Revised FP 5: Anthem of the Sun by the Grateful Dead

In 1968 the psychedelic rock band, the Grateful Dead, released their second album Anthem of the Sun.  This album was released only a year after their debut album The Grateful Dead was released in 1967.  Their debut album was successful but Anthem of the Sun blew their prior success out of the water by becoming their most popular album, and one of the most popular albums of all time.  This album only has a total of five tracks, “That’s It for the Other One”, “New Potato Caboose”, “Born Cross-Eyed”, “Alligator” and “Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks)”, but these five tracks went down in history as some of the most influential and important songs of the psychedelic rock genre.  The Grateful Dead are the epitome of psychedelic rock and they have served as inspiration for numerous artists within their genre and many other genres as well. 

While there are many themes throughout this album there is one recurring theme that really stands out, death.  Sometimes the reference to death would be hidden but sometimes it would explicitly mention this theme of death and human mortality.  Although death is a popular theme in history the Grateful Dead take a spin on it and make it unique.  Listening to Anthem of the Sun creates this sense of impending doom and anxiety; it’s like the listener is on their own personal journey at the end of their life that ultimately results in death. 

The first track on Anthem of the Sun is “That’s It for the Other One”.  The song starts off with a chill, easy-going feeling.  The simple guitar riff lulls the listener into a dream-like state that continues through most of the song.  Towards the middle of the song the lyrics stop and you are immersed in the mesmerizing instrumentation until the lyrics start back up.  Throughout the song the pace quickens, the lyrics get faster and faster and the guitar starts getting stronger and stronger until the end of the song when everything collapses.  The lyrics stop, the instruments start playing notes that don’t mesh, and the sound of clocks and bells takes over and slowly gets dimmer and dimmer until the last part is the sound of a single bell ending out the song. 

When I first listened to this song it left me so confused, I didn’t know what to think of it.  I looked up the lyrics to hopefully get a better understanding of the song and once I did the theme of the song became clear to me, death.  Death is a very touchy subject and it’s something that’s very hard to talk about for most people.  It is the only thing that every person will experience and there’s no way to escape it.  It sounds very depressing when you discuss it so many artists avoid writing music that alludes to it, but not the Grateful Dead.  They were bold enough and talented enough to talk about death in a way that didn’t scare people.  

The first lyrics of the song are “the other day they waited, the sky was dark and faded//solemnly they stated, he has to die, you know he has to die”.  Right away the song’s lyrics expose listeners to what the song is going to talk about, but they do it in a way that is ironically relaxing.  Although the lyrics are talking about death, the calm style of singing and the mellow instrumentation make the listener feel relaxed and not afraid of what they have to say.  The Grateful Dead draws listeners in and makes them feel comfortable even though the chorus of the song is “he had to die, you know he had to die”.  Then they start to create this feeling of anxiety when the pace of the song quickens and the lyrics “comin’,comin’,comin’ around” start to repeat over and over.  Then the song reaches the point where everything falls apart and there are all sorts of sounds that don’t sound good together and make you cringe.  After everything falls apart the song ends with a calming sound of a bell that gets dimmer and dimmer until the very last note of the song.  These two points of the song are symbolic of someone experiencing death.  The point of the song when everything falls apart is like when someone is dying and their life is escaping them.  Then once they start to really slip away the music gets slower and the instruments are reduced to a single bell.  Like the final heartbeats of a dying person, the beats of the song slowly die off into nothing.  Towards the end it is painful to experience but in the final moments they become at peace with what is happening. 

After that intense eight minute opening song, the album continues with an even longer song “New Potato Caboose”.  Although this song is nearly nine minutes long it contains a lot of instrumentation and not a lot of lyrics.  This song is similar to the first in the sense that it has a dream-like vibe it gives off.  The carefree style of singing and easy instrumentation once again draw people in and produce this psychedelic vibe that the Grateful Dead are known for.  Unlike the first song though, this easy feeling continues throughout the entire song and the lyrics disappear halfway through the song and the instruments take over until the song is over.  In “New Potato Caboose” the Grateful Dead do what they do best, they make talking about a difficult subject into an easy experience.  The lyrics of the song talk about death and destruction  but not in a frightening way.  With examples like “when the windows all are broken//when the voices of the storm sound like a crowd//winter morning breaks, you’re all alone”  the Grateful Dead follow with their theme of death and painful experiences but are still able to stay within their distinct psychedelic, easy-going style.  

Although Anthem of the Sun only contains five songs, four of the five songs are each close to or over ten minutes long.  The third and middle song, “Born Cross-Eyed” is only a mere 3 minutes long though.  This song also continues with the theme of the rest of the album, but it presents it in a more intense way that the previous two songs didn’t.  The song feels like it is rushing by and the lyrics are trying to catch up with the pace of the instruments.  When I listened to this song I felt like I was running, trying to escape death and it was always right at my heels reaching out to get me.  The lyrics “and I don’t want to see anybody cry” and the repeated “good-bye, good-bye, good-bye” reinforce this idea of trying to escape death but then coming to grip with the reality that no one can allude death.  Death is a guaranteed thing and this song represents someone starting to come to that realization, which everyone has to go through eventually.  

After “Born Cross-Eyed” the next song “Alligator” starts it’s eleven minute journey.  The lyrics talk about an alligator that is coming and hunting this speaker.  When I listened to this song I immediately pictured the alligator as “death”. The song has lyrics like “creepy alligator coming all around the bend// screamin’ and yellin’, he was pickin’ his chops//and I ain’t gonna come around here any more”.  The beginning of the song describes the alligator coming to get the speaker and the speaker trying to get away from him.  Following the theme, the alligator coming to get the him is symbolic of death hunting down someone and in return them trying to get away from it.  Going along with the realization that no one can escape death this song describes the process of someone thinking that they can actually get away from death.  When they think they’re doing fine the alligator comes out of nowhere again and tries to get them.  The lyrics at the beginning of the song introduce this idea and then the instrumentation that follows in the last half of the song reinforces this idea without having to use words.  The beating of a drum and the speeding up and slowing down of the song make listeners feel like they are the ones being hunted by the alligator. 

The last song on this album is “Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks)”.  This song closes out the album and it alludes to someone trying one last thing to prevent their death.  The lyrics are “I went down one day to see a Gypsy woman//I want to find out, I want to find out//I told her my story, I told her what was goin’ on//she said all you got to have, oh Lord//just a touch of Mojo’s hand”.  After continuing through the rest of the album being exposed to death and then trying to escape death, the narrator has finally come to terms with the fact that it is going to happen, and they’re not happy with it.  He is trying everything he can to still avoid death and now it has come down to using alternative methods.  The beginning of the song describes his story and the way it is sung is very pleasing to the ear.  Then at the end of the song everything collapses, something changes and the song just falls apart.  After trying to cheat death by using corrupt ways things don’t turn out so well for the speaker.  It proves not to be successful and the end of the song represents him losing his battle with death.  At the end of the song when all the instruments clash and sound terrible it ends the entire album on a sour note.  When listening to this album the listener is on the run from death but in the end it proves to be unsuccessful, showing that it is impossible for someone to cheat death, which is something that every person has to face. 

The Grateful Dead are one of the most successful and talented bands of all time.  They were leaders of the psychedelic rock genre and their distinct hallucinogenic, easy-going vibe appealed to people everywhere.  One of their main talents that set them apart from other bands was their ability to address difficult topics in a way that was still easy to understand.  One of the band’s favorite topics was death, which is not surprising from a band named the Grateful Dead, and they were masters of discussing this depressing subject in a way that people were comfortable with.  The Grateful Dead do a great job of getting the listeners to experience this anxious feeling about death, but they differ in the sense that they actually go there and make the listener feel like they are experiencing death.  With their use of lyrics, instrumentation, and rhythm the Grateful Dead are able to take the listener on a journey through their own dying day until they breathe their last breath.