Great Songs: "A Passing Feeling" by The Thermals

If you aren't familiar with the Thermals, you certainly should be. The song (You can listen to it at this sparse Myspace page) is about the ephemeralness of life, but the power and enthusiasm of the music makes it clear that rather than being concerned by the facts that memories fade and die, triumph turns into regret and vice versa, and in the end we are, like any machines, destined to wear out and die, and our minds to die with us, that we still have a lot to celebrate about the whole set-up. We have our baggage and all that that implies, but in the end we don't really want to be rid of all that baggage, because what would we be left with? The stand-out line of the song is of course "The hum is gone when the power's off". I highly recommend this song for jogging, when you and your body are most at peace with your mechanistic nature.

Memory wise
Memory flies
Memory barely satisfies
The past steals
It's a passing feeling

Memory wise
Memory flies
Memory rarely satisfies
The past tense
Tense and bleeding

You can choke
Or you can focus
I wanna forget
I don't wanna forget
I don't wanna forget

Memory knows
Memory goes
Memory dulling
But I'm learning slow
The passing heals
The past is healing

Memory knows
Memory stops
The hum is gone
When the power's off
The passing heals
The past is healing

And you can choke on it
Or you can focus
I wanna forget
I don't wanna forget
I don't wanna forget

If you have no wishes
You can still have an opinion
Everybody's got one
If you have the free time
I'm sure there's something
We can agree on
When you're passing the blame
No one remembers the same

Memory wise
Memory flies
Memory barely satisfies
The past steals
It's a passing feeling

Memory knows
Memory stops
The hum is gone
When the power's off
The passing heals
The past is healing

And you can focus
Or you can smoke it
I wanna forget
And I don't wanna forget
I don't wanna forget
I don't wanna forget
I don't wanna forget