The Music Court

One pill makes you larger, And one pill makes you small

And the ones that mother gives you
Don’t do anything at all                                    

Go ask Alice
When she’s ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you’re going to fall
Tell ’em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
Call Alice
When she was just small

When men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you’ve just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving slow
Go ask Alice
I think she’ll know

When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen’s “off with her head!”
Remember what the dormouse said;
“Keep YOUR HEAD

Jefferson Airplane’s 1967 ode to the 1865 novel by British author Lewis Carroll about a young naive girl who is thrust into the world of psychedelia and wonder by following the White Rabbit down his hole.  The lyrics follow her adventure into the depraved world and her slip into seeming madness.  

Probably one of the most memorable grunge/metal bands of our time Alice In Chains made music history with their 1992 album “Dirt”.  This album was made famous by songs such as “Would?” and “Them Bones” but none so memorable as their 4th single released off of it which was “Rooster”.  Seems kind of stupid that a band would name an epic song off of a very small almost mechanical bird.  But to better understand it one has to look at the lyrics.

Aint found a way to kill me yet, Eyes burn with stinging sweat, Seems every path leads me to nowhere, Wife and kids household pet, Army green was no safe bet
The bullets scream to me from somewhere
Here they come to snuff the rooster
Yeah here come the rooster, yeah
You know he aint gonna die
No, no, no, ya know he aint gonna die
Walkin tall machine gun man
They spit on me in my home land
Gloria sent me pictures of my boy
Got my pills gainst mosquito death
My buddys breathin his dyin breath
Oh God please wont you help me make it through
Here they come to snuff the rooster
Yeah here come the rooster, yeah
You know he aint gonna die
No, no, no ya know he aint gonna die

The song was actually written by guitarist Jerry Cantrell for his father who had served in Vietnam.  The term Rooster was his father’s nickname which originated from the natives of Vietnam looking at the Eagles on the soldiers uniforms and since they did not know what an Eagle was they were calling them Chickens.  This whole song is about his fathers experience throughout the war.