if the crescent is the object - the crescent is brand new - brand new
CRESCENT moon...
  

    
TURTLES!
  

    

(enjoying this a lot)
  

    
my experience was that cicadas sing at night along with the crickets
and frogs

research on the web shows it varies, but this web page supports them
singing at night especially the comment at the bottom

http://www.cicadamania.com/cicadas/2005/07/27/do-cicadas-sing-at-night/
  

    
Cicadas sing during the day and the evening but settle down at night,
in my experience.
  

    
Looking into the pronunciation of cicada a bit...my Webster's second
gives both pronunciations, with the long "a" listed first.
  

    
As in, "Flamin' Ada!"?
  

    
As in, "Sick Ada".
  

    

Jerry sang "I will not FORSAKE you if you will not take a chance" on 5/19/77.
A VERY interesting substitution!
  

    
I always thought that was the real lyric, but that may be too
psychedellic for timeless art.
  

    
Responding to a months-old comment:

tnf>  Jerry sang "I will not FORSAKE you if you will not take 
tnf>  a chance" on 5/19/77.
tnf>  A VERY interesting substitution!

I couldn't give you dates, but I'm quite sure Jerry said "forsake"
a least a half a dozen times.
  

    
My ears agree. 

Unless you are of the "could care less means the same as couldn't care
less" school of thought the substitution steals the meaning.
  

    
Perhaps it does, though the harsh judgement of the original is not  in
character for him. 
  

    
Though the test itself is a little on the harsh side.
  

    

<http://soundcloud.com/amellowsoul/flyer-siding-refrain>
<ttp://soundcloud.com/amellowsoul/transit-and-siding-lyrics>

Work tapes from "Terrapin Station" development, featuring the late Jim
McPherson, Phil Lesh, and Mickey Hart.
  

    
The song isn't just about the destination, Terrapin, in my opinion.
The "lady" in a romantic piece is often symbolic for the soul. Going
into the lion's den to retrieve the fan symbolizes, to me, a quest
(e.g., for the Holy Grail), or the struggles we experience along the
wheel of life (Dharmacakra) as we approach Nirvana/enlightenment/etc.
You do indeed risk pains of hell as you make that journey - but if you
never take the chance, the train will never leave the station, and you
will never approach the destination. Perhaps, then, the lady and the
terminal station are one in the same?

I say all this under the influence of caffeine, mind you. Under other
influences, I've also mused that the fan thrown into the lion's den
could be a Dead fan. And of course, the ultimate mystery: What's with
the turtles??
  

    

> Perhaps, then, the lady and the terminal station are one in the same?

Hm.
  

    

I have often posited that "terrapin" is a play on words.  Terra = planet
earth, pin - upright citizen.

Integer vitae?
  

    
It is somewhat interesting that a terrapin is an animal, and could be
an anthropomorphized one. Like the sheep in Pink Floyd's animals. 

"Only dimly aware of a certain unease in the air."

"I can't figure out if it's the end or beginning."

"I looked over Jordan, and I've seen things are not what they seem."

"While the firelight's aglow, strange shadows from the flames will
grow, till things we've never seen seem familiar."

Of course, the Floyd tale is darker, and the narrator seems
emotionally removed from the world he describes. The storyteller in
Terrapin, on the other hand, seems to be pondering the existential
meaning of it all, just like the rest of us; ALTHOUGH, he is also
concealing something that he will not reveal, even though we try to pay
him off in gold.