My Brother Esau

Details

Band
The Grateful Dead
Play count
144
First played
1983-03-25 — Compton Terrace
Music
Bob Weir
Lyrics
John Perry Barlow
Lyrics
My brother Esau killed a hunter Back in nineteen sixty nine And before the killing was done His inheritance was mine But his birthright was a wand to wave Before a weary band Esau gave me sleeplessness And a piece of moral land My father favored Esau Who was eager to obey All the bloody wild commandments The old man shot his way But all this favor ended when My brother failed at war He staggered home And found me in the door Esau skates on mirrors any more Meets his pale reflection at the door Yet sometimes at night I dream He's still that hairy man Shadow boxing the apocalypse And wandering the land Shadow boxing the apocalypse And wandering the land Esau holds a blessing Brother Esau holds a curse I would say that the blame was mine But I suspect it's something worse More my brother looks like me The less I understand The silent war that bloodied both our hands Sometimes at night, I think I understand Way late at night, more I feel I understand It's brother to brother and it's man to man And it's face to face and it's hand to hand We shadowdance the silent war within The shadowdance, it never ends Never ends, never ends Shadowboxing the apocalypse, yet again Yet again Shadowboxing the apocalypse And wandering the land

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