Red Letter Year

I saw it live and she made the Katrina connection very obvious there. She was living in N.O when she wrote this. It's just gorgeous.

I saw it live and she made the Katrina connection very obvious there. She was living in N.O when she wrote this. It's just gorgeous.

What I love, though, is the way parenting has woven itself through all of her song writing now. purple references, one continuous unbroken line...that all comes from a children's book called Harold and the Purple Crayon that I'm sure she must have read to Petah a thousand times. A lot of this album seemed to weave parenting into her activism. Powerful stuff for those of us who've been Ani fans all...

What I love, though, is the way parenting has woven itself through all of her song writing now. purple references, one continuous unbroken line...that all comes from a children's book called Harold and the Purple Crayon that I'm sure she must have read to Petah a thousand times. A lot of this album seemed to weave parenting into her activism. Powerful stuff for those of us who've been Ani fans all along and have kids now.

I would say that the first half has less to do with drug addiction (Ani's a smoker and, if you've heard "Evolve", you know her position on marijuana) and more to do with exactly what the first verses directly state: "New Year's Eve we dropped mushrooms and danced 'round the house".

I would say that the first half has less to do with drug addiction (Ani's a smoker and, if you've heard "Evolve", you know her position on marijuana) and more to do with exactly what the first verses directly state: "New Year's Eve we dropped mushrooms and danced 'round the house".

All subsequent lyrics leading up to the obvious Katrina references are pretty accurately and simplistically describing the experience of tripping.

All subsequent lyrics leading up to the obvious Katrina references are pretty accurately and simplistically describing the experience of tripping.

"First you go under, then coming up gives you the bends": 'going under' signifies the act of 'dropping', or eating, the mushrooms. 'Coming up' is...

"First you go under, then coming up gives you the bends": 'going under' signifies the act of 'dropping', or eating, the mushrooms. 'Coming up' is blatant psychonaut parlance for the feeling of whatever substance you're tripping or rolling on (MDMA, LSD, psilocybin, et cetera) beginning to affect you. It's usually accompanied with a feeling of expansiveness and magnanimity. When you're coming up on mushrooms, they oftentimes can make you nauseous or give you stomach cramps–hence, 'the bends'.

"When you break the surface, all you can see is your friends": There comes a point in a trip or roll when you feel what most people with any experience with these substances will call a 'wave'. It's the first peak that you hit along the trip's trajectory, and it can be intense–in both good and bad ways. It's oftentimes a wise decision to trip with other people (hopefully at least one of them is not under the influence if you're inexperienced), as not only will they tend to prevent you from acting on some of your crazier ideas, but they'll also help to ground you to a sense of reality and comfort–which is crucial to preventing a bad trip, the psychological turmoil of which cannot be overestimated.

"So you grab your purple crayon": Obvious Harold reference here, but as an aside, tripping can give you some intense visuals, which inspires a lot of people to express themselves artistically whilst tripping.

"And finally the whole world is made of one unbroken line": At some point during a trip, you will experience a sense of "ego death"–you are not alone, you are not an isolated agent, you are a part of much larger machinery, and it's an astounding feeling. I sometimes describe it as "being able to see past the fourth wall of reality", as that's the best approximation for what I've experienced.

And lastly, "Just remember you are there, you are always, always there": One of the other things that tends to occur to people while they are tripping is what Nietzsche would call "eternal recurrence". You begin to ask yourself how such a tiny amount of a weird chemical could so drastically alter your perception of reality. You come to realize that the world around you is always as beautiful, as complex, as terrifying, and as awe-inspiring every day as when you are tripping–the only difference is that you've used a chemical to force your brain to interpret information differently than it normally would. Ideas akin to: "This is always this beautiful. It's always here, I just need to look for it" abbreviate into mantras ("incantation replaced resolution") of "This is always here. It's always here. It's always here".

Also, mushrooms are not addictive (most hallucinogens aren't), so the idea of this song addressing addiction is … flimsy.

I think this song has more to do with perceptions of truth and reality, and how something that's so demonized (a "drug"!) can help a person create a more positive reality for themselves and others, whereas something that's so commonplace and accepted as television is detrimental in that it encourages a sense of complacency, entitlement, and detachment from the world around you.