3.28.24
Turn on, tune in, drop out, with me
The whole things coming down

So lets just get out of the way

“Like every great religion, we seek to find the divinity within and to express this revelation in a life of glorification and the worship of God. These ancient goals we define in the metaphor of the present—turn on, tune in, drop out.”

With those final six words, Timothy Leary provided a foundation for the hippy movement of the 1960s to build upon.

Half a decade later, the off-kilter rock band Cracker added two more words — “with me” — to the phrase and created an oddly romantic, escapist ballad for weirdos.

Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out With Me is a track from Cracker’s 2009 album, Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey. It’s not an album that made waves, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s solid enough, and the song ranks up there with “Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now),” Low,” and “I Hate My Generation” as just plain great songs.

At its heart, Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out With Me is a song about escaping from the world as we know it. But it’s that song as written from the point of view of a Hunter S. Thompson type.

It’s fun.

And that feels important right now. Just having a bit of fun swirled in with escapism. I mean, if it’s not going to be fun, why bother escaping in the first place?