Free

Me: a hip-hop artist, right?!  For all of the over-the-topness of this song, in some ways it expresses better than any other song my existential angst!   Because it was available for purchase at iTunes, et al. for many years, this is the song my students latch onto (and want me to sing to them in class.  Not happening!)  I had always conceived of this as something of a rap, but Jim Robeson took it to the heights and was a master in creating the percussion, guitar, and brass tracks. 

© 1998  Steven E. Cutts  (ASCAP)

recorded in mid-March 2000 at Bias Studios (recorded and mixed by Jim Robeson)

on All Alone . . . But Hardly On My Own (available for purchase at iTunes, et al.)
 
<ul>
<li>Steve, vocal</li>
<li>The MoMe Squad, percussion & instrumental tracks  (arranged by Jim Robeson) </li>
</ul>

Lyrics

A friend said to me,  "Let's go party at the rave down at the armory; 
We can dance to music and we'll get some exercise."
So we two -- and several thousand -- jammed together swayed and bounced
Pulsing with the rhythm and internalizing noise.
 
I was swimming in a Sea of People!  I could barely turn around.
Swimming in a Sea of People!  My toes kept stretching for solid ground.
 
Remember in the '60s?  Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky, boxes all the same?
Now we've built another thirty years of boxes in the forests,
Boxes on the beaches,building like we are insane!
 
I am swimming in a Sea of People!  Could I have some room to breathe?
Swimming in a Sea of People!  Could some of you just sort of leave?
 
Staring out my windshield; twenty lanes of jammed up interstate;   
A bright red tide of brake light flashes blinking back at me.
Flowing toward the toll-collector seeking out exact change lanes
Like lemmings to the cliff-edge -- will this be my destiny?
 
I think I might be (blub, blub) going down for the third time;
But the lifeguard with the life-preserver cannot hear my cries!
There're so many people they are blocking out my final vision;
I can't even see my life flash before my eyes!!
 
I  am swimming in a Sea of People!  Caught up in the undertow.
Drowning in a Sea of  People! Not even people that I want to know!
There're just too many, too many people! Just too many, too many people!
 
I'm no revolutionary, but just being ordinary
Didn't seem like much of an accomplishment to me.
Couldn't my few seconds in the lime-light be extended? 
Why did I get short-changed in my bid for immortality?
 
I  am drowning in a Sea of People!  Treading water desperately.
Drowning in a Sea of People!  Trying to make my mark on history.
There're just too many, too many people!  Just too many, too many people!

The Prime Cutts

Lyrics