What’s Become of the Baby Lyrics
The rainbow-winged singing birds fly 'round the sun
Sun bells rain down in a liquid profusion
Mermaids on porpoises draw up the dawn
What's become of the baby
This cold December morning?
Songbirds
Frozen in their flight
Drifting to the earth
Remnants of forgotten dreaming
(calling...)
Answer comes there none
Go to sleep you child
Dream of never-ending always
Panes of crystal
Eyes sparkle like waterfalls
Lighting the polished ice caverns of Khan
But where in the looking-glass fields of illusion
Wandered the child who was perfect as dawn?
What's become of the baby
This cold December morning?
Rhythms of the sun
All the world revolves
Captured in the eye of Odin
Allah
Pray, where are you now?
All Mohammed's men
Blinded by the sparkling water
Scheherazade gethering stories to tell
From primal gold fantasy petals that fall
But where is the child
Who played with the sun chimes
And chased the cloud sheep
To the regions of rhyme?
Stranded
Cries the south wind
Lost in the regions of lead
Shackled by chains of illusion
Delusions of living and dead
About
“What’s Become of the Baby?” is one of the confusing and unsuccessful tracks from 1969’s Aoxomoxoa.
Recorded while under the influence of nitrous oxide which, according to Garcia, triggers an “I’m dying mechanism” and creates a fast, synchronous, “telepathic things that’s fantastic, as when Huey, Dewey, and Louie finish one another’s sentences.”
In “Baby,” Garcia wanted the sound of the entire band to come out of one voice, which required voltage-controlled amplifiers, filters, and pitch followers, which had not yet been invented. Once again, their ambitions had overshot their skill. And the descent into total lunacy initiated by mixing while inhaling nitrous oxide majestically confused everything.
The only known performance of this song occurred on April 26, 1969, at the Electric Theater in Chicago.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
- 1.St. Stephen
- 3.Rosemary
- 7.What’s Become of the Baby
