The Banyan Tree

Lyrics: Hunter
Music: Weir, Hart

Performed by The Other Ones and The Dead.

Running down the muddy road
A hundred miles from hope
Dangling from a banyan tree
I see a length of rope

Behind me is a tiger
And a killer with a knife
One wants me for supper
And the other wants my life

I got no choice but to grab
The rope and start to climb
The situation here is such
The choice was never mine

Hand by hand I pull my body
From the mucky ground
Up into the sunshine
Where the birds are flying round

I just keep on climbing 'cause
There's nothing else to do
My hands are getting tired
But my spirit pulls me through

Don't know if the tree is high
Or if the clouds are low
Pretty soon I'm looking down
A hundred miles below

The Earth is spinning blue and green
Beneath my dizzy eyes
But I leave caution to the faint
And reason to the wise

I see another climber and
I think it could be you
Climbing up a length of rope
Where stars come shining through

Was it hope of freedom
Or panic born of fear
Sent you climbing for your life
Up in the stratosphere?

I got no fear of falling
And I got no fear to fly
I believe my soul will live
Although my body die

Maybe I am right in that
And maybe I am wrong
I just keep on climbing
And sometimes I make a song

This is not the way I chose
The way has chosen me
Dangling to the the muddy road
Beneath the Banyan tree

Other Ones Recordings
     Date Album Recorded By
     19 Jul 1998 The Strange Remain The Other Ones


Further Information
For more information on recordings see Matt Schofield's Grateful Dead Family Discography

 


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