It seemed to be saying oodles. And the music just helps that along. 89% Upvoted. He also discussed the song in an interview with Jeff Tamarkin: I had been working on this a long time before I gave it to the Grateful Dead, before I took off for New Mexico, which is where I originally sent them the lyrics from. "....Over There - in a Box of Rain... $30, $30 - I have to confess I didn't really get what they were all about until I heard "Turn On Your Lovelight" from Live Dead. Stephen." Two years was a long time for me back then, not to mention 6 years since it had been played. (I’ll consider requests for particular songs—just private message me!). One of these weeks, I’m going to get around to “China Cat Sunflower.”. It may not “make sense” but it makes perfect sense. I'll be the first to admit that I can't possibly understand their songs better than someone who's been listening to them and enjoying them for decades, but isn't it possible that Hunter was having one on us when he insisted that "Saint Stephen" was about Saint Stephen? Where all we've lost we shall regain. Classic editor History Talk (0) Share. The sheer unlikelihood of a song about an early Christian martyr as rock anthem makes “Saint Stephen” a wonderful and intriguing and endlessly fascinating piece, both lyrically and in its many musical variants over the years. Collection, Dead & 1977, 50th Follow. The coda that follows seems like some lost fragment of Celtic song, or maybe that’s just the memory I have of staring at the words that were including as an insert to the Live Dead LP, which were written in a very Celtic-looking script with large elaborate capitals. Even today whenever I am listening the the closing sequence of any version of Dark Star I feel empty if St. Stephen doesn't materialize. From the first time I heard the song, I thought, "Oh, that's cool. The most powerful live performance of St. Stephen I ever saw was 4th row center at the Fillmore East 9/19/70. Fast forward six months later I bought Live-Dead at the same time as buying my first Dead tickets (Fillmore East 1/2/70). Stephen is a Radical. You scribble it down as fast as it comes, work out the chords, screw around with the words for what seems like forever and there you have it. Did I dream this....anyone? Anyone have other info? So, just a tiny personal nugget on this one, inspired by Double D's reference to the insert in the Live Dead LP (a large format sheet with playful Celtic filigree borders and lyrics to St Stephen and, if I recall correctly, also The Eleven). 5/2/70! save. ... with a pile of chords and sudden swerves into waltz time. I sent him the lyrics in a letter a few years ago to see if he might find them interesting. Garden Aud., Vancouver Canada, Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, Washington, D.C., July 12 & 13, 1989, Pacific Northwest '73â'74: The Complete Recordings, Pacific Northwest '73â'74: Believe It If You Need It, Playing in the Band, Seattle, Washington, 5/21/74, The Warfield, San Francisco, California, October 9 & 10, 1980, Skeletons from the Closet: The Best of Grateful Dead, Dead Zone: The Grateful Dead CD Collection (1977â1987), All the Years Combine: The DVD Collection, Dead Ringers: The Making of Touch of Grey, Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead 1987 Tour, Deadicated: A Tribute to the Grateful Dead, Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead, The Music Never Stopped: Roots of the Grateful Dead, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=St._Stephen_(song)&oldid=987507792, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 7 November 2020, at 14:18. They ston'd this holy man. Like madmen they did rave; That disc doesn't contain a St. Stephen, so I apologize for getting off topic... Like Stephen's Rose, this song has delicate and subtle twists of imagery and meaning that unfold and touch upon one another and even other flowers from other songs and other stories. Here’s the craziest story I have to go with “Saint Stephen.” At my first Dead show, in October 1976, when the band played the first, ringing, opening notes of the song, the sun blinked. RiRiIII, adamos, marmalade166 and 2 others like this. The list includes all the songs performed by the Grateful Dead, jams that have been given names and songs that have been partially played during tuning or equipment failure breaks. Please try again later. “St. And as well documented by Mr. Dodd et al., the rose that opens the song can be seen as a masculine symbol of love. Blair Jackson, in Grateful Dead: the Music Never Stopped, says: "AOXOMOXOA's most famous song, perhaps because it translated so beautifully to the group's live repertoire, is `St. Stephen,' a cryptic rocker (again with an unusual, irregular cadence, almost a combination of waltz and march rhythms in a rock motif) about a character who embodies the confusion of the period. Strange Trip, Pacific Northwest Décor, Long Does it now?”, The Relix interviewer was very likely probing Hunter to see if he would say anything about the speculations over the years that the song was really about Stephen Gaskin, the Haight Ashbury spiritual leader who eventually founded The Farm, and who led a well-attended discussion group during the heyday of the Haight. and his career is documented in the biblical book of The Acts of the Apostles, chapters 6-8. :))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))). stephen definitely didn't have the answer, and the great irony is the answer man doesn't have it either. It was only played when "Saint Stephen" segued into The Eleven. The question ("What for?") although stephen may have thought he had the answer, his was probably based a lot on christianity. In which, from the crowd to the stars above, explosive joy rules the day. I still love the song, the tune as much as I did when I first heard Live Dead. 8 years ago | 2.6K views. "St. Stephen" is a song by the Grateful Dead, written by Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh and Robert Hunter and originally released on the 1969 studio album Aoxomoxoa. The band's set ran from late Saturday night (August 16) into Sunday morning (August 17). It all melts into a dream. But it wouldn't surprise me if he did it more than once. The song seems to come to some kind of conclusion, only to have its own lyrics undercut that conclusion. I can't possibly be the first person who's thought of this. An interview in Relix magazine contained this exchange: Relix: Was Saint Stephen anyone specific? Games, Furniture & The same year, a live version of the song was released on Live/Dead, their first concert album. ... and while we were waiting for Sly and the Family Stone, someone suggested we go see "Some band from San Francisco" that was getting ready to play on the other stage. 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