(You Are My) Eyes of the World

Grateful Dead - 9/11/74 - Alexandra Palace

On September 11th, 1974, one night after the show Not Fade Away (my first post) was played, the Grateful Dead mounted a performance that not only capped off an epic three-night stand but produced some of the greatest music to ever grace the human ear. Famed for it's renowned Dark Star, and subsequent jam, the September 11th show has another hidden gem that never made an official release (a heinous crime in my opinion).

First, though, It's important to lend some context. Over the course of the 1960's the Grateful Dead toured relentlessly, performing over 150 times a year on average. Practically, this made up for the minimal commercial sales their studio albums had made. It also created a cult following amongst those who would follow the band from concert to concert and who would listen to the recordings of each night's show (which the band actively encouraged ("when we're done with the music you can do with what you want!")). This also drove the band in a direction counter to the norms of music production. Rather than making their money off of albums and using limited concerts to advertise the album, as was conventional wisdom, the band saw studio albums as a way to advertise their live performances.

Seeing as the band's focus was live performances the Grateful Dead began accruing sound equipment in both quantity and quality over the course of the early '70's. By 1974, due to a combination of more successful live album sales and funding from Bear Owsley their sound engineer (and the US's leading producer of LSD), the Grateful Dead had begun using the famed Wall of Sound. Described as wretched excess by the band themselves, this public address display consisted of well over 500 speakers staked 40 feet in the air. The Wall of Sound was able to produce distortion-free sound from any distance, so, as many have recalled, no matter where you stood in a venue it would always sound as if they were playing directly in front of you. As 1974 progressed, it became clear to the band they would be retiring. They went the year without a tour manager and transporting the Wall of Sound across the US (taking two days to set up and tear down) left the band bankrupt. Naturally, they decided to do a limited Europe tour and transport the Wall of Sound across the pond.

Enter Ned Lagin. In 1970, the Grateful Dead visited the MIT campus to play a free concert for students rioting over the Kent State shootings. There they met with a student named Ned Lagin. After meeting the band, he invited them to see his own music performance the following day in the MIT Chapel. Never ones to miss an interesting musical experience (the Dead at one point attended performances of Wagner's entire Der Ring De Nibelungen which takes four days to complete), the band attended Lagins performance and were met by what could only be described as an Avante-Garde exploration of analog in the acoustic space (i.e., he played around with electric components that would eventually become computers to make them produce noise [sic] music). Following this performance Lagin sat in on several studio albums, briefly filled in for their pianist/replaced their organist, and intermittently performed with the band generally.

By 1974, Lagin toured more regularly as the way in which the Wall of Sound was designed led to the same sonic manipulation his previous work had explored, though, on an epic scale. By this time, though, the band had a regularly touring pianist, so Lagin only filled in on organ occasionally. His primary contribution was what came to later be known as Seastones or what many tapers called Phil&Ned.

These sessions occurred during set breaks, often lasting 15 or so minutes. Generally, Phil would play sustained atonal notes over his quadriphonic 32-foot bass stacks. Each bass stack was split between two strings so each string would have a dedicated 16-foot array of speakers - tall enough for a standing bass wave. The only way I could describe a standing wave is in terms of water, so rather than a set of waves originating from the back and 'flowing' forward, standing waves are a set of waves rising and falling in unison, so it appears as if a set of waves are appearing and disappearing in coordination. Ned, on the other hand, played through the auxiliary audio input, which was the clearest and quality sounding system on the Wall. However, he often had only two of his four channels plugged into the soundboard, so many performances were only recorded over two channels.

The aforementioned performance of Eyes of the World, however, is obviously not one of these Seastone breaks. Following Playin in the Band (the traditional first set closer in '74) Bob Weir, the rhythm guitarist announced a 'short break' which was then followed by the low hum of Phil's bass. Acting as the grounded drone, or almost pre-conscious state, Ned built off of Phil using an array of synthesizers, modulators, and computer components producing... well... experience. Considering the nature and scale of what was happening it would be futile to describe the noise/sound/music as anything but an experiment in bio-feedback.

For about 11 minutes Phil and Ned played together, then Bill Kreutzmann can be heard sitting in for the next four minutes. Then for the next thirty minutes, Phil and Ned continued their experimentation with light accompaniment from Bill (drums), Jerry (lead g.), and Bob (rhythm g.). If you feel so inclined you can listen to this section here: https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1974/09/11/phil-and-ned?source=90537. If you find interest in this 45-minute context, but do not want to listen I would recommend playing the last couple minutes of 'Seastones' to hear the transition into Eyes.

While it is silly to decide when the song formally starts, I consider it to be Phil's rumbling Emaj7 drop followed by the light opening chords of Jerry's guitar, which are mimicked by Bob on the relative minor. Phil again reintroduces himself with a powerful descending arpeggio which I could only imagine feeling over the 32-foot speakers. Finally, Ned on a synthesized electric piano takes the lead. While Kieth is playing a rounded arpeggio progressing through the chords, it's ned that you hear on the lighter, more electric sounding piano in lead. In the opening section, you have an interesting mix of a synthesized electric piano and bass arguably running lead, Jerry and Kieth attacking melody, Bob voice leading rhythmically around the other four, and Bill doing his self-described 'four-sighted schizophrenic routine'. Please, if you're listening, just let it take you. Take note of around four minutes in where Jerry just starts writing poetry with his guitar.

Right outside this lazy summer home
You ain't got time to call your soul a critic no
Right outside the lazy gate of winter's summer home
Wondering where the nut-thatch winters
Wings a mile long just carried the bird away

These lyrics present a mystical juxtaposition of the ordinary and extraordinary as well as a concern for environment. Wondering around our house in the summer and winter, what do we see? Birds surely, but what makes these birds an ordinary sight? They might just be birds, but they're the birds I'm seeing right now. Hence, which we should cast off our soul as a critic. No, the experience of another unto ourselves and our own soul is what makes it extraordinary! The song is also asking us to trust something we might not even be able to comprehend. Interestingly, it's the brief musical statements made after each verse that exemplify the group melodic improvisation. If you can, listen to the four eighth notes following the first verse. Not a single musician plays the same note, in the same sequence, at the same time. Yet, when put together it produces a coherent statement of eighth notes, all on the spot.

Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world
The heart has it's beaches, it's homeland and thoughts of it's own
Wake now, discover that you are the song that the morning brings
But the heart has it's seasons, it's evenings and songs of it's own

Now, the chorus has always been a favorite of mine, though, I never really ascribed it to my own experience. I think this is a simple fact of taking the you not as me but the other. But, as I've come to know you I increasingly thought of you in the chorus (yes, even before we started seeing each other). But, when you went abroad it pretty much became literally. Again, this plays to a sort of solipsism in that it's your eyes of the world. Your heart has its experiences, its roots, and its own consciousness. Which again plays to the more psychedelic understanding of self and other as being a collection of individuals entirely interconnected as a cohesive being. I particularly enjoy the 'songs of it's own' as it - for me - quite literally refers to those songs that we find ourselves humming and thumping out. I know I've got a little tune I've been playing on everything for forever. It's not anything special, but it's mine.

Sometimes we live no particular way but our own
And sometimes we visit your country and live in your home
Sometimes we ride on your horses, sometimes we walk alone
Sometimes the songs that we hear are just songs of our own

Jumping a bit here, I particularly like this verse, but don't want to expand upon it myself, rather, if you feel so inclined you maybe share what you think.

Finally, after a Jerry solo, Phil solo, Ned solo, and Bob/Kieth duo, the band breaks down into their coda around 18 minutes in. The coda is comprised of arpeggiating a scale then busting out into a musical statement. I've always found these sections wonderous as each member breaks into the same coda sequence, out into group melodic improv, then somehow back into the coda. Around 20 minutes in you can hear Ned hop back onto the modulator and the music devolves into space. While not as heavily abstract as the previous Seastones jam, this space jam is honestly quite beautiful and leads into an equally beautiful rendition of Wharf Rat. While I won't go into that song today, the basic plot driver is someone who doesn't have a dime to give a destitute for some coffee, but he does have time to listen to their story... (Stay tuned for pt.2)