Arnie

This song is, to me, the most profound one on the entire album. I've heard some reviewers say that the narration sounds critical of what Arnie is doing, but to my ears it sounds like Claypool is describing a scene that makes one wince, no matter what else it might mean. I hear no condemnation in the narration.

Arnie, for reasons not thoroughly explored (but possibly involving too many drugs) decides to set himself on fire. Is this a reference to Hendrix or the protesting monk? Possibly there's inspiration, there. But note what Arnie goes on to do and say: he extends his (possibly drug-amplified) love to the entire audience. And then comes the line that repeats over and over:

Remember this day.

It repeats until he dies, from the sound of it. But what does it MEAN?

Well, ARE those people going to remember? Yes, of course. That scene will stick in their heads for the rest of their lives. And for those moments they will have been completely and utterly alive to the present moment. All of the extraneous chatter and bias in their brains will be replaced by the sight of that man on fire.

When I finally “got” this interpretation of this song I had a kind of awakening. It jolted me into realizing just how much I was living apart from the here and now – and just how big a jolt it usually took me to snap me out of that trance.

From that moment onward I realized that I didn't NEED a jolt to extricate myself from habitual thoughts and feelings – that I could be present to the current moment just be realizing that one cannot REMEMBER THIS DAY if one was only sleep-walking through it.

Was that Les Claypool's intended meaning? I don't know. All I know is that this song caused me to re-evaluate my perspective on life. And you know what? I REMEMBER, in stark detail, the day I had that insight.