Wake Of The Flood 50: Eyes of the World

Rich Mahan (0:05)

The Good Ol Grateful Deadcast, the official podcast of the Grateful Dead. I'm Rich Mahan with Jesse Jarnow, exploring the music and legacy of the Grateful Dead for the Committed And The Curious.

Ladies and gentlemen, fellow Deadheads, welcome to season eight of The Good Ol Grateful Deadcast. I'm your co-host, Rich Mahan. Thank you very much for tuning in. In this episode of the Good Ol Grateful Deadcast, we find ourselves smack dab in the middle of side two of Grateful Dead's 1973 studio album, Wake Of The Flood. And this time we have the distinct honor of diving in to one of the band's most beloved tunes, Eyes Of The World.

It is the 50th anniversary of Grateful Dead's Wake Of The Flood. And to celebrate this, Rhino has a grand 50th anniversary release, which includes the original album Remastered, some really cool early demos of songs from the album, and six songs from a live show at McGaw Memorial Hall at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois from November 1st, 1973 There is special vinyl as well as standard black vinyl, a very cool Wake Of The Flood picture disc on vinyl. CDs and digital versions are also available. More information and orders are happening now at dead.net. Speaking of dead.net, head on over there and check out all of our past episodes. Go to dead.net/deadcast. We've got the complete seasons one through seven. You can link from there to your favorite podcasting platform so you can listen how you like to listen.

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Thanks to everybody who's left their stories over at stories.dead.net. We're always looking for an epic tale of dead-related craziness. The weirder the better, no story too big or too small. Share yours by recording those stories over at stories.dead.net and you just may hear yourself on a future episode of the Deadcast. Hey, three of your fellow deadheads are in this current episode. There's an option to write your story there, but if possible, please record yourself telling the story. If you need longer than the time allotted, leave a second one or a third. Thank you very much.

Is Eyes of the World the best use of a major seventh chord ever? Quite possibly, but it of course goes much deeper than that as you're about to find out on this Eyes of the World Deep Dive. Friends, here's Jesse Jarnow.

Jesse Jarnow (3:24)

There's no other Grateful Dead song quite like Eyes of the World. A fan favorite at the heart of Wake Of The Flood played every year between its debut in 1973 and the last shows in 1995 It has some of Robert Hunter's most open-ended lyrics.

Eyes of the World was one of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter's most significant compositions. A cornerstone of the Grateful Dead's music. Both a fixed song and a monument to lasting change.

The Grateful Dead jammed, of course, and Eyes of the World was one of the band's most reliable jamming vehicles. But one of the ways that Eyes of the World was different from other Grateful Dead songs was how different it could be from itself. Grateful Dead archivist and legacy manager David Lemieux.

David Lemieux (4:21)

It's a perfect song also, and it has allowed the Dead to do so much within in its various guises, whether it's 1973, 74 versions with the very distinct and unique jam at the end, which I love. And when they nail that thing, which they do most of the time, ugh, it's so good.

Jesse Jarnow (5:04)

That was from the ending in 7-8 time that the band played throughout 1973 and 1974, which we'll get into a bit later. That version was from October 19, 1973 in Oklahoma City. Now DixPix19.

That was the version from March 29th, 1990, featuring Brantford Marsalis on saxophone, a favorite of many Deadheads, released on Without A Net the same year it was recorded. The song was a hit among heads from the moment it appeared. In September 1973, before Wake Of The Flood was even released, a pair of Deadhead DJs at WAER in Syracuse grilled Bob Weir about Eyes of the World. They even made him recite the lyrics.

Bob Weir (6:21)

Song of the morning breeze.

Jesse Jarnow (6:28)

As we've learned from this season of the Deadcast, a lot of the lyrics on Wake Of The Flood had been lurking in draft form for several years by the time Jerry Garcia set them to music. From Grateful Dead Records, Ron Rockow.