South of Market in the land of ruin1
You’ll find all manner of action
Got your tinsel tigers in the Metal Room
Stalking satisfaction
They got ’em packaged up for love and money
Tatooed tots, chrome-spike bunnies
Pop on my mirrored shades, the better to see
And roll on in, gonna roll in it, honey
I get a feeling like when big things collide
Like the crack before the thunder, like I really ought to hide
Here comes metal angel, she looks ready to ride
What’s that she’s tryin’ to show me?
What’s that she’s tryin’ to show me?
Picasso moon, shattered light2
Diamond bullets ripping up the night
Picasso moon, liberate me
Ah, life’s infinite diversity
Great, amazing, majesty
And it’s bigger than a drive-in movie, oo-wee
Bigger than a drive-in movie, oo-wee
Hanging ten out on space and time3
Redefining distance
The next skull on your necklace is mine
Cheap for such assistance
I had a job trading bits for pieces
We’d make wrinkles, advertise them as creases
Please find my resignation enclosed
Roll with it, go on, let’s roll with it, honey . . .
Dark angel, what’s bothering you
So strange, you do me all that you do
Dark angel, you’re making me blue
I guess it doesn’t matter
I guess it doesn’t matter4
Picasso moon, blinding ball
I feel the quickening, I hear the call
Picasso moon, fill the sky
Amaze and blaze and mystify
With the lunar wind, I want to fly
And it’s bigger than a drive-in movie, oh my
And it’s bigger than a drive-in movie, oh my
Strikes the morning, the atomic dawn
Scramble back to cover
Quick, pop your mirrored sunglasses on
My little leather-winged lover
I see your face printed on my money
Your brazen ways really move me, honey
Heart of darkness, yeah, yeah5
Why am I laughing, this ain’t funny
Dark angel, now just don’t start
You’ll break my spirit, you’ll wreck my heart
You must have a license for practicing that art
I don’t presume to imagine
No, I don’t presume to imagine
Picasso moon, fractal flame
Blazing lace filling every frame
Picasso moon, wheels within wheels
The bells are ringing, it’s way unreal
Trying to tell y’all about just how it feels
And it’s bigger than a drive-in movie, for real
Bigger than a drive-in movie, for real
Picasso moon, shattered light
Diamond bullets ripping up the night
Picasso moon, illuminate me
Picasso moon, blinding ball
I feel the quickening, I hear the call
Picasso moon, fill the sky
Picasso moon, fractal flame
Blazing lace filling every frame
Picasso moon, wheels within wheels6
Picasso moon, shining bright
The universe is working fine tonight
Picasso moon, illuminate me
Words by John Barlow, with Bob Weir and Bob Bralove
Music by Bob Weir
The area of San Francisco to the south of the main drag, Market Street. The area was notorious at the time of the song’s writing as a haven for junkies. The Mission District, immortalized in “Mission in the Rain,” is also south of Market, but there is little ambiguity here regarding the district sometimes known as SoMa.
An interview with Weir, included on a promotional CD for the Built to Last album, includes a hilarious retelling of the origin of this phrase, which just popped out of Phil Lesh’s mouth one day while the band was sitting around in the studio: ‘Picasso moon.’ I don’t know why I said that!” The phrase came back repeatedly in Weir’s mind, haunting him one day during a bike ride so that he nearly fell off his bike.
Deconstructing the little phrase allows almost too many references: to the famous artist himself and to the moon, one of the band’s favorite and oft-recurring symbols, in songs from “Terrapin Station” to “Standing on the Moon.”
A reference to the surfing maneuver in which a surfer is at the front of the board with all ten toes hanging over the front end.
Compare the line in “Morning Dew”: “I guess it doesn’t matter anyway . . .”
Title of a Joseph Conrad novel (1899), the inspiration for the 1979 Francis Ford Coppola film Apocalyspe Now, which featured a percussion underscore by Mickey Hart.
Compare the line (and its source) in “Estimated Prophet”: “Fire wheel burning in the air.”
Written in Mill Valley, California, February through May, 1989.
Studio recording: Built to Last (October 31, 1989).
First performance: April 28, 1989, at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater in Irvine, California. It remained in the repertoire thereafter.