The Etymology of The Grateful Dead's "Ripple"

Driving in the car the other day, I was listening to my "Top 25 most played" itunes playlist, the 25 songs that have gotten the most hits on my ipod. Naturally, my all-time favorite song appeared, "Ripple" by the Grateful Dead.

I first heard this song at summer camp at thirteen or fourteen years old when the two music directors sang it for the talent show. It has stuck with me ever since then. I sought it out when I got home from camp, discovering it on one of the Grateful Dead's most known albums, "American Beauty." The song then single-handedly turned me on to this entire album, which remains one of my favorite albums of all-time. Well-known tracks on this album include "Box of Rain," "Friend of the Devil," "Truckin'," and one of my other favorite tunes, "Attics of my Life."

My twelfth grade English teacher was a hard-rock and heavy metal kind of guy, always playing songs by Metallica or AC/DC on Music Day (a talent show soley devoted to playing and singing music). He commented one day in English class about how he heard a Grateful Dead song playing at REI and how their songs always seemed really boring - slow and minimal with not a lot of guitar or drums. I didn't really see the need to argue back since it was only his opinion and just a slight comment side-tracking from Hamlet or The Bell Jar or something similar that we were discussing that day. However, with that comment, I immediatley thought of my favorite song, "Ripple," and I realized, although quite randomly, that it was the perfect song to put on my senior yearbook page. It was a slow song, but it wasn't minimal; it was my entire world.

Seniors decorate their yearbook page with their graduation photo as well as other photos from childhood or with family and friends. Oftentimes, a senior would decide to put inspirational quotes on his or her page often about moving forward or always remembering his past. "Ripple" is about finding your own path without the help from others, no matter how scary that journey may be. It was the perfect song to use. And I didn't just want to use one lyric, I wanted to use the entire song, because they were words I often repeated to myself in times when I needed to be strong. I wanted to forever commemorate the advice I tried to live by, so I dedicated half of my entire yearbook page to the lyrics that follow:

"If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine,
And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung,
Would you hear my voice come thru the music?
Would you hold it near as it were your own?

It's a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken,
Perhaps they're better left unsung.
I don't know, don't really care,
Let there be songs to fill the air.

Ripple in still water,
When there is no pebble tossed,
Nor wind to blow.

Reach out your hand if your cup be empty,
If your cup is full may it be again,
Let it be known there is a fountain,
That was not made by the hands of men.

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

Ripple in still water,
When there is no pebble tossed,
Nor wind to blow.

You who choose to lead must follow
But if you fall, you fall alone,
If you should stand, then who's to guide you?
If I knew the way, I would take you home."

The song says it all: even when nobody throws a pebble into the water and there is no wind to blow, a ripple can still form in still water. It's hard to do, but when it does, it does it on its own. I was trying to be that ripple - I was trying to move forward from high school and form myself into who I was going to be in college. If I fell down, I would fall alone, and have to pick myself back up. Nobody would be there to completely guide my life, because everyone has his or her own path, and my path was for my own steps, and "my steps alone."

My favorite line of the song is the very last line, "If I knew the way, I would take you home." The singer would guide me back home if he was able, but unfortunately, he doesn't know the way. I'm on my own, but it isn't sad; it's empowering.







More lyrics: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/g/grateful+dead/#share