Reply #123: Jerry played those songs because he loved them, IMHO [View All]

[Warren DeMontague]

I saw a lot of JGB, and never got the feeling he was shillin' for any particular stripe of ideology or religion, certainly not Christianity. "Brothers and Sisters" can be interpreted in a lot of ways; the 'faithful' could be considered the hippie community just as easily as the christian community. As for Midnight Moonlight, (great song, BTW) if ol' Jer' had really wanted people to get the "Christian" references in the lyrics, he probably wouldn't have sung them so fast!

And if you look at the Dead's work as a whole, if any philosophical river of thought is represented in the lyrics, it's Taoism IMHO. Shit, parts of "Ripple" are taken directly from the Tao Te Ching.