I don't know why, but I've recently listened to this song a ton and its started to mean a lot to me. does anyone know of any album with a great version of this song on it?
'wake of the flood' has the studio version on it... there's a good on (and this should be easy to find) 'Dead Go to Nassau'
Dead Set One From the Vault (disc 1) Without a Net (disc 2) The Arista Years (disc 1) a few of my favorites from albums
As you probably know, Robert Hunter has a great of love of American History. The song is about events during the American revolution. 'Franklin' refers to Benjamin Franklin. The 'Bell' in the tower is the Liberty Bell. Casting large metal objects is a complicated process. Casting bells is additonally complicated by the fact that bells must be able to withstand the stress of ringing, and they must produce a good tone. The Liberty Bell was not only very large, but it needed to ring loudly and clearly enough to be heard around the world. This was pushing the limits of 18th century technology. As you probably know, Benjamin Franklin was not only a philosopher and statesman, he was an inventor. He was involved in the design of the Liberty Bell in the following way: Franklin postulated that a process which he called "dewing" could be used to improve the production process of large bells. Dewing basically involves exposing the freshly cast bell to large quantities of steam while the bell is still hot. The steam causes a rapid cooling, producing droplet of 'dew' on the bell. After the dew is formed, the bell is rolled between large cotton sheets. He described this process as "rolling away the dew". Unfortunately, Franklin's contempories had a very hard time understanding his technology. He showed them sample bells, asking him to simply look at the results without trying to understand the process. This was when he uttered the now famous quote, "if you get confused, listen to the music play." In the end, Franklin couldn't convince the foundry to use his dewing process. Instead they used an alternate process developed by a Frenchman named Simon Legree (who eventually turned out to be a British agent). Simon's process involved planting small ice crystals (seeds) into the metal while the bell was being cast. As we all know, the Liberty Bell didn't last very long. I believe it had one good ring, but you can't really tell because it was so long ago. Apparently the one time it was rung was during a storm. After ringing, the famous crack developed in the side of the bell and the wind blew through the crack. They tried ringing the bell again, but the only sound was of the wind blowing through the crack. Benjamin Franklin was understandably disgusted. When asked later about the incident, his only comment was "They planted ice, so they harvested wind." The ice refers to an alternate dewing process they used at the suggestion of a rival inventor (I'll spare you the details, but he turned out to be quite a Tory). The wind, of course, is the lack of sound from subseqent ringings. A second meaning (Hunter's always the punster) relates to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The musical structure of Franklin's Tower is similar to that of "Deal." Hunter was suprised that Jerry would write two such similar songs, and so he considered "Franklin's Tower" a "New Deal". It's really remarkable, the breadth of our culture that Hunter manages to work into his lyrics. (Taken from the Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics page. Written by Andrew Shalit.)
the grateful dead are definatley a live band. you want a dicks picks, or maybe without a net, thats my favorite version of the song. check it out
ooo my sister just gave dicks picks 3 for my birthday! it has a really good version of it, part of the "help on the way/slipknot/franklins tower" medley.
