The wheel is turning1
and you can’t slow down
You can’t let go
and you can’t hold on
You can’t go back
and you can’t stand still
If the thunder don’t get you
then the lightning will2
Chorus:
Won’t you try just a little bit harder?
Couldn’t you try just a little bit more?
Won’t you try just a little bit harder?
Couldn’t you try just a little bit more?
Round, round, robin run around3
Gotta get back where you belong
Little bit harder, just a little bit more
Little bit farther than you than you’ve gone before
The wheel is turning
and you can’t slow down
You can’t let go
and you can’t hold on
You can’t go back
and you can’t stand still
If the thunder don’t get you
then the lightning will
Small wheel turn by the fire and rod
Big wheel turn by the grace of God4
Every time that wheel turn round
bound to cover just a little more ground
The wheel is turning
and you can’t slow down
You can’t let go
and you can’t hold on
You can’t go back
and you can’t stand still
If the thunder don’t get you
then the lightning will
(Chorus)
Words by Robert Hunter
Music by Jerry Garcia and Bill Kreutzmann
Compare Hunter’s “Lay of the Ring” from the “Eagle Mall Suite”:
Age by age the ancient wheel creaks and turns around
A potent symbol throughout human history (well, at least since the invention of the wheel).
In Buddhism, known as the bhava-cakra, from the Sanskrit “wheel [cakra] of becoming [bhava].”
Also called WHEEL OF LIFE . . . a representation of the endless cycle of rebirths governed by the law of dependent origination . . . , shown as a wheel clutched by a monster, symbolizing impermanence.
In the center of the wheel are shown the three basic evils, symbolized by a red dove (passion), a green snake (anger), and a black pig (ignorance). The intermediate space between the center and the rim is divided by spokes into five (later, six) sections, depicting the possible states into which a man can be reborn: the realm of gods, titans (if six states are shown), men, animals, ghosts, and demons. Around the rim of the wheel the twelve nidanas, or interrelated phases in the cycle of existence, are shown in an allegorical or symbolical manner—ignorance, karmic formations, rebirth consciousness, mind and body, sense organs, contact, sensation, craving, grasping, becoming, birth, and old age and death. (Encyclopedia Britannica) See note on “wheel of fortune” under “Alice D. Millionaire.”
In Roman mythology:
Fortuna . . . the goddess of fortune or chance. She was identified with the Greek Tyche, and she was often depicted with a rudder, as the pilot of destiny, with wings, or with a wheel. The wheel of fortune was a widely used symbol in medieval art and literature, forming the concept which Lydgate’s Falls of Princes (1494) and Chaucer’s “Monk’s Tale” from The Canterbury Tales were based. (Benet’s) 71
In the Bible, the wheel appears several times, most notably in Ezekiel 1:15–16:
Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the color of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.”
Nearly a quote from Merle Travis’s song “Sixteen Tons.” “If the left one don’t get you, then the right one will,” speaking of his two fists, one of steel and one of iron.
The robin:
Perhaps the most abundant and conspicuous of all our western birds. . . . While the western robin, as a species, is highly migratory and moves south at the approach of cold weather, large numbers remain to winter in the protected valleys of the northwestern states. It is probable, however, that the winter robins of Washington and Oregon are the summer birds of farther north, and that our own summer robins spend the winter in the sunshine of Southern California. (Eliot, Willard, Birds of the Pacific Coast)
A “round robin” competition, in athletic events, is one in which each team or participant competes against every other team or participant. Also, there is a research design used in biology and psychology called the round robin. Imagine four people, A, B, C, and D, who interact with one another. Each person’s behavior in response to another (e.g., smiling) is measured. The data structure looks like this:
where x’s are one person’s response to another and dashes are diagonal elements. This is a very unusual design in science and indeed has a wheellike quality. Also, this is a structure used in athletic events (round robin tennis tournament).
Note also that rounds are a musical form unto themselves.
Echoing a line from the African American spiritual “ ‘Zekiel Saw De Wheel” (based upon the biblical passage from Ezekiel, quoted above):
De big wheel run by faith,
Little wheel run by de grace of God
Studio recording: Garcia (January 1972).
First performance: June 3, 1976, at the Paramount Theater in Portland, Oregon. It occupied a steady spot in the repertoire thereafter.