Grateful Dead: Franklin's Tower

Performance @ Radio City 10-31-80:

Song Factoids:
-Wonder what this Grateful Dead second set standard is all about? Here is a long-winded explanation by GD lyricist Robert Hunter.


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

In another time's forgotten space
Your eyes looked from your mother's face
Wildflower seed on the sand 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]
[chorus]
[etc]