Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Jerry Garcia
See below for the background to this song.
We are bornBackground
We are raised
We are taught how to behave
We are torn
broke and crazed
finally laid down in the grave
Some say this is
the end forever
... I don't know
Beat the drum
Shake the flail
There is blood upon the trail
Stricken dumb
but for wails
love is wind upon our sails
The boat is small
It rolls to Heaven
... at a crawl
There's a wind
at the door
blowing chill to the core
There's a sun
overhead
which is why the rose is red
The colors pour
The sun is laughter
... from the dead
Sing your song
sweet and low
'round the campfire in the snow
Sing it long
Sing it slow
We have nowhere else to go
This troubled night
won't last forever
... this I know
"This piece was written in 1970, to music by Garcia, for an album which never materialized, to be titled Planet Earth Rock & Roll Orchestra - bankrolled by David Crosby - to include Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, David Freiberg, and American Beauty engineer Steve Barncard. They'd just completed Crosby's If I Could Only remember My Name album and were having such a good time they wanted to keep recording. The project evaporated under the pressures of the day, but the impetus set the ball rolling for a metamorphosis into Kantner's counter culture classic Blows Against The Empire."Paul Kantner did sunsequently release an album titled Planet Earth Rock & Roll Orchestra, but wihout Garcia's involvement.
This looks odd for a setlist - much more like a tracklist for an album. And the date looks more as if it would have been 1968 or 1969 rather than 1970. But it indicates that Jerry was thinking about playing or recording Cortical 5.
Dark Star Clementine St Stephen What's Become Of The Baby 11 Dum De Doodly Do (presumably Cosmic Charley) China Cat Sunflower Impatient Man Cortical 5 Eagle Mall