May the 4 Winds Blow You Home Again

"If you lot get confused, listen to the music play"

The Annotated "Franklin's Tower"

An installment in The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics.
Past David Dodd
Research Associate, Music Dept., University of California, Santa Cruz

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Copyright observe

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• Robert Hunter, in his response to Jurgen Fauth's essay, explicates his ain lyric.
• Andrew Shalit's wonderful deconstruction of the lyric is hither.

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"Franklin's Tower"
Words by Robert Hunter; music by Jerry Garcia
Copyright Water ice Nine Publishing; used past permission

In another time's forgotten space
your eyes looked through your mother's confront
Wildflower seed on the sand and stone
may the four winds accident yous safely home

Roll away ... the dew
Roll abroad... the dew
Roll away... the dew
Roll away... the dew

Yous ask me where the four winds dwell
In Franklin's tower there hangs a bell
It can band, plow nighttime to day
Ring like burn down when you lose your way

Scroll away... the dew . . .

God aid the child who rings that bell
It may have one good ring left, you can't tell
One spotter by nighttime, 1 watch by day
If you get dislocated but mind to the music play

Roll away... the dew . . .

Some come to laugh their past away
Some come up to go far simply one more solar day
Whichever manner your pleasure tends
if you lot plant ice you're gonna harvest current of air

Roll away... the dew . . .

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 accident yous dwelling house once again

Coil away... the dew
Roll away... the dew
Whorl abroad... the dew
Roll abroad... the dew
You better roll away the dew

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"Franklin'due south Belfry"

Recorded on

• Blues For Allah
• Dead Set up
• One From the Vault
• Without a Net
• Dick'south Picks, Vol. 3.

First performance: June 17, 1975 at Winterland, San Francisco. This was the "Bob Fried Memorial Boogie", and the Dead'due south show included the get-go "Crazy Fingers" and the first "Help On the Way." The tune has remained in the repertoire since.

Covered by

• Wartime, a collaboration of Henry Rollins and Andrew Weiss, on Fast Food For Idea (1990)
• Steel Pulse on Fire On the Mountain

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In another time'due south...

This note from a reader:

Subject: The Annotated Franklin's Belfry
Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 14:10:34 -0500
From: "P B"

David,
What a fantastic website! Information technology has certainly enhanced my enjoyment of Robert Hunter's lyrics. I thought of Franklin's Tower this morning time on the way to work while listening to the last several lyrics of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks:

In another time
In another identify
In another fourth dimension
In another place
In another face

Afterwards because more carefully at the lyrics of each song, it occurred to me that they share the theme of a lifelong spiritual journeying to enlightenment ("may the 4 winds blow you home once again"; "I got a home on loftier in another land and then far abroad...way up in the heaven"). Morrison's guiding calorie-free is a woman, presumably his married woman at the fourth dimension Janet Planet, while Hunter's seems to be music. I haven't run across anything to advise that Morrison influenced Hunter, but at present I wonder if there was a connectedness.

Accept intendance,
Carl Desenberg

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four winds

In Greek mythology, co-ordinate to Bullfinch'southward Mythology:

[The winds were] "Boreas or Aquilo, the north wind; Zephyrus or Favonius, the west; Notus or Auster, the south; and Eurus, the east."--p. 176.

Here's a list of definitions of the wind gods from Mythtext, a web site:

• Zephyrus: Greek god of the west current of air. Son of Astraios and Eos. Believed to live in a cave in Thrace. Known to the Romans as Favonius.
• Boreas: Greek god of the north wind. Co-ordinate to Hesiod'southward Theogony, he was of Thracian origin, the son of Eos and Astraeos. He was the father of many famous horses, including those of Ares and Achilles. Boreas incurred the enmity of the Athenians when he abducted Oreithyia, the daughter of King Erechtheus of Athens, whom he made his wife. He was said to have atoned for this deed past sending a tempest which destroyed a Western farsi fleet on its way to attack Athens. In gratitude, the Athenians congenital a temple dedicated to him, and held a festival in his honour, the Boreasmos.
• Notus: Greek god of the south current of air. In Greece, the southward wind blows mainly in the fall. Son of Astraeus and Eos. Known to the Romans as Auster.
• Eurus: Greek god of eastward wind. Son of Eos, possibly by Astraeus. Sometimes equated by the Romans with Volturnus, the god of the river Tiber.

Illustration past Stuart-Revett, from OIKIA KRPPHETOR: Studien zum sogennannten Turm der Winde in Athen, Rome: Giorgio Bretschneider, 1983.

A reader, Paul Rolnick, wrote to alert me to the presence of a "Tower of Winds," in Athens, located on the Agora. It is an eight-sided ("The Xi"?!) tower constructed ca. 100-35 B.C.Due east. A frieze depicting the eight winds (yes, eight) runs along the acme of the tower, which was used every bit a behemothic hydraulic timepiece. Thank you, Paul!

For a set of images of the belfry, meet Kevin Glowacki'due south page/

Pursuing that tidbit, I likewise stumbled across a Belfry of the Winds in the Vatican, built by Gregory XIII, and known as the "Torre dei Venti." So, the thought of the winds living in a tower seems to be ancient and pervasive.

There is also a Biblical reference to the four winds, in Zechariah, Chapter two, v. 6: "I accept spread you abroad as the four winds of heaven."

Fats Domino had a hit with a song entitled "Let the 4 Winds Accident."

This note from another reader:

Engagement: Tue, v December 1995 ten:59:28 -0800
From: Michael Zelner
Subject: Franklin'due south Tower lyric

DD:

I received a kind e-post thank-you today from a reader of r.g.gd in response to my posting the text of a newspaper commodity at that place. She concluded her annotation with the following:

> May the forewinds blow you safely domicile!

Huh, I thought. I ever heard it as "four winds." I don't accept the sheet music in front end of me, only I think information technology'southward that fashion there, as well. And so of course I went to your Annotated Lyrics Web folio to check, and you have it as "4 winds" also.

But then I got to thinking, why non "forewinds?" I looked it upward in the OED:

"Forewind (Obs.) Besides for-. [f. FORE - pref. + WIND sb. Cf. Du. voorwind] A current of air that blows a ship frontward on her course, a favourable current of air."

So I learned something new today -- hope y'all did, too.

MZ

              _________________________      Michael Zelner   Oakland CA USA   e-mail: michaelz@zoka.com   _________________________          

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Roll away the dew

Compare the folksong "Blow Away the Morning Dew", (Child No. 112) with its refrain:

"Sing, accident away the morning dew,
the dew and the dew"

In that location is also the traditional celtic tune, "The Morning Dew", here in notation via the Tune Web.

This e-mail from a reader:

Subject: whorl away the dew...
Engagement: Friday, 17 Sep 1999 07:19:36 PDT
From: "Dominic Mastroianni"

Hi David,
This morning I was reading "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and some lines (117-18) from 4.1 defenseless my eye. Theseus is describing his hounds, which "are bred out of the Spartan kind," and he states, "their heads are hung/With ears that sweep away the forenoon dew." A link to "Franklin's Tower," with its "scroll away the dew" and "iv lean hounds?" To make the example stronger, these lines are preceded by a few from Hippolyta (his matrimonial), who recalls the barking of "hounds of Sparta" - "I never heard/So musical a discord, such sweet thunder" - an uncanny description of how the Dead can sound. Feel costless to use this on your site if y'all think it'due south worth noting. Take care, and thanks for all the work yous've done to assistance illuminate the songs.
--Dom Mastroianni

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Franklin's

This annotation from a reader:

From: mattrob487@aol.com [mailto:mattrob487@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, Nov 20, 2003 i:01 AM
Discipline: concerning Franklin'south Belfry in your annotated web page

What do you lot remember about the definition of a Franklin:

Main Entry: frank�lin Pronunciation: 'fra[ng]-kl&north Part: noun Etymology: Middle English frankeleyn, from Anglo-French fraunclein, from Sometime French franc Appointment: 14th century : a medieval English landowner of free but not noble birth          

It sounds as if Hunter is describing a belfry on a gratis person's land, probably surrounded by feudal lords. So in "God save the child that rings that bong..." Hunter is referring to freedom?
Thanks for the website. It rocks!!!!
_________________________________________
Matthew Robertson

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tower

This notation from a reader:

Appointment: Fri, 2 Dec 2005 xi:10:56 -0500
From: Dave Gomolka
To: ddodd@well.com
Subject: franklins belfry

Hullo Dave,

For some reason Franklins Tower but popped into my head and I idea I would do a little spider web search on those two words. I found a site regarding a lighthouse [Pigeon Betoken] in California. I wonder if Hunter might have had a bit of this in mind when he penned the lyrics.

Here is the site:

http://www.lanternroom.com/lighthouses/california/cal34.htm
[Annotation the salient sentences: "The conical-shaped masonry structure remains in a adept state of preservation despite information technology'southward many years of service. Though the sentinel stands where the British ship Sir John Franklin was wrecked shortly before the tower was built, the point bears the name of an earlier shipwreck. The Franklin ran afoul of the rocks in January 1865 and the helm and crew perished."]

Your site is very interesting; I just wish I had more fourth dimension to peruse.... I experienced the Expressionless many times from 77 to @ xc and information technology was always a spiritual journey....

Cheers,

David Gomolka

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if you lot plant ice you're gonna harvest wind

Compare the Biblical quotation from Hosea, Affiliate eight, poetry seven:

"For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind."

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iv lean hounds

This note from a reader:

Subject: Franklin's Tower - "...four lean hounds..."
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 20:24:40 EST
From: Plnnr@aol.com

Dear David:

I visited your note site today for the first time in many moons. I'k glad to however encounter that it is upwards and running.

While looking through Bartlett's today I came across a familiar phrase that merely blew my mind - "4 lean hounds." Information technology is from an e. e. cummings poem. Sad that I didn't write the entire reference down, but I figured you lot would have your own re-create of Bartlett's and could exercise the leg work.

Again, I'm glad to run across that the site is withal expanding. That is certainly a testament to Hunter's and Barlow's "well-readedness."

Accept care. I'll write again equally things flash by.

Lee Tyson

Here'southward the quote (and for more on Hunter'southward innuendo, see his explication of the lyric):

"four lean hounds crouched low and grinning
my heart barbarous dead earlier."
--e.e. cummings, "All in dark-green went my love riding." (1923)

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keywords: @music DeadBase code: [FRAN]

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Outset posted: March, 1995
Last revised: December 5, 2005

mintonspond1974.blogspot.com

Source: http://artsites.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/franklin.html

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