Devendra Banhart Shares Grateful Dead Cover ‘Franklin’s Tower’

Devendra Banhart unveiled a cover of the Grateful Dead classic “Franklin’s Tower” exclusively via Amazon Music. Banhart’s rendition comes in celebration of the 45th anniversary of the Dead’s Blues For Allah studio album.

“Franklin’s Tower” was one of seven compositions the Grateful Dead included on Blues For Allah. Devendra was joined by his touring band of guitarist Nicole Lawrence, keyboardist Jeremy Harris and drummer/percussionist Gregory Rogove for his take on the song. Banhart and company recorded their “Franklin’s Tower” remotely at various studios and home studios around Los Angeles and Stinson Beach with Noah Georgeson handling production and mixing duties.

Read a note from Devendra in regards to “Franklin’s Tower”:

More than ever
I find myself
Fighting dread
With the dead…

We chose “Franklin’s Tower” for its opening line, one of my favorite opening lines of all time:
“In another time’s forgotten space
Your eyes looked through your mother’s face”

This is the gift of the Dead,

The paradox of personal universality…

Wisdom found at the end of a maze,

The bliss of unconditional love and acceptance…

There’s a Dead for everyone…

Through the pandemic, I go on daily immersions into Blues for Allah, marveling at Phillip Garris’s eerie and alluring cover art, Help/Slip/Frank guiding me through the weird underworld that the day has become, & I feel at once remarkably insignificant and the most precious thing in the universe, A wave, held in the ocean of my mother’s eyes… a child dancing, rolling away the dew… Knowing Help is indeed on the way…

Stream or purchase Devendra Banhart’s “Franklin’s Tower” cover below: