ll tell you later.)@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA> (04/23/85)
Just a minor comment on the "political" nature of the Grateful Dead's
song 'Throwing Stones' . . .
Several people have noted the key line "Ashes, ashes, all fall down" in
the song, and have suggested various interpretations. I suspect that most of
them are aware of the line's origin in a nursery rhyme, viz.:
Ring around the rosie,
Pocket full of posies,
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.
This rhyme, which has numerous versions with slight variations, is often coupled
with a children's game in which the players move around in a circle while the
first two lines are chanted or sung; when they reach the final line, they do,
indeed, all fall down, usually in fits of childish laughter.
However, the original meaning of this verse is far less pleasant. It dates
back to the seventeenth century, when Europe was being ravaged by bubonic
(Black) plague, mostly carried by rats from port to port and town to town.
The first line refers to the most visible symptom of this fatal disease: red
buboes (a polite medical term for what appear, in essence, to be large zits),
which appear in circular patterns on the victim's chest and back, and often
around the genitalia and under the arms as well. The specific locations are
tied to the locations of the lymphatic nodes, which the disease attacks. The
"ring of roses" (or, as the literature of the times referred to it, "wreath
of roses") was a sure sign that the possessor was going to be dead very soon.
The "pocket full of posies" line refers to the carrying around of various
herbs in the hope that they would ward off the disease. "Ashes, ashes" refers
to the fact that the bodies of the victims were usually burned in hopes that
the plague's spread could be halted, and "all fall down" is a sad reminder that
even the burnings didn't help.
Given this information, a different interpretation of "Throwing Stones"
becomes possible, in which the band is suggesting that many of the things our
society faces are, in essence, equivalent to the plague that decimated Europe.
If this interpretation is correct, though, then the Dead are also implying that
there's no solution beyond doing one's best to stay alive. Bubonic plague, by
the way, is still incurable, as far as I know; 3-5 cases per year are reported
in the US, mostly in the West, where it's carried by the occasional wild
animal (more precisely, by the animal's fleas).nm34@sdcc12.UUCP (nm34) (04/29/85)
In article <10156@brl-tgr.ARPA>, ll tell you later.)@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA> writes: > > Just a minor comment on the "political" nature of the Grateful Dead's > song 'Throwing Stones' . . . > Several people have noted the key line "Ashes, ashes, all fall down" in > the song, and have suggested various interpretations. I suspect that most of > them are aware of the line's origin in a nursery rhyme, viz.: > Ring around the rosie, > Pocket full of posies, > Ashes, ashes, all fall down. > This rhyme, which has numerous versions with slight variations, is often coupled > with a children's game in which the players move around in a circle while the > first two lines are chanted or sung; when they reach the final line, they do, > indeed, all fall down, usually in fits of childish laughter. > However, the original meaning of this verse is far less pleasant. It dates > back to the seventeenth century, when Europe was being ravaged by bubonic > (Black) plague, mostly carried by rats from port to port and town to town. According to the "Oxford Book of Nursery Rhymes" which is considered to be the final word in this field, the common interpretation of this rhyme as you have described it is totally incorrect. This is a recent invention and has nothing to to with the origins of the rhyme. Of course since this is a common interpretation of the rhyme, your comments do hold water since the interpretation may be what the author of the song intended. My belief is that the line "Ashes ashes all fall down " refers to nuclear destruction, the most simple interpretation of these words. - Andy Bindman