Dead Songs in Depth

    
Days Between
w: Hunter m: Garcia
AGDL: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/days.html
LASF: http://www.whitegum.com/songfile/DAYSBETW.HTM
  

    
Days Between 
Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Jerry Garcia

Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

There were days, and there were days
And there were days between
Summer flies and August dies
The world grows dark and mean
Comes the shimmer of the moon
On black infested trees
The singing man is at his song
The holy on their knees
The reckless are out wrecking
The timid plead their pleas
No one knows much more of this
Than anyone can see
Anyone can see

There were days, and there were days
And there were days besides
When phantom ships with phantom sails
Set to sea on phantom tides
Comes the lightning of the sun
On bright unfocused eyes
The blue of yet another day
A springtime wet with sighs
A hopeful candle lingers
In the land of lullabies
Where headless horsemen vanish
With wild and lonely cries
Lonely cries

There were days, and there were days
And there were days I know
When all we ever wanted
Was to learn and love and grow
Once we grew into our shoes
We told them where to go
Walked halfway around the world
On promise of the glow
Stood upon a mountain top
Walked barefoot in the snow
Gave the best we had to give
How much we'll never know
We'll never know

There were days, and there were days
And there were days between
Polished like a golden bowl
The finest ever seen
Hearts of Summer held in trust
Still tender young and green
Left on shelves collecting dust
Not knowing what they mean
Valentines of flesh and blood
As soft as velveteen
Hoping love would not forsake
The days that lie between
Lie between
  

    

From the GDH list, posted with permission:



From: "jkelly" <jkelly@paonline.com>
To: <gdh@gdhour.com>
Subject: [GDH] Days Between thoughts
List-Subscribe: <http://gdhour.com/mailman/listinfo/gdh_gdhour.com>,
        <mailto:GDH-request@gdhour.com?subject=subscribe>


This song has had a tremendous impact on me since the first time I
truly heard the words.  This is Hunter at the absolute height of his
lyrical prowess.  The four verses take their theme from the four
seasons of the year, but not in the usual order.  The imagery and
emotive power of the lyrics could keep me raving for a long time, but
the one thought I wanted to share was about the verse that includes the
line, "Once we grew into our shoes...."  I'm reminded of a statement I
read from one of the Beatles who said, in effect, there are only four
people who ever lived who knew what it was like to be a Beatle from
inside the experience.

I get an image of Hunter writing these beautiful words with a headful
of memories, and similarly Jerry singing them with memories of those
impossibly high times, standing on the edge of the universe and leaning
over, and all the highs and lows that came with being in the Grateful
Dead, and the price paid for that experience: "how much we'll never
know."  It's no Sugar Magnolia, boogie in the sunshine song, but in its
own way it epitomizes the Dead for me along with a handful of other
tunes like "Stella Blue," "Crazy Fingers," and a few others.
  

    
jkelly's words are apt. >standing at the edge of the universe and
leaning over< Yep!

Nobody knows the costs of doing business as the Grateful Dead, but the
survivors. That lyric is so beautiful and the thoughts and emotions
that song begs are as bewildering as they are beguiling. To mangle a
couple of Hunter-esque metaphors, hearing "Days Between" well rendered
is like standing in a blizzard of rose petals.
  

    
xposting from Morning Dew and from facebake:

For Jews, the first 9 days of the Month of Av [] are a dark time, in
remembrance of the destruction of both Temples many years apart on the
9th of Av.

Jerry Garcia was born on an August 1st and died on the 9th of Aug.,
1995. Near the end of his life, he sang a wistful song called “Days
Between.” With a certain sad reverence, many Grateful Deadheads now
observe the first 9 days of Aug. as “The Days Between.”

9 days, 9 days! Coincidence?

I didn’t really know about the first 9 days of Av until I heard Rabbi
Naomi Levy’s sermon on Friday night, Aug. 1st. I knew about “Tisha
B’Av” -- the 9th of Av -- partly because it sounds funny (“tushy
bahv”), but also because I’ve fasted more than once on that day, being
a fan of self-flagellative rituals, perhaps.

Now is a turbulent time in the world, and got I comfort from the
sermon’s broad and balanced concern. Remarkably, something else came up
in the sermon that also struck a chord in my Deadheadish soul: The
wife of an Israeli soldier killed in the current conflict named their
baby, born after he died, something in Hebrew that means “light of the
morning dew.” “Morning Dew” is an anthemic bolero of a song that was a
staple of the Grateful Dead’s repertoire, often thought of as a protest
of the Vietnam War (“Where have all the people gone, my honey,” it
asks, akin to “Where have all the flowers gone”), but really more of an
antinuclear tone poem. “Morning Dew” delivers the heart-wrenching
lines,
“I thought I heard a baby cry this morning
I thought I heard a baby cry today
You didn't hear no baby cry this morning
You didn't hear no baby cry today”
Oy.
[]
For background on the thoughts above,
there’s this on “The Days Between”, by the Dean of Religious Life at
USC:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/varun-soni/the-days-between-and-the-_b_3700854.h
tml
and also this with the lyrics of the song:
http://artsites.ucsc.edu/GDead/agdl/days.html
then there’s this, with info and lyrics for “Morning Dew:”
http://bit.ly/1ugQ9DY
and this discussion of that song:
http://www.well.com/conf/deadsongs.vue/topics/141/Morning-Dew-page01.html
Now, to end with the longest history, here’s a crash course on the 9th
of Av, etc.:
http://www.aish.com/h/9av/mm/Crash_Course_on_Tisha_BAv.html .
  

    

I have been playing this song for a few years, first with Fragile Thunder
(with Stephen Inglis singing and me just playing guitar), and now in my solo
shows. There is so much going on in these words!

It's not just the band's story, either. "Truckin'" was more or less first-
pweron plural, but this bit of autobiography has us fans in it, too.

"The singing man is at his song
The holy on their knees
The reckless are out wrecking
The timid plead their pleas..."