Dead Songs in Depth

    
Greatest Story Ever Told
w: Hunter m: Weir, Hart
AGDL: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/greatest.html
LASF: http://www.whitegum.com/songfile/GREATEST.HTM
  

    
Greatest Story Ever Told 
Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Bob Weir, Mickey Hart

Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

Moses come riding up on a quasar
His spurs was a-jingling, the door was ajar
His buckle was silver, his manner was bold
I asked him to come on in out of the cold
His brain was boiling, his reason was spent
Nothing is borrowed, nothing is lent
I asked him for mercy, he gave me a gun
Now and again these things just got to be done

Abraham and Isaac sitting on a fence
Get right to work if you have any sense
You know the one thing we need is a left-hand monkey wrench

Gideon come in with his eyes on the floor
Says, "you ain't got a hinge, you can't close the door"
Moses stood up a full six foot ten
Said "you can't close the door when the wall's caved in"
I asked him for water he poured me some wine
We finished the bottle then broke into mine
You get what you come for, you're ready to go
And it's one in ten thousand done come for the show

Abraham and Isaac digging on a well
Mama come quick with the water witch spell
Cool clear water where you can't never tell
  

    <scribbled by tnf Mon 2 Feb 09 09:34>
  

    

Isaac is Abraham's son with Sarah. Ishamael is Abraham's son with Hagar.

Isaac and Ishmael are the two brothers often seen as representing the
diverging lines of Judaism and Islam.
  

    
Yes. Those would be the brothers in question. Made quite a lot of
trouble even after their day, if the story be true.

Oh, and for what it's worth, there was a night in 1974 when I "got
it". The lyric "you can't close the door when the wall's caved in" came
throbbing out of some seriously huge and ridiculous speakers in a true
dump of a dorm room in a place called ADPhi. My buddies, Dance'a'More,
Abbott, and Mateo were grinnin' like jack'o'laterns, 'cuz they knew
what was gonna happen to their tenderfoot pal. I haven't been quite
right since ;-)
  

    
that line made a huge impression on me at my third show, hampton '85.
i was on the rail and the dynamics of that moment were monstrous.

monstrous good.
  

    
I remember it clearly from the final Keith & Donna show at the Oakland
Coliseum Arena, in a benefit for the Campaign for Economic Democracy.
Whatever I may have consumed that evening, the entire show seemed tinged by
the political benefit, and Greatest Story was no exception. In particular,
the search for a left-hand monkey wrench seemed extremely significant.
  

    
I always wondered about Hunter's state of mind, point of view, that
when this guy came to the door he resembled Moses (!), the great  and
powerful Oz, I mean law-giver. Its great imagery, this psychoative
tussel between him and "Gideon" who Moses has to explain "obvious"
things to from his 6'10" height. Sheepish Gideon was hiding in a
winepress when the raiders came into Israel, and threw out fleeces in
unbelief at God's command and his own ability to lead Israel to
victory. No wonder Moses had to stand 6'10". then the other guys in the
corner with the monkey-wrench, makikng grad plans to do nothing in
particular. But they had, mmm...mmm, good clean water.
  

    

<2> deleted at the author's request.
  

    
I noticed the phrase "one in ten thousand" today in the first chapter
of Jack London's Call Of the Wild: 

Perrault knew dogs, and when he looked at Buck he knew that he was one
in a thousand-- "One in ten t'ousand," he commented mentally.

<http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Jack_London/The_Call_of_the_Wild/Into_the_Primi
tive_p7.html>