Music Appreciation

there is so much being expressed in this song and as you point out many people don't get it. The song opens with Kantner singing "If you smile at me, you know I will understand cause that is something everybody everywhere does in the same language" and the following line by Grace clearly shows that this is a small group of survivors who have encountered each other as strangers.

Then comes a major point made by the line sung by Marty Balin as one survivor speaking to another "You must try some of my purple berries, I've been eating them for 6 or 7 weeks now, haven't got sick once. Probably keep us both alive."

That line is about those of us who were, and still are, people who would have the humanity and love for each other to share what little we might have no matter the circumstances. It is an understanding and belief from deep within that without an "us" there is no "me" and "us" is what it is about to the very end. To the last purple berry. Even if that's all we have.