This song describes my first three LSD trips, during the summer and fall of 1966, each verse describing elements of one trip. The "torn curtains" of verse 1 were a visual hallucination that appeared above the Anderson Footbridge across the Charles River. Trip 2 was taken by a stream in the White Mountains. On our way home we got pulled over by the police near Manchester, NH and the car was impounded for expired plates. We spent a couple hours in the police station (part of this sitting on the steps) waiting for our friend Vicky to drive up from Boston in her VW beetle. Since there were six of us it was a cozy trip back. I had a very freaky flashback/bummer a few days later, brought on by reading Nightmare Drugs by Dr. Donald Louria. As a consequence trip #3 was rather tentative and was my last psychedelic drug experience for several years.

As you may have guessed, Flashes was to have been the title song for our album (at producer Tom Wilson's suggestion) but the recording wasn't working so it was dropped. There's a live version on this site.