Devendra Banhart covers The Grateful Dead's "Franklin’s Tower"

Banhart's cover of "Franklin's Towers" is released as an Amazon Original.

He recorded the cover remotely with his touring band Nicole Lawrence (guitar), Jeremy Harris (synths) and Gregory Rogove (drums and percussion) in various home and normal studios across LA and Stinson Beach, California. Banhart's version is produced and mixed by Noah Georgeson (Joanna Newsom, Marlon Williams).

Banhart writes of the decision to cover the song, "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"."

He adds, "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..."

The cover is Banhart's first outing since releasing his Vast Ovoid EP in July.