"Singing 'someone got to turn the page'"

The Annotated "Throwing Stones"

An installment in The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics.
By David Dodd

Copyright notice
"Throwing Stones"
Words by John Perry Barlow; music by Bob Weir
Barlow has posted the lyrics to his songs.
Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission

Picture a bright blue ball, just spinning, spinnin free,
Dizzy with eternity.
Paint it with a skin of sky,
Brush in some clouds and sea,
Call it home for you and me.
A peaceful place or so it looks from space,
A closer look reveals the human race.
Full of hope, full of grace
Is the human face,
But afraid we may lay our home to waste.

There's a fear down here we can't forget.
Hasn't got a name just yet.
Always awake, always around,
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.

Now watch as the ball revolves
And the nighttime falls.
Again the hunt begins,
Again the bloodwind calls.
By and by, the morning sun will rise,
But the darkness never goes
From some men's eyes.
It strolls the sidewalks and it rolls the streets,
Staking turf, dividing up meat.
Nightmare spook, piece of heat,
It's you and me.
You and me.

Click flash blade in ghetto night,
Rudies looking for a fight.
Rat cat alley, roll them bones.
Need that cash to feed that jones.
And the politicians throwin' stones,
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.

[Bridge:]
Commissars and pin-stripe bosses
Roll the dice.
Any way they fall,
Guess who gets to pay the price.
Money green or proletarian gray,
Selling guns 'stead of food today.

So the kids they dance
And shake their bones,
And the politicians throwin' stones,
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.

Heartless powers try to tell us
What to think.
If the spirit's sleeping,
Then the flesh is ink

History's page will thus be carved in stone.
And we are here, and we are on our own
On our own.
On our own.
On our own.

[Instrumental]

If the game is lost,
Then we're all the same.
No one left to place or take the blame.
We can leave this place and empty stone
Or that shinin' ball we used to call our home.

So the kids they dance
And shake their bones,
And the politicians throwin' stones,
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.

[Bridge two:] Shipping powders back and forth
Singing black goes south and white comes north.
In a whole world full of petty wars
Singing I got mine and you got yours.
And the current fashion sets the pace,
Lose your step, fall out of grace.
And the radical, he rant and rage,
Singing someone's got to turn the page.
And the rich man in his summer home,
Singing just leave well enough alone.
But his pants are down, his cover's blown...

And the politicians throwin' stones,
So the kids they dance
And shake their bones,
And it's all too clear we're on our own.
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.

Picture a bright blue ball,
Just spinnin', spinnin, free.
Dizzy with the possibilities.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.


"Throwing Stones"

Written in Cora, Wyoming, August -December, 1982

Recorded on In The Dark.

First performed September 17, 1982 at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, Maine. In the repertoire ever since.


Ashes, ashes, all fall down

From a children's rhyme, which, according to The Annotated Mother Goose, is not really all that old, dating back to Kate Greenaway's 1881 Mother Goose. So much for all the theories claiming that the song refers to the Black Plague. It's basically a ring dance, where all the kids get to "dance and shake their bones," and fall down at the end. No heavy subtext.

There are many variations on the rhyme (interesting or unbelievable that they all should have devloped since the 1880's...) Here are a few:

An essay on the influence of nursery rhymes, Grateful Goose, is available.


jones

From the Oxford English Dictionary:
"Jones...2. slang. A drug addict's habit. 1968 Sun Mag. (Baltimore) 13 Oct. 19/4 Soon you're out to keep from getting the Jones. 1970 C. MAJOR Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 71 Jones, a fixation; drug habit; compulsive attachment."

No one seems to have a theory on the origin of the word, but it appears to have appeared quite recently in its current meaning, say about 1965.


throwin' stones

Echoes the biblical saying, also found in "Playing in the Band", against casting stones unless you are without sin.

If the spirit's sleeping, then the flesh is ink

Maybe I'm imagining this connection, but there's another children's rhyme:
"If all the world were paper,
And all the sea were ink,
If all the trees were bread and cheese,
What should we have to drink?"--Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, p. 436

And this note from a reader:

Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 13:02:19 GMT
From: Alex Allan
Subject: Re: "If the spirit's sleeping, then the flesh is ink"

I always heard echoes of the biblical reference:

"The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak"

Best wishes - and happy Christmas

Alex



--


Alex Allan


alex@acsa.demon.co.uk



we are on our own

Reminiscent of the Neil Young song, "Ohio" which includes the lines:
"Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
We're finally on our own
This summer I hear the drumming
Four dead in Ohio."

Shipping powders back and forth...

In Conversations with the Dead, David Gans reveals that he wrote these lines about cocaine and gunpowder.
keywords: @bible, @nursery rhymes, @politics
DeadBase code: [THRO]
First posted: May 10, 1995
Last revised: December 12, 1996