Song · The Grateful Dead
“Franklin's Tower” by The Grateful Dead
From the album Blues for Allah (1975)
“Franklin's Tower” by The Grateful Dead appears on 12 radio countdowns from 6 stations between 1991 and 2025. It was first released in 1975 on the album Blues for Allah. Its best result is #152 on the WYEP 2021 Labor Day Countdown. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #1,318 indie & aaa song of all time.
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Blues for Allah, the Grateful Dead's eighth studio album, came out in 1975, and "Franklin's Tower" followed as a single in January 1976, sometimes carrying the tag "Roll Away the Dew". Jerry Garcia and Bill Kreutzmann wrote the music, and Robert Hunter's words started out, of all things, as a birthday lullaby for his son, sparked by Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side".
What came out is pure Hunter mysticism: four winds, a tower holding a bell whose ringing might set you free, and nods to Benjamin Franklin and the Liberty Bell. Cashbox singled out the band's ensemble playing and the care Garcia took with his phrasing. The Dead produced it themselves, with Dan Healy engineering and helping on the mix.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
Classic Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 453 | WNEW-FM | WNEW Firecracker 500 (1991) | 500 |
| 1996 | 221 | WNEW-FM | WNEW Firecracker 500 (1996) | 500 |
| 2001 | 1483 | WFPK | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2000 |
| 2004 | 799 | WXPN | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2004) | 885 |
| 2009 | 905 | WYEP | WYEP 913 Essential Songs | 913 |
| 2014 | 666 | WXPN | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2014) | 885 |
| 2020 | 749 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2021 | 152 | WYEP | WYEP 2021 Labor Day Countdown | 168 |
| 2022 | 884 | WYEP | WYEP Countdown to Fall 2022 | 603 |
| 2023 | 217 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places | 800 |
| 2024 | 513 | WYEP | WYEP Best Songs of the Past 50 Years | 1049 |
| 2025 | 705 | Q104.3 | Q104.3 Top 1,043 Classic Rock Songs of All Time (2025) | 1043 |
Also listed as: Franklins Tower.
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