RAINDANCE.us

Call the day of the rainbow
Flame in the rainbow morning
Call in the morning of the rainbow rain
Flame in the morning of the great rainbow

Greetings with grace
Looking for God´s face
It is within sight of the eye
That puts a bow in the cloud band of colors in the sky

I am a rambler for the trade that travels around
Wind in my back circling south
Buried some words deep in the sand
River runs flowing over the land

How many times should we go through this again?
Know that our love will heal us again
And make us brave,
bold and new
Singing, with mariachi dinner gentlemen

Sit with the sunset next to the moon
With your favorite color of a flower in bloom
Count all the hours listening to tunes
& Image paradise built on a dune

The treasure of sierra
It is not on earth
Not in the cloud
Not in the crowd
It is not made of wall
The voice of the trumpets call
To a river of life
A celestial current
Of conscious awareness
For all the redeemed
The signs follow the vision

On the blue mountain
The treasure they saw
It is not stuck in time to be found
Then for a quick moment it will pass
But the immortal river within us will last

Faith in the future that you can not deny
There is something more here than you can explain
Back to the serenade, yes, you'll manage
And call in the rainbow morning
Flame in the rainbow morning
Call in the morning of the rainbow rain
Flame in the morning of the great rainbow

I met Tobey Stein, musician extraordinaire, trading tapes of live concerts of the Grateful Dead. He's writing some of the music for the play "Raindance", and describes an experience he had with one of the songs.I wrote the words to this song in Guadalajara, Mexico and sent them to Tobey Stein, who plays guitar and pedal steel, to put music to it for the play "RAINDANCE". I received this letter from him:

"Howdy John, I finally finished writing the music to "Rainbow". I've orchestrated it and am trying to get it performed. Things happen slowly you know. Enclosed is a version of it on acoustic guitar. People have been asking me about your words. I tell them they're part fantasy and part true religion. Someone called "Rainbow" a word-picture. The other day I hitchhiked out to the country in Wakulla county where there is a very hip bunch of musicians called the Wakulla band who play a lot of Grateful Dead songs as well as their own. It started raining so I ducked under the porch of a little store in a town called Crawfordville. I started picking a few songs and I got around to playing "Rainbow". As I was playing the end and screaming "Call me in the morning of the rainbow rain" with all the rednecks in the gas station across the street wondering what the hell I was doing. I looked up and there was the biggest most beautiful rainbow I ever saw in the sky. My heart just about jumped out of my chest and took off. Somebody must have been telling me something."

"The rainbow was real."

--Paul Hoffman, Lighting Director for the Grateful Dead

According to news reports that surfaced after this rainbow occurred in Santa Clara, California on June 27, 2015 during the Grateful Dead's show, it was unbelievable to some reporters who raised speculation it was a contrived event. There was a magnificent rainbow arching over the entire stadium, with perfect timing showing up during the final song of their first set on this first night of "Fare Thee Well", and morphing into a double rainbow. Billboard.com stated it was not Divine intervention or Mother Nature's unusual weather. One report claimed the Grateful Dead spent $50,000 to stage this rainbow. An ABC News report stated it was possible. "What a great way to create a buzz, for a run of shows that have been nothing if not buzz-worthy from their very first announcement." After all, the Merry Pranksters were there. According to reports, the Grateful Dead orchestrated this rainbow by placing 600 special lights on a building two miles away. Of course they had to bring in the cloud cover, and a few raindrops fell on this crowd in a rainless drought-stricken time, and for the climax, a spectacular incredible sunset fills the sky. Billboard did a retraction by quoting a Deadhead, "This is the band that jams with God."

UNCLE JOHN

@ Caffè Lena, Saratoga Springs, New York

June 19, 2017

Experimental Theatre

for the play

RAINDANCE

BIG WIND IS A-COMING

excerpts from:

Shelter From The Storm >

(Bob Dylan)

Big Wind >

(Marleen Molle Albin, Kevin Morgenstern, Arranged by Robert Hunter & Comfort)

Duquesne Whistle >

(Robert Hunter, Bob Dylan )

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall >

(Bob Dylan)

Looks Like Rain

(John Barlow, Bob Weir)

DEAD & COMPANY

@ Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, New York

June 20, 2017

Rainbow during Dead & Company's performance of "Looks Like Rain"

Born in the American hills
Raised in a desert cave
It was not until he was twenty-one
He met Jesus and was saved
He can move like a mountain lion
Smells like a bear for snakes
Sundance is so daring and strange
As he is strong and brave

He has half a diamond for an eye
And an eagle to guide his way
And he lived ten years inside the city
And he learned the city way
He had a love for the game
A taste for whiskey
A weakness for pretty women
But he could not understand the cruelty
To lock up so many people inside prisons
He is a man who loves his freedom

He took a simple stone
And at night it would shine
Reflecting on the city
Illuminated the road in the sky
They say he has ten thousand brothers
And all of them believing men
And ten thousand sisters
And many children

He has vision for a river of time
Who can stop the rain at will?
When you find him, he can make it rhyme
And go even better still
Walk within the cities teaching ecology
He painted a rose for a masterpiece
And helps the blind to see

He had a love for the game
A taste for whiskey
A weakness for pretty women
But he could not understand the cruelty
To lock up so many people inside prisons
He is a man who loves his freedom

Sundance is smart
And a man with many faces
But he did not risk holding
Aces on aces
Now some say he is a prophet
And some only one man
But I know him as a friend of Jesus
And a child from the desert sand
Asking
How can the most advanced
Civilization of all times
be so far behind
to be so far behind?

Now Sundance is among you
Who helps the four-winged beast to fly?
Those who live to see
Half diamond for an eye
They have seen golden rain fall from the sky
Golden shower of the sky
Gold from the sky
Gold of heaven!