There is a song that I recall singing in kindergarten. Perhaps I learned the song there, but I imagine it's more likely I had learned it sometime much earlier (relatively speaking), before ever attending school. If English is your native tongue, I'd be very much surprised if you hadn't learned it too, back when you were just a puppy. I mean, haven't these words been in your head since... well, forever?

                 Row, row, row your boat
                 Gently down the stream
                 Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
                 Life is but a dream

Jeez. The lyrics to that song are so simple. And if you cut out all the repeated words, you shorten the song by almost half. And yet, there's something kinda cosmic about the song, kinda cosmic and... I don't know,... Zen-like? And is it just me, or doesn't this itty-bitty ditty seem to have psychedelic qualities? (Could this song, as a neme, as a viral thought infecting a whole generation of my peers, have been a heretofore unrecognized major factor contributing to the birth of the Psychedelic '60s? ...Or am I just having a flashback, man? Yeah, ya think so? Well, far out, man. Groovy, man. Cool. Uh,... What's the question again, man?)

The following song includes a few allusions to "Row, Row, Row" (Row-x3? Row³? Row-cubed?). In my song we're still in the same boat, I think, but the stream on which we travel now carries us through the Shadowlands. Forget all that "merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily" (Merrily-x4? Merrily-to-the-power-of-4?) stuff.

But the stream still flows. And so it goes.

Read the lyrics below or check out the Lead Sheet. — BD