Dead Songs in Depth

    
Franklin's Tower
w: Hunter m: Garcia
AGDL: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/franklin.html
LASF: http://www.whitegum.com/songfile/FRANKLIN.HTM
  

    
Franklin's Tower 
Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Jerry Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann

Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

In another time's forgotten space
Your eyes looked from your mother's face
Wildflower seed on the stand and stone
May the four winds blow you safely home

Chorus
Roll away the dew
Roll away the dew
Roll away the dew
Roll away the dew

I'll tell you where the four winds dwell
In Franklin's tower there hangs a bell
It can ring, turn night to day
It can ring like fire when you lose your way

[chorus]

God save the child who rings that bell
It may have one good ring baby, you can't tell
One watch by night, one watch by day
If you get confused listen to the music play

[chorus]

Some come to laugh their past away
Some come to make it just one more day
Whichever way your pleasure tends
If you plant ice, you're gonna harvest wind

[chorus]

In Franklin's tower the four winds sleep
Like four lean hounds the lighthouse keep
Wildflower seed in the sand and wind
May the four winds blow you home again

[chorus]
  

    



Branden Wolner writes:


I am reading The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks and stumbled across what I
believe is a Franlin's Tower reference. The main character is telling a
story about when he was 8 and he and his younger brother found an unexploded
bomb on the beach. He is trying to get his brother to "ring" the bell and
tells him "It's an old bell and it might only have one good noise left in
it." This is very reminiscent of the line in Franklin's Tower: "God save the
child who rings that bell. It may have one good ring baby, you can't tell."
And by the way, the character's name is Frank.
  

    
When was that written?
  

    


Branden Wolner writes:

In response to the question by David A. Mason, The Wasp Factory by Iain
Banks was written in 1984, well after Franklin's was first recorded.
Clearly it is a tip of the hat by the author Banks.  There is another
part of the book after the cite above where the character Frank is in a
garbage dump and he mentions the foul wind blowing and then says pieces
of paper were swirling in the whirlwind.  I don't have the text right
in front of me but this could have been a reference to "winds both foul
and fair all swarm".  I am going to have to go back and reread his
other books looking for other Dead references now.

Branden
  

    
One of the best shows I ever saw was the Legion Of Mary at the
Benjamin(beenjamm'in  mon :-) Franklin Tower Theater in Upper
Darby,outside of Philly.
  

    
geez, for a minute there I thought you said you say Legion of Mary jamming
Franklin's Tower, and I was gonna say...what drugs were YOU on that night??
I didn't hear it :-)
  

    
To be honest,
Sugar Cube:-)))
The production was put on by midnight sun.
The band was the Legion Of Mary
The venue was the Bejamin Franklin Tower Theater in Upper Darby.
Sometime in the 70's.(after 74)
Anybody got a tape?

I was playing on the name benjamin... Been jamm'in

I snuck down the aisle (to the front)and the usher told me to leave.
I put up a finger and asked for "just one minute"
Garcia walked over and did the best solo I've ever seen him do!!!
"the landlord was knock'in on my front door"
He was kicking and sweat was flying off his head!
When he was done(about 20 minutes later)
he turned and walked back to his spot, and I went back up to the
balcony.
The sound was/is the best up there in the back.
just like a ring in the bell.
 
  

    
Posted on behalf of a correspondent:

Hi David,
 
First off I'd like to say that your book/website (annotated grateful
dead lyrics) is amazing. I bought the book as a gift for my favorite
teacher in high school and I'd never seen him so pleased with me
hahaha. Anyway, I recently read somewhere that Jerry Garcia used the
"doo do doo" part of Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" as a starting
point for the music for "Franklin's Tower." Having just listened to
"Walk on the Wild Side" I definitely notice similarities, but I was
wondering if you could verify this. Thanks
 
Tari Dagogo-Jack
  

    

Both songs use the simplest of chord progressions, I-IV, and the "doot-d'doo"
vocals in the Lou Reed song describe the same passing chord as the one in
"Franklin's Tower," but I don't think Jerry necessarily took his musical cue
from Lou Reed.  That structure is as old as Western music, really.
  

    
Nevertheless--a fun idea for a quodlibet!
  

    
Does anyone know anything about the process of "rolling away the dew?"
 Doesn't it have something to do with casting metal?  I actually
thought I read this at David Dodd's page but could not find anything
when searching recently.  
  

    
The reference is there: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/AGDL/shalit.html

As you probably know, Robert Hunter has a great of love of American History.
The song is about events during the American revolution. 'Franklin' refers
to Benjamin Franklin. The 'Bell' in the tower is the Liberty Bell.

Casting large metal objects is a complicated process. Casting bells is
additonally complicated by the fact that bells must be able to withstand the
stress of ringing, and they must produce a good tone. The Liberty Bell was
not only very large, but it needed to ring loudly and clearly enough to be
heard around the world. This was pushing the limits of 18th century
technology.

As you probably know, Benjamin Franklin was not only a philosopher and
statesman, he was an inventor. He was involved in the design of the Liberty
Bell in the following way:

Franklin postulated that a process which he called "dewing" could be used to
improve the production process of large bells. Dewing basically involves
exposing the freshly cast bell to large quantities of steam while the bell
is still hot. The steam causes a rapid cooling, producing droplet of 'dew'
on the bell. After the dew is formed, the bell is rolled between large
cotton sheets. He described this process as "rolling away the dew".

Unfortunately, Franklin's contempories had a very hard time understanding
his technology. He showed them sample bells, asking him to simply look at
the results without trying to understand the process. This was when he
uttered the now famous quote, "if you get confused, listen to the music
play."

In the end, Franklin couldn't convince the foundry to use his dewing
process. Instead they used an alternate process developed by a Frenchman
named Simon Legree (who eventually turned out to be a British agent).
Simon's process involved planting small ice crystals (seeds) into the metal
while the bell was being cast.

As we all know, the Liberty Bell didn't last very long. I believe it had one
good ring, but you can't really tell because it was so long ago.

Apparently the one time it was rung was during a storm. After ringing, the
famous crack developed in the side of the bell and the wind blew through the
crack. They tried ringing the bell again, but the only sound was of the wind
blowing through the crack.

Benjamin Franklin was understandably disgusted. When asked later about the
incident, his only comment was "They planted ice, so they harvested wind."
The ice refers to an alternate dewing process they used at the suggestion of
a rival inventor (I'll spare you the details, but he turned out to be quite
a Tory). The wind, of course, is the lack of sound from subseqent ringings.
  

    
Thank you!  That is exactly what I was looking for.
  

    <scribbled>
  

    
I loved this, pauli!!!
  

    
And I always thought it was about snorting coke through a $100 bill!
;)
  

    
<pauli> very nice! All comes clear as cracked crystal!
  

    
Most people I’ve talked to describe an upbeat hopeful interpretation
of the song Franklin’s Tower. Franklin’s Tower is seen as a mystical
watchtower or lighthouse, which is a beacon of sound and light to
watch over and guide you safely home if you lose your way. To “roll
away the dew “ is to roll back the morning fog into the sunshine and
to bring clarity to your path. And Franklin becomes Benjamin
Franklin and the bell becomes the liberty bell to spread freedom
across the land.

There is a more apocalyptic interpretation passed down through
deadhead folklore from soon after the song’s debut. Franklin becomes
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the president who authorized the
Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb which eventually led to
the policy of MAD (mutually assured destruction) between the USA and
Russia. The lyric “One watch by night, one watch by day” describes
their position on opposite sides of the planet. The tower is the
silo, containing the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM),
which when shortened lyrically becomes the “ice” in “if you plant
ice you are going to harvest wind.” The bell is the bomb and ringing
it explodes it so that it “rings like fire”, “turn(s) night to day”,
and the shockwave unleashes the 4 winds in all directions. The
wildflower seed becomes the radiation fallout or dew referring back
to the song Morning Dew. And “roll away the dew” is to prevent the
dew from happening. The mother in “your eyes looked from your
mother’s face” becomes mother earth. Every lyric can be fit to this
interpretation. 

The apocalyptic interpretation correlates somewhat to a prior famous
song All Along the Watchtower by Bob Dylan. That song also has
apocalyptical interpretations and lyrical content similarities. Both
songs have a tower. Both speak of confusion “There's too much
confusion, I can't get no relief” versus “If you get confused just
listen to the music play”. Both allude to those who do not take the
situation seriously in “There are many here among us who feel that
life is but a joke” versus “Some come to laugh the past away”. And
All Along the Watchtower has the apocalyptic interpretations of the
verses “The hour's getting late” and “Outside in the cold distance,
A wildcat did growl, Two riders were approaching, And the wind began
to howl.” The riders can be seen as two of the horsemen of the
apocalypse: war and death.

In an interview (Going Down the Road, Blair Jackson, 1992,  p. 115)
discussing his lyrics, Hunter said “I think what looks like
obfuscation in my work is a predilection. I will sacrifice some
meaning for the sound of something, because that is a lot of what it
is about for me – interesting turns of phrases and colorful ways of
expressing things.” That is how ICMB can be shortened to ice. In an
interview discussing Franklin’s Tower (No Simple Highway, Peter
Richardson, 2015, p. 106), Hunter explained the “lyrics were
elusive, not because they were meaningless, but because the
associative patterns produced a surfeit of meaning.
  

    
Interesting. I never heard that second take on the song.
  

    
Very interesting indeed, rings true to me.
  

    
Years ago, on the old Dead.net site, Hunter used to have an
clickable icon in the Space of that page and it led to Hunter's own
Journal, Notes on Lyrics and discussions by Hunter on various
schtuff. Following one of those threads, one day, I came across a
long dissertation Hunter wrote in response to somebody about the
lyrics of "Franklin's Tower" many years earlier. God only knows if I
could find it again today but then I read every word and it was so
fascinating and dense, I think I even figured out way back when how
to print it. Anyhoo, IIRC and not to put words in Hunter's mouth,
one thing he did explain in this piece was that the Franklin's Tower
in the lyrics was a reference to the building in Philadelphia known
now as Liberty Hall and he connected the Tower of that building as
Benjamin Franklins. Further to that, he explained that the bell in
the lyrics was the Liberty Bell. There was way more in the
explication of lyrics response but those two items I remember pretty
well.
Does anybody here remember that piece? I do remember that it was
buried pretty deep in all of the exclusively Hunter schtuff. Later
  

    

I do have a vague memory of seeing that piece.
  

    
http://jlovkay.web.wesleyan.edu/ftreal.html
  

    
Hunter says there is a Morning Dew allusion (which Hunter attributes
to Tim Rose, I thought it was a Bonnie Dobson tune). So there is a
nuclear war aspect in Hunter's original conception.
  

    
And that Hunter essay is included in the notes on Franklin's Tower
on the Annotated GD Lyrics website....