Bummer in the summer

You are just a thought that someone
Somewhere somehow feels you should be here
And it's so for real, to touch
To smell, to feel, to know where you are here

So long, old man.

This is the only thing that I am sure of
And that's all that lives is gonna die

One of the most powerful moments I've ever seen onstage took place a few years ago when Arthur Lee re-created the Forever Changes album at the Fillmore, with a full horn and string section. As fans of that mindblowing record know, one of its creepiest passages is the coda to "The Red Telephone." Lee, fresh out of the state penitentiary at Coalinga following a three-strikes conviction, froze the crowd with the icy refrain, "They're locking him up today/They're throwing away the key/I wonder who it'll be tomorrow/You or me?" And I'll never forget how it felt when he followed it up with the sound of the other shoe dropping: "We're all normal when we want our freedom."

I'll feel much better on the other side
I'll thumb a ride

Good luck, fella. I know you didn't get the happiest of turns down here, but I think it's the only one you're gonna get. I'm glad you got to spend those last few years on the outside.


FMFM: wild guess