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We Ate The Acid

October 30, 2014 by Garren Christopher Stamp   

The third Grateful Dead studio album is titles Auxomoxoa. It saw a reduction of the long psychedelic inspired winding lyrics of “Anthem of the Sun”, but retained a certain cosmic feel to many of the songs. This album has a hidden joke on the cover. The way in which Grateful Dead is written on the front can also be read “We Ate the Acid”.images

The first song is St. Stephen. It starts with a relaxing solo guitar playing, but then switches over to a much higher intensity with drums and vocals immediately mixed in. This creates a feeling of jumping into the music and is a great way to start the album off. The lyrics are very metaphorical, but tell a story of St. Stephen, reference to Stephen Gaskin, a hippie in the 60’s that started his own commune called “the farm” in Tennessee. My favorite lyrics are

“Fortune comes a crawlin’, calliope woman, spinnin’ that curious sense of your own.
Can you answer? Yes I can. But what would be the answer to the answer man?”.

The next song is Dupree’s Diamonds Blues. It talks about typical gender roles through a funny story. It’s about how a man will do anything to have sex with a girl, in this story he robs a bank and gets sentenced to death. It also says women only care about gold and Diamonds, not actually the man. It’s actually pretty funny if you listen to it.

The next song is “Rosemary”. It is pretty psychedelic with Jerry’s voice having the effect of sounding like its underwater. It tells an interesting story and is actually very enjoyable if you want a relaxing chill song.

Next is “Doin that Rag”. The vocals in this song are actually quiet so you have to really pay attention to here them. This song is about huffing ether and how a lot of people are doing it. This song is done in a tasteful way and doesn’t come away as a pro-drug (or even a drug) song.

Mountains of the Moon is the fifth song. This song always gave me a feeling of like knights and old-timer fairs. It has a certain medieval feel. It is a good song and the one 27 minute live version i found of it is my favorite.

The sixth song is “China Cat Sunflower”. It is a very positive song and the organs in the background with a chorus  give it like a churchy feel. When Jerry sings that feeling goes away and a feeling of psychedelic rock takes over. It is a good song overall.

What’s Become of the Baby is next. It is out there when it comes to psychedelic songs. It sounds like u r in a monastery and there is someone humming/singing while you are meditating. It is interesting to listen a couple times, but its like too far out.

Cosmic Charlie is the 8th and final song. It is about a kid who gets stuck in a permanent trip. Its actually hilarious if you listen to the lyrics. They sound dr. Seuss-ish in the way they sound and the “doodooodeladoos”.  I would say this is my second favorite song on the album, behind St. Stephen.


1 Comment »

  1. Apurva Bhogale says:

    I honestly would not be able to sit through a dead song and try to glean meaning from every one in an album lol. Anyway, it’s awesome that you know so much about this artist. I bet they were huge in their time. I can’t imagine the kinds of public they inspired with these very meaningful songs.

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