Dead Songs in Depth

    
Eyes Of The World
w: Hunter m: Garcia
AGDL: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/eyes.html
LASF: http://www.whitegum.com/songfile/EYESWORL.HTM
  

    
Eyes Of The World 
Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Jerry Garcia

Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

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
Wondering where the nuthatch winter's
Wings a mile long
Just carried the bird away

Chorus
Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world
But the heart has its beaches, its homeland and thoughts of its own
Wake now discover that you are the song that the morning brings
But the heart has its seasons, its evenings and songs of its 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, its close on the heels of the day

[chorus]

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

[chorus]
  

    
This is a note I received from a reader of the annotated lyrics site:

From: jarrodgutman@comcast.net [mailto:jarrodgutman@comcast.net]
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2003 12:07 PM
To: ddodd@mcflmail.org
Subject: Eyes of the World


There comes a redeemer
and he slowly too fades away
There follows a wagon behind him
that's loaded with clay
and the seeds that were silent
all burst into bloom and decay
The night comes so quiet
and it's close on the heels of the day

I always thought this was a thinly-veiled reference to Jesus and
Christianity, although I
am not familiar with the Gnostic tradition, so it may well refer to that (or
to both).
Redeemer, of course, I thought of as Jesus, who was said to redeem humanity
from sin
through his death.  He slowly too fades away, I think, refers to the removal
of Christ qua
philosophy from Christianity qua religion (i.e. the gradual devaluation of
the spiritual
principles that Christ preached in favor of an organized religion, factions
of which have
been responsible for the worst genocide in recorded history, etc.).  The
wagon behind
him loaded with clay again, I think, refers to the following of Christ after
his death, which
was clay in that it was bound to the earth and bound by earthly experience.
It would be
doomed to fall short of Christ's ideals precisely because this following,
this Christianity,
was an earthly creation run by men.  The seeds that were silent, I believe,
references the
parable of the farmer which, I believe, appears in the New Testament
(somewhere).  In
this parable, Jesus talks about a farmer planting seeds.  Some seed fell on
hard rock,
and was dried up, some on fertile soil, and grew into enough wheat to feed a
nation.  The
seed he was referring to was love, and the people's hearts as the rich soil,
or vice versa.
As far as the song goes, I believe the seeds that were silent bursting into
bloom were the
hearts touched by the love of Christ.  The decay occured down the line in
history as time
and men's hearts and minds moved further away from the actual presence of
Christ, and
brotherly love decayed.  The end of this verse confirms for me that it is
clearly a reference
to Jesus.  There is a passage in the New Testament (again, somewhere) that
states that
Christ will return like a thief in the night to judge humanity.  I feel this
last part of the verse
is a statement that the day of the return of Christ and the day of judgment
may soon come
subtly and without warning.  It's close on the heels of the day means the
return of Christ
and/or the day of judgment will be coming sooner than we think or care to
recognize.
What do you think?
  

    

Not bad!
  

    
Yeah, but you can see the facets of that gem in many perspectives. As
an Aethist/Buddhist-tending secular Jew, I've never had to connect it
directly to any one religious tradition. It could apply as well to the
Greek Mystery Rites as Taoism or monotheistic traditions.

Wide open stuff... take from those verses what thou wilt.All valid
given the moment and present point of view. That's part of the lyric's
beauty, for me... and that music...
  

    
"hero with feet of clay" and "plaster saint" come to mind as well....
  

    
Yes.
  

    
Is there an official name or a taper name for the jam that would
typically come after the last big melodic Garcia solo, in '74 and
probably '73 performances of Eyes (and maybe other years)?  It's
kinda disruptive to the melody of the song, because it sounds like
parts of it are in a different time signature and a flattened key. 
I call it "Eyes Breakdown Jam."

In this tape of the 8/6/74 show, for example, it starts the
breakdown around 13:50.

https://archive.org/details/gd1974-08-06.135929.mtx.tobin.flac16/gd1974-08-06d
1t07.flac
  

    

I asked Weir once if he remembered who composed it, and he couldn't recall!

Disruptive? It's a piece of music unto itself, coming after EYes of the
World. The musicologists and tapers would probably prefer that be given a
name and tracked separately, but someone decided otherwise.
  

    
Disruptive was the first word I thought of, when I thought about how
it has a quick cut to a completely different piece of music, as you
call it.  Thanks for answering my question.  You're exactly on
point.

In my mind I also call that '77ish jam in Dancing in the Streets a
"breakdown jam."  Disruptive is not the right word.  It just cuts
and takes the music in a different direction.
  

    
I think of it as bearing the same relationship to Eyes that Slipknot
does to Help on the Way
  

    
gozinta Franklins Tower

and we have gone full circle back to the Topic of Franklins Tower
  

    


Hi David -

I have to ask it this way because I'm sure I'd never get through by phone -
here's something I've never seen written about or questioned by anyone,
anywhere.

Hunter is a stickler for language. Why is it that he never corrected Jerry
for saying "nut-thatch winters" rather than "nuthatch"?  This is particularly
surprising as Jerry was uncommonly bright and well-read as we know.  And what
a shame that the two guys who could answer definitively are no longer with
us.

Thanks,
Joe
  

    
As far as I've read, Hunter was not a great one for correction or
explanation.
  

    
Great question, Joe. And Gans is right, far as I can tell too. But
this past couple of weeks, I've been in Maine, surrounded by
nuthatches. So the song has been running through my mind, and it's
given me a conversation topic, talking about Jerry's reading of the
word. 
  

    
When Bobby sings it now, he says nut-thatch. Always makes me chuckle
  

    
and he says ci-kay-da too
  

    
At the Weir/Wolf show a few nights ago in Waterbury, he sang
"nut-hatch" (not "thatch") and "ci-KAY-das."
  

    
Do you have cicadas in California? Always bugged me when Jerry sang
ci-cah-da. Pun intended.
  

    
Pretty sure we don't. I didn't learn the propoer pronunciation of cicada
until I got to France a few years ago. 
  

    
The word is Spanish origin I suspect. Anyway, both pronunciations
are correct. In Oz we say ci-kaa-da.
  

    
It's Latin. Yes, both are correct.
  

    
I don't recall hearing Cicadas singing until I left California.
  

    
Well how about that. OK, Jerry, I forgive you now ;)
  

    
Yes, in California we can hear people sing about cicadas but we
don’t hear cicadas actually singing. 
  

    

<https://www.dead.net/deadcast/wake-flood-50-eyes-world>