I think this song is much more accurate in events than abstract considerations of nature and hippie spirit. To me is a fair clear description of the psychedelic "dream" state of communion gathered through some drugs consumption like mushrooms or LSD. Let's see in depth: "Just drifting slowly through a crowded street" time/space perception distortion (LSD/shrooms), "With neon darkness shimmering through the haze" exploded lights and color (LSD/shrooms), "A sea of faces rippling in the heat" image distorion/underwater rippled effect (classic LSD visual perception), "And from that nameless changing crowd / A sweet vibration seemed to fill the air" sense of communion/joy (shrooms classic perception), "I stood astounded staring hard / At men with flowers resting in their hair..." hallucinogenic perception/animated forms/stunnment in front of an alternate reality that you can really 'see' even 'staring hard' (LSD). And then: "Until I woke up only finding everything was just a dream" post effect, "That gave me peace and blew my mind" the clear state post psychedelic experience, the sense of gathering a 'pure' reality. "Sometimes I think I'll never find / Such purity and peace of mind again..." closing the song, the sense of purity and communion experimented is stared back longing. Word apart, amazing album, and beautiful song, got to love it.
I think this song is much more accurate in events than abstract considerations of nature and hippie spirit. To me is a fair clear description of the psychedelic "dream" state of communion gathered through some drugs consumption like mushrooms or LSD. Let's see in depth: "Just drifting slowly through a crowded street" time/space perception distortion (LSD/shrooms), "With neon darkness shimmering through the haze" exploded lights and color (LSD/shrooms), "A sea of faces rippling in the heat" image distorion/underwater rippled effect (classic LSD visual perception), "And from that nameless changing crowd / A sweet vibration seemed to fill the air" sense of communion/joy (shrooms classic perception), "I stood astounded staring hard / At men with flowers resting in their hair..." hallucinogenic perception/animated forms/stunnment in front of an alternate reality that you can really 'see' even 'staring hard' (LSD). And then: "Until I woke up only finding everything was just a dream" post effect, "That gave me peace and blew my mind" the clear state post psychedelic experience, the sense of gathering a 'pure' reality. "Sometimes I think I'll never find / Such purity and peace of mind again..." closing the song, the sense of purity and communion experimented is stared back longing. Word apart, amazing album, and beautiful song, got to love it.