The Dead's "Estimated Prophet"
"Estimated Prophet": This song about a fired-up, flipped-out California prophet, takes some of its imagery from the story of Ezekial, one of the Bible's most flipped-out prophets. It is thought that Ezekial suffered from brain lesions which sometimes left him unable to move or even to comprehend language. Estimated's vision of a "fire wheel, burnin' in the air," recalls one of Ezekiel's visions. In the opening chapter of the Book of Ezekiel, the prophet sees a storm wind containing "a great cloud with fire flashing forth continually and a bright light around it, and in its midst something like glowing metal in the midst of fire." As the fiery object approaches, Ezekiel sees inside four living beings, each four faces and four wings. Each of the four had the face of a bull, of a lion, of an eagle, and of a lion. "Now as I looked at the living beings, behold, there was one wheel on the earth beside the living beings, for each of the four of them. And whenever those rose from the earth, the wheels rose close beside them; for the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels." Brain lesions? Extra-terrestials? Angels? The Cisco Houston song "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel" suggests the latter. Another symbol evoked by Estimated's fire wheel is the Wheel of Fire a/k/a the Catherine wheel. This burning wheel was rolled downhill at summer solstice festivals in Europe to stimulate the sun, and ward off winter and death. The line "we will ride up to glory" evokes another prophet, Elijah, who was taken to heaven directly from earth (without need to die first) in a chariot of fire enveloped by a whirlwind.
http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/kopel.html
