Hunter/Garcia: "Mason's Children" - What the Heck is This Song About?

Hunter says it is obliquely about Altamont. Not much to go with that clue (at least for me). What in the heck do you think this song is about?

Mason died on Monday
We bricked him in the wall
All his children grew and grew
They never grew so tall before
They may never grow so tall again

We dug him up on Tuesday
He'd hardly aged a day
Taught us all we ever knew
We never knew so much before
We may never know so much again

Mason was a mighty man
A mighty man was he
All he said: when I'm dead and gone
don't you weep for me

The wall collapsed on Wednesday
We chalked it up to fate
All his children ran and hid
We never hid so well before
Swore we'd never show our face again

Thursday came and Friday
with fires tall and bright
Mason's children cooked the stew
and cleaned up when the feast was through
Swore we'd never had such times before

Take me to the Reaper Man
to pay back what was loaned
If he's in some other land
write it off as stoned

Mason was a mighty man
A mighty man was he
All he said: when I'm dead and gone
don't you weep for me

 

Hi Ray,

Good question, hopefully someone can shed light.

Composition Credits are: "Garcia, Lesh, Weir, Hunter". Only a few GD songs (such as Truckin') were credited to all four.

Debut was a few days after Altamont; Here's the live performance history:

First known performance: December 19, 1969, at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. "Mason's Children" opened the show, and was followed by "China Cat Sunflower."

There are fifteen known live performances, all in 1969-1970, after which it was dropped from the repertoire.

Hunter's noted in the Box of Rain anthology says:

"An unrecorded GD song dealing obliquely with Altamont".

Available on: Dick's Picks, Vol. 4 - Recorded on February 13 and February 14, 1970 at the Fillmore East in New York City.

 

One of the greatest Dead tunes of them all.

Some of the jams were very heated and exciting. Huge shame they stopped playing it so quickly.

Have no idea what it is about.

 

Pretty sure Hunter played it in a solo acoustic version when I saw him in 1997.

 

Hmmm. Hunter (Meredith Hunter, that is) died on Saturday. And it's a good bet that he wasn't bricked into a wall, and that he stayed quite dead. Jesus died on Friday, and was placed inside a cave. Hmmmm.

 

Now I gotta hear this.

 

Oh my god, Illuminati alert LOL

 

Freemasonic/Kabballah mumbo-jumbo and/or a not so veiled ref to The Family. RH would be the person to ask.

 

The studio version, for any interested parties

 

Left off of Workingman's Dead because it didn't fit, although since that album is only 36 minutes long, including the song would have only made the LP around 40 minutes long.

 

In think 20 minute sides would have been too long even in 1970. They would also have to make some Edits elsewhere or resequence in order to produce equal sides.

 

The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics (2005); foreword by Robert Hunter.

My copy is currently lent out.

 

Right, I don't know about the side balancing without looking at the times of the 8 songs that made the LP. That may well have been the real issue (or they just didn't think the track was up to scratch). There were plenty of longer rock LPs being made at that time, with some even exceeding 50 minutes.

 

As much as I love "Mason's Children," I think it really would have messed up the vibe of Workingman's Dead if they had put it on there. The harmonies certainly fit the rest of the album, but the song itself screams late-60s San Francisco as opposed to the turn of the decade pastoralia that makes Workingman's such a masterpiece.

Love the lyrics but I can't really contribute anything to the lyrical analysis!

 

Left off for good cause. When looking at the other tracks on that seminal LP, it's just not up to snuff.
Worth a listen, mind...but it's not a good fit imho. Might have worked better on Aoxomoxoa, but that ship had sailed.

 

All these are possible, only 7 or 8 people know the real answer. They might not even know.

 

Greatest Stories Ever Told - "Mason's Children" | Grateful Dead

 

Holy guacamole, maybe Hunter was the Zodiac Killer!

 

As if the meaning of China Cat Sunflower was crystal clear?

 

Side one
1. "St. Stephen" 4:26
2. "Dupree's Diamond Blues" 3:32
3. "Rosemary" 1:58
4. "Doin' That Rag" 4:41
5. "Mountains of the Moon" 4:02
Side two
1. "China Cat Sunflower" 3:40
2. "Mason's Children"
3. "Cosmic Charlie" 5:29

Heresy for many, but that works for me.
I know i've heard a studio "Mason's Children," but i can't seem to locate where it's avail on a retail release now.
Weird.

 

Either the remastered Workingman's Dead or the So Many Roads box set.

 

Hmm...mason + bricked up in a wall = Edgar Allan Poe?
The Cask of Amontillado - Wikipedia

Otherwise, I got nothin'.

 

Nothing could be more lucid, specific, and vividly non-nebulous than the lyrics to "China Cat Sunflower." What's unclear about it?

 

Freemasons, dude

 

Perfectly clear for me.