"And my word fills the sky with flame"

The Annotated "Estimated Prophet"

An installment in The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics.
By David Dodd
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Copyright notice

"Estimated Prophet"

 Words by John Perry Barlow; music by Bob Weir
("Estimated Prophet" composed and written by Bob Weir and John Perry Barlow. Reproduced by arrangement with Ice Nine Publishing Co., Inc. (ASCAP))
(Barlow has posted the lyrics to his songs.)

Lyrics omitted. The annotations below are reproduced by permission of David Dodd; the song lyrics themselves are copyrighted and are not reproduced here. Read them at the official source: dead.net/songs.

Estimated Prophet

 Written in Cora, Wyoming and Mill Valley, California, January, 1977.

Recorded on

Covered by

Debuted in live performance on February 26, 1977, at the Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino, Calif. The show also featured the first "Terrapin Station." "Estimated Prophet" appeared in the fourth spot in the first set, following "They Love Each Other," and preceding "Sugaree."

Blair Jackson, in Grateful Dead: the Music Never Stopped says:

"According to Weir, he and Barlow wrote the song from the perspective of a crazy, messianic zealot, a type which one invariably encounters in Deadhead crowds now and again. As Weire explains: 'The basis of it is this guy I see at nearly every backstage door. There's always some guy who's taken a lot of dope and he's really bug- eyed, and he's having some kind of vision. He's got a rave he's got to deliver.' In Estimated Prophet, the psychopath claims 'My time comin' any day, don't worry about me,' and Weir essentially lets him rave." (p. 180)

Fire wheel burnin' in the air

 Daniel 7, v. 9: "Flames of fire were his throne and its wheel blazing fire..." Ezekiel 10, vv 8-11. "They had the sparkle of topaz, and all four were alike, like a wheel inside a wheel." These two Bible passages found life in a Spiritual, "'Zekiel Saw De Wheel": 

"Wheel oh wheel,

Wheel in de middle of a wheel;

Wheel oh wheel,

Wheel in the middle of a wheel.




'Zekiel saw de wheel of time, 

Wheel in the middle of a wheel,

Ev'ry spoke was humankind,

Wheel in the middle of a wheel.




Way up yonder on de mountain top,

Wheel in de middle of a wheel,

My Lord spoke an de chariot stop,

Wheel in de middle of a wheel.




'Zekiel saw de wheel,

Way up in de middle of de air,

'Zekiel saw de wheel,

Way in de middle of de air.




De big wheel run by faith,

Little wheel run by de grace of God;

Wheel widin a wheel

Way in de middle of de air."
Source: The Book of American Negro Spirituals

There is an echo here, as well, of a Robert Hunter lyric, The Wheel, in the lines: "De big wheel run by faith/Little wheel run by de grace of God..."

The reference on Weir and Barlow's part is to the "Prophet" of the title, as reflected in the words of the prophets Ezekiel and Daniel, via the traditional spiritual.

From Florida, a wildflower called "Firewheel," (Gaillardia pulchella) via Michael Abrams' Florida Wildflower Page.

The sea will part before me...

 Exodus 14, vv. 21-31: "Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea away all night with a strong east wind and turned the sea-bed into dry land..."

A familiar story, and one of the most powerful tales of the power of a prophetic presence. Invoked here, visions of Cecil B. DeMille's screen epic come to mind.

Moses also appears in Hunter's "Greatest Story Ever Told".

keywords: @bible, @moses, @fire, @thunder, @wheel, @California
DeadBase code: [ESTI]
First posted: Feburary, 1995
Last revised: October 8, 1996