If You Cup Is Full May It Be Again Shirt

"Let there be songs to fill the air"

The Annotated "Ripple"

An installment in The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics.
By David Dodd
1997-98 Research Associate, Music Dept., University of California, Santa Cruz

---

Copyright notice

---

Ii analyses of the lyric are available:

• David Dodd's essay
• William C. Dowling'south "Ripple": A Minor Excursus

Also, a sermon, "No Simple Highway," by Elizabeth Greene, is bachelor.

---

"Ripple"

Words past Robert Hunter; music by Jerry Garcia.
("Ripple" composed and written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter. Reproduced by arrangement with Ice Nine Publishing Co., Inc. (ASCAP))

If my words did glow with the gilt of sunshine
And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung
Would you hear my vox come through the music
Would you hold it near as it were your own?

Information technology's a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken
Perhaps they're better left unsung
I don't know, don't really intendance
Permit there be songs to fill the air

(Chorus)

Ripple in however water
When in that location is no pebble tossed
Nor wind to blow

Reach out your paw if your cup be empty
If your cup is full may it exist again
Permit it be known at that place is a fountain
That was non made by the hands of men

There is a road, no simple highway
Betwixt the dawn and the nighttime of night
And if you go no one may follow
That path is for your steps alone

(Chorus)

You who choose to atomic number 82 must follow
But if yous fall y'all fall alone
If y'all should stand and then who's to guide you?
If I knew the mode I would take you lot home

Hunter has posted the manuscript of an early draft of the vocal in his archives.

---

Analysis

"Ripple" is a song lyric by Robert Hunter. Its genre, therefore, is vocal. A true vocal is meant to be sung, and then its words must be like shooting fish in a barrel to think, unless information technology is an experimental or art song. But Hunter wrote "Ripple" in the folk song tradition during the tardily 1960's, with overtones of that Haight-Ashbury era, such as a sense of cosmic oneness, and of East coming together West.

Hunter, in choosing the folk lyric format, has infused it with something new. The first verse, addressing the listener, is nearly song, about listening to the song and making information technology your own. Hunter begins the poetry by invoking the elements of song: words and tune, and then that the listener is prepared to think about the vocal. The poet expresses concern that the song be sung past other people, opening up a discussion of the relationship between the singer and the listener, who volition also, it is hoped, come up to be the vocaliser, in turn.

So the relationship between poet and reader is unity; they are both the poet. In this way, the original poet breaks out of mortality, since his thoughts will continue to generate new thoughts.

The next verse continues this theme, simply points out that the identification between singer and listener can never exist total, since it is questionable whether whatever of the original poet's thoughts will really occur to the person who is at present singing the song. But the poet concludes that fifty-fifty though 'the thoughts are broken,' it is worthwhile to have songs.

The chorus is the master puzzle of the vocal, as highlighted by the title. Information technology is set apart formally from the remainder of the song, being a seventeen-syllable haiku. Following the showtime two verses, information technology suggests that thought is like a ripple, not caused by annihilation, and doomed to be fleeting, not to be held. Hunter chose an Asian verse form to limited this idea, which is opposite to Western civilization's principle of logical, rational thought. Hunter poses a counter-argument. Information technology is non worthwhile to believe that reason can be imposed on thinking, or that anything reasonable tin can come from thinking, since communication of thought will always be flawed. Information technology is possible that Hunter's thoughts were born from the experience of contradistinct states, and the frustration that goes with any effort to describe experience in an contradistinct state. His choice of a pool of water being momentarily disturbed by a ripple is in accord with Samuel Taylor Coleridge's imagery in describing the fleetingness of the altered land in "Kubla Khan":

Then all the charm
Is cleaved--all that phantom-earth so off-white
Vanishes, and a thousand circlets spread,
And each mis-shape the other. Stay awhile,
Poor youth! who scarcely dar'st lift up thine eyes--
The stream will presently renew its smoothness, before long
The visions will return! And lo, he stays,
And shortly the fragments dim of lovely forms
Come trembling back, unite, and now once more
The pool becomes a mirror."

(Echoes at that place of "Night Star," equally well. Hmmm.)

The adjacent 2 verses introduce new themes. The first contains a benediction, wishing the listener a "full cup," or a happy life. This cup, moreover, can be refilled at a fountain which, since it was not made by human being easily, represents a cosmic or universal level of being. The side by side verse takes the vocal from the universal back to the private. The path between dawn (birth) and dark (expiry) is a metaphor for life, each life being individual. (For an alternate take, see email from Linda Gershon)

The chorus follows, and in this context the ripple has go a symbol of an individual life, acquired by zippo a disappearing dorsum into however water, dorsum into the fountain non made by people. A life is a ripple. All life is yet water. The chorus, then, is interpreted differently each time. The first fourth dimension a ripple is a thought in an individual mind; the second time a ripple is an private life in the pool of universal life.

The terminal verse conveys optimistic hopelessness. The poet is compassionate, every bit shown by the last line, but wants us to realize that there are no guarantees about life.

---

"Ripple"

Lyric written in London, 1970. According to an interview with Hunter in a documentary film by Jeremy Marre, "Ripple," "Brokedown Palace" and "To Lay Me Downwards" were all composed in 1 afternoon, over a one-half-bottle of retsina. (The film aired on VH-1 on April 16, 1997.)

Musical details:

• Key: G
• Time signature: 4/4
• Chords used: G, D, C, A, F#, G7, Am
• Songbook availability:
  • Grateful Dead
  • Grateful Dead: Guitar Superstar Series
  • Grateful Dead Anthology: Guitar
  • Classic Grateful Dead: Selections From "American Beauty"
  • Album, vol. II

First performed on August 18, 1970, at the Fillmore West in San Francisco. "Ripple" appeared in the middle of the starting time set, an audio-visual set, betwixt "Dark Hollow" and "Brokedown Palace." The "Brokedown Palace" was also a premiere, every bit was the show'south "Operator," and "Truckin'".

Recorded on:

• American Beauty
  • This version included on What a Long, Foreign Trip Information technology's Been
• Reckoning
• Garcia's Near Audio-visual
• Robert Hunter on his A Box of Rain

Covers:

1. Chris Hillman (formerly of the Byrds) on Morning Sky
2. Jane's Addiction on Deadicated
3. Perry Farrell'due south anthology Rev
4. The New Riders of the Purple Sage on Alive in Nippon
5. Jimmie Dale Gilmore on his One Endless Nighttime

It has establish a permanent place in the Expressionless's alive repertoire, but was reprised on special occasions, such every bit the 15th Anniversary shows in San Francisco and New York, which included acoustic sets.

This notation from a reader:

Date: Wednesday, 6 Mar 2002 09:07:54 +1100
From: John Low

Hello David,

Greetings again from the Blue Mountains in Australia (maybe y'all'll remember me and my Dire Wolf story sent last year!) and many cheers for your recent newsletter! As it happens, I ordered a copy of the "Grateful Dead Reader" through my local bookshop before Christmas and it arrived in January. I am enjoying it immensely ... and then much good writing that (non surprisingly) I've never seen before! Sincere cheers to you, and your wife Diana, for putting it all together!

Beingness an gentleman of the wonderful though tragic Richard Brautigan, I was pleased to discover that you published his quirky little poem about the Dead getting busted. This prompts me to enquire if yous are aware of an anecdote regarding Brautigan and the Expressionless'southward American Beauty album, recounted by his friend Keith Abbott in "Downstream From Trout Fishing in America" (Santa Barbara: Capra Printing, 1989)? In this memoir Abbott recalls a dinner party at Brautigan'south Bolinas residence in the early 1970s at which the poet Robert Creeley was a invitee.

"Just before dinner was served, Richard made a big bear witness of putting on a Grateful Dead tape. He said that he had been saving the record every bit a surprise for Creeley. Bob nodded his thank you. When the outset cut started Creeley brought his caput upwards abruptly "This is my favourite cut on that tape" he appear. Richard beamed happily. As Creeley listened to the song Richard told a story of all the obstacles that he had encountered during the day in his attempt to discover this particular record for Bob. Content that he had made Creeley happy, Richard went dorsum to the kitchen to attend to dinner. When the song was over, Creeley got up, went over to the stereo and, trying to play the cutting again, raked the needle beyond the tape, ruining it. "Uh-oh" he said. Then he went back to the burrow and resumed his word. At the sound of the record's being ruined, Richard came rushing out of the kitchen and stood there, watching the whole 'uh-oh' functioning by Creeley. Going over to the stereo he brought out a second copy of the album from the stack alongside it. In his own funny , precise mode, Richard congratulated himself. "I'one thousand, gear up for Bob this time" he boasted. And then he went on to relate how Creeley had wrecked the very same anthology on a previous visit."

For ages I wondered which anthology it was that Brautigan played and which song was Creeley'due south "favourite cut". Fortunately Robert Creeley has a presence on the web so recently, I plucked upward the courage to email him with my trivial question. Within days I had a very generous and friendly answer:

Dear John Depression,

That was one drunken evening, like they say -- of probably all too many. Richard knew my failings, telephone call them, and and then had backed upward the tape he expected me witlessly to scratch with some other, which I seem then to have 10'd every bit well. Ah eagerness -- and drink. Nosotros were neighbors at that time in Bolinas, with him just down the road from us headed into town.

Anyhow the terrific song, as I remember at least, is Robert Hunter'southward "Ripple" and one of my prized possessions is Robert Hunter's nerveless lyrics, A Box of Rain, which he generously sent me some years after. Anyhow I love that echoing "Ripple in still h2o..."

Then onward... You lot must know Bob Adamson is my old friend indeed -- and a great poet. You have dynamite writers out there!

Best to you,
Robert Creeley

A bit of trivia, yeah, but isn't it nice to discover these links betwixt people you adore and whose work you enjoy? Forgive me, though, if y'all are already familiar with information technology.

With very all-time wishes from down under,

John Low
Blue Mountains City Library

And some other annotation from a reader:

Date: Friday, 01 Sep 2006 03:07:eighteen -0500
From: Patrick J. Volkerding
Subject: In that location is a route. :-)

Greetings, my friend. It is an honour to finally have an excuse to write to y'all.

I have enjoyed your piece of work immensely, so give thanks y'all very much. I note that y'all're even so doing quite well on Google! I have a bookmark somewhere, only it'southward then much easier to only Google for "annotated". :-) It'due south still the second striking for that keyword, and the offset actual annotation. You were great on "Dead to the Earth"! We were expecting our daughter Briah at the time, and got a big boot out of "What'south Get of the Infant-O".

I have a couple of comments that I hope may be of some value to y'all.

[...] This next one I considered a real precious stone of a detect, and it made me wonder if Hunter was familiar with this particular text considering the similarities between information technology and Ripple seemed beyond coincidence. Lately though, I've been less surprised by coincidence -- the control centre seems to accept turned it upwardly to xi.

I've been studying Eastern ideas of many kinds, and recently my attending was drawn to Kabir, the Indian mystic said to accept lived from 1398 to 1518. The Wikipedia article on Kabir is quite interesting, and after reading one of his songs (in Wikipedia'due south "Satguru" commodity), I went looking for more Kabir. I got to i particular song and was stunned by the density of Ripple motifs in information technology, peculiarly in the 2d of the iii paragraphs. Pointing them out is non necessary, simply similar Hunter'south lyrics and Kabir's songs, reading between the lines will e'er exist required to get the full effect.

Hither's a link to Sacred Texts where I found Kabir's song, III. 48. t� surat nain nih�r: http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sok/sok77.htm

Open your eyes of dearest, and see Him who pervades this earth I consider it well, and know that this is your ain country.
When you lot encounter the true Guru, He will awaken your heart;
He will tell you the secret of love and disengagement, and then you will know indeed that He transcends this universe.
This globe is the City of Truth, its maze of paths enchants the heart:
We can reach the goal without crossing the road, such is the sport unending.
Where the ring of manifold joys ever dances most Him, there is the sport of Eternal Bliss.
When we know this, then all our receiving and renouncing is over;
Thenceforth the estrus of having shall never scorch usa more.

He is the Ultimate Rest unbounded:
He has spread His form of honey throughout all the world.
From that Ray which is Truth, streams of new forms are perpetually springing: and He pervades those forms.
All the gardens and groves and bowers are abounding with flower; and the air breaks forth into ripples of joy.
At that place the swan plays a wonderful game,
In that location the Unstruck Music eddies around the Infinite Ane;
In that location in the midst the Throne of the Unheld is shining, whereon the smashing Existence sits--
Millions of suns are shamed by the radiance of a unmarried hair of His body.
On the harp of the road what true melodies are beingness sounded! and its notes pierce the heart:
There the Eternal Fountain is playing its endless life-streams of birth and decease.
They call Him Emptiness who is the Truth of truths, in Whom all truths are stored!

At that place inside Him creation goes forward, which is beyond all philosophy; for philosophy cannot attain to Him:
In that location is an countless world, O my Brother! and there is the Nameless Being, of whom cipher can be said.
Only he knows it who has reached that region: it is other than all that is heard and said.
No form, no trunk, no length, no breadth is seen there: how can I tell you that which it is?
He comes to the Path of the Space on whom the grace of the Lord descends: he is freed from births and deaths who attains to Him.
Kab�r says: "Information technology cannot be told by the words of the mouth, it cannot be written on paper:
Information technology is like a impaired person who tastes a sweet matter--how shall it be explained?"

I hope you lot enjoy this small contribution as much as I've enjoyed reading the many observations online and in your first edition. May yous have many more than happy editions. Andrea (my married woman) and I were theorizing this afternoon that a couple of dozen revisions from now your volume volition finally manage to tie together all world philosophies and religions, volition be about a foot thick, and will more than or less complete the Great Work by revealing every esoteric "secret" to those who can hear. Possibly your book and the Grateful Dead will play a disquisitional role in helping unite mankind. Even more. :-)

All the best,

Patrick Volkerding

PS: I hereby place this electronic mail in the public domain.

---

On the harp unstrung...

Chris Hillman, in his recording of "Ripple," sang the line every bit "...on the middle of a strum."

This annotation from a reader:

Date: Thu, 26 October 95 06:31:38 0500
From: David Gold

David--

Nice piece of work on "Ripple."

"the harp unstrung" recalls [William Butler] Yeat's "The Madness of King Goll":

(An illustration of Due west.B. Yeats as King Goll by his father, John Butler Yeats, which accompanied the publication of the poem.)

Speaking of the tympan [in earlier versions, a "harp all songless"] that he has found:

"When my paw passed from wire to wire
It quenched, with a sound like falling dew
The whirling and the wandering burn
But lift a mornful ulalu
For the kind wires are torn and withal
And I must wander wood and loma
Through summer's heat and winters common cold
They volition not hush..."etc.

Perhaps not consciously, of class, but the idea of the unstrung harp existence able to produce music is, in this lite, much more poigniant.

This tip led me on a hunt for information about this Male monarch Goll, who was an Irish king of legend, having lived in the 3rd century. Oddly, this is besides the fourth dimension when King Cole (shut assonance) of Great britain was supposed to accept reigned. See the note in The Annotated "Alligator" regarding Old King Cole.

And I accept always wondered about an episode in Chris Van Allsburg's wonderful book, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984), entitled "The Harp." (This book is a collection of drawings, with titles and starting time lines for each, presented as a source of inspiration for children to write their own stories to become with the drawings.) The starting time line given is "So it'southward true, he thought, it's actually true." And the drawing shows a boy peering at a stream-fed pond, abreast which sits a harp; and there is an expanding prepare of ripples beside the harp. Hmmmm. Wish I could reproduce the picture here--maybe I'll write to Mr. Van Allsburg for permission.

---

"Still H2o" and "If your cup be empty..."

Several lines in this lyric conjure upwards the 23rd Psalm, which for many listeners will be an evocation of peace and reassurance. In particular, the lines referring to "withal water," the filling of an empty cup, and the walking on a path in the shadow of the night of night are strong references.

Hunter invokes the psalm associations in the get-go verse, with his mention of the traditional psalmist's accompaniment, the harp.

The Psalm:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want
He maketh me to lie downwardly in light-green pastures
He leadeth me abreast the still waters
He restoreth my soul
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name'southward sake
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I will fearfulness no evil, for one thousand art with me
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies
Thou annointest my caput with oil, my cup runneth over
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life
And I volition dwell in the house of the Lord forever

In some means, the song could be viewed as an updating, or as a humanizing, of the Psalm. The Interpreter'southward Bible states that "psalms are also notable as being the literary record of a reproducible religious experience. ... Later generations can...stand, as it were, on their shoulders; they tin retrieve their thoughts later on them and catch some of their faith and vision." (v. four, p. iv)

This is a remarkable passage, in that information technology can be seen as shedding direct light on Hunter'south line "information technology's a manus-me-down, the thoughts are broken..." But the poet does have a psalmist'due south duty to hand down his version of the religious experience through his poetry. In this case, the psalmist admits, and fifty-fifty celebrates, his humanity: "If I knew the way, I would take you home." "If I knew." But of grade, he doesn't know, considering he is homo.

See the note in "Comes A Time" regarding Yeats' poem, "The Empty Loving cup."

And the 23rd Psalm plays a role in two other Hunter lyrics: "Alabama Getaway;" and the unrecorded song from the Eagle Mall Suite, "John Silver," both of which mention the Valley of the Shadow.

---

Y'all who choose to lead must follow

Cf. Mark, Chapter x, vv. 43 and 44: "...and whosoever would be showtime amid y'all must exist slave of all."

This addition from a reader:

From pubblan@amber.indstate.edu
Date: twenty Mar 1995 x:29:10 EST

Regarding the line in Ripple:
"Yous who choose to lead must follow"

At that place is this passage from the Tao te Ching:

"Therefore, desiring to dominion over the people,
1 must in one'southward words humble oneself before them
And, desiring to lead the people,
One must, in one's person, follow behind them."

vic movie

---

fountain

Cirlot, in A Dictionary of Symbols:

"Fountain (or Source) In the image of the terrestrial Paradise, four rivers are shown emerging from the centre, that is, from the foot of the Tree of Life itself, to branch out in the 4 directions of the Cardinal Points. They well upwards, in other words, from a mutual source, which therefore becomes symbolic of the 'Heart' and of the 'Origin' in activity. Traditions has it that this fount is the fons juventutis whose waters can exist equated with the 'draught of immortality'-- amrita in Hindu mythology. Hence it is said that water gushing along is a symbol of the life-force of Homo and of all things. For this reason, artistic iconography very frequently uses the motif of the mystic fount." (pp. 112-113)

---

That was not made by the hands of men

Compare the lines in the Merle Travis song "I am a Pilgrim":

"In that location is a habitation in that yonder city
That was not fabricated by hand."

---

I would take you dwelling house

This line presages the Barlow/Mydland vocal, "I Volition Take You Home".

---

Between the dawn and the nighttime of nighttime

This annotation from a reader:

Subject: New Dead Fans; Some Thoughts on Ripple
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 02:57:14 -0700 (PDT)
From: Linda Gershon
David,

I'm pleased to report a recent example of something I'm certain you already know -- namely, that the Expressionless live on not merely in their longtime fans just in gaining new converts every mean solar day; and not just kids getting their showtime exposure, but also boomers who should have, merely didn't, get into them earlier. While my devotion is coming up on 30 years (a source of both pride and apple-polishing terror), my sis, 2 years older, first heard Ripple played at a wedding recently in lieu of Here Comes the Bride. (What an fantabulous replacement!) Apparently, this was the start fourth dimension she had always actually listened to a Grateful Dead song (y'all can tell how influential I was) and promptly went out and bought American Dazzler, report- ing that several other wedding guests had been simi- larly impressed.

So this news, along with the fact that Ripple is often my favorite Dead song and ever on the leader board, prompted me to revisit the Ripple section of your lyrics site. I'k guessing I haven't read even a significant fraction of everything that'south been writ- ten about this poem prepare to music; only, from what I have read, at that place seems to exist pretty much a consensus concerning the lyric "There is a road, no uncomplicated highway, betwixt the dawn and the dark of dark," the prevailing view being that the dawn and the dark represent birth and death, respectively, and that the fact that at that place's a road instead of a high- way between them ways that life is challenging, takes a lot of turns, is not a straight or simple or obvious path, etc.

But my take on these words has e'er been somewhat unlike. To me, the dark represents despair, bleakness, unhappiness, defoliation, cluelessness, etc., while the dawn ways contentment, clarity, revela- tion, light, optimism, etc. Again, what'south between them is arduous, difficult to navigate and must exist discovered on one'due south own, and not easy or obvious or spelled out anywhere -- simply it's to get from dark to dawn, not the other mode effectually. Yeah, I know the lyric refers to dawn starting time, but this obviously serves the prosody, plus it would not exist and so unusual to speak of the road between there (the destination) and hither (the starting point), rather than the one between here and there.

At first, I idea I must either be totally off base or the only one right; but, lately it occurs to me (sorry -- I couldn't resist) that my long- time take doesn't really disharmonize with the birth and death interpretation, but may exist simply comple- mentary. I'm sure Hunter wouldn't tell us -- the sly bounder -- simply I just idea I would throw this in the fountain.

By the way, the grossly over-used term "crawly" truly does apply to your web site. It's an heroic ongoing accomplishment. Thanks.

Linda

---

That path is for your steps lone

This notation from a reader:

Field of study: ripple stuff
Engagement: Fri, thirteen December 1996 15:39:53 -0600 (CST)
From: Jack Straw

"that path is for your steps lone"

compare to this quote from [Walt] Whitman'south "Song of Myself"(46):

"Not I--not anyone else, can travel that road for you,
You must travel it for yourself."

from "Song of Myself" in Walt Whitman, selected and with notes by Mark van Doren (New York: Viking Press, 1945), p. 127.

Aaron Bibb

And from some other reader:

Subject: Thoughts on Ripple
Appointment: Thu, xxx Jan 97 12:55 EST
From: Dick Katz <0002020180@mcimail.com>

I was just wandering through your site and the notes on "Ripple" in particular. The lines "...and if you go, no 1 may follow, that path is for your steps alone" always remind me of the third verse of "Optics of the World" that begin "Sometimes we alive no item style but our own" which to me gets to the very essence of the Dead experience which is to but exist who you are.

Merely random thoughts. Hope all is well with the new family. The site is even so one of the best things on the net.

And even so another:

Subject: ripple Engagement: Lord's day, 13 April 1997 xix:26:06 -0700 From: Tony Kullen

David,

I was merely reading Nietzsche's preface to his piece of work , and was reminded of the line "that path is for your steps alone" in Ripple. Nietzsche's text is referring to the search for solitude. He says:

"For he who proceeds on his ain path in this fashion encounters no one: this is inherent in 'proceeding on 1's own path.' No one comes forth to help him: all the perils, accidents, malice and bad weather which assail him he has to tackle by himself. For his path is his lone."

When I read that final line, i had to bank check the Ripple notation (which, of grade, interrupted my homework, only who cares.) and, when I saw other references for that line only not this one, I felt compelled to write. i hope it is a help.

Peace,
Tony Kullen

---

Keywords: @harp, @music, @h2o, @home, @haiku
DeadBase code: [RIPP]

---

Get-go posted: Feb, 1995
Last updated: September 1, 2006

clarkebralks.blogspot.com

Source: http://artsites.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/ripple.html

Share this post