Meaning of the song

[mttourpro]

They did chronically hack the shit out of it---prolly why they only did it about 12 times.....there is an older, different (studio?) version I've heard that I think came out more recently as part of a box set or something that has a VERY different groove/feel/tempo---actually really cool. Much slower and different vox.

I recall it being discussed here a while back and think TS prolly knows what box-set I'm referring to. I've only heard it once so I'm not sure where to exactly tell you to look for it but it's worth checking out.

sorry, but what is the I to II change ? i don't see what we are talking about.

When you go from the tonic (first chord) to the second chord of the major scale in whatever key the song's in (i.e. C to D or in this case E to F#)

Also, as mentioned..

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

"An unrecorded GD song dealing obliquely with Altamont."

I still think that even if it's "obliquely" about Altamont, that it's also about the notion of the death of an idealized utopian society. Altamont was very disillusioning in terms of hippy culture....basically the antithesis of Woodstock and the whole Summer of Love ethos.

[mttourpro]

bump

[Highballin']

Mttourpro- I think the Box set you are referring to is the "So Many Roads" set. It has the "Masons" like you describe.
Maybe Mason was "The Scene", the festival scene, which is said to have "died" after Altamont.
The Children were the fans and the musicians.
I've heard a few "scholars" claim that nothing was ever the same after Altamont.

[mikepowell]

Consider the "wall" to be Wall Street.
He dies on Monday-kids think they get the big inheritance. They stand so high.
Wednesday a stock market crash-they lose their wealth, as it is ties up in the market, probably mostly on borrowed money.
So much for all they learned from him.