In one strand of our country's mythology, Eden endures somewhere tucked in an isolated spot where you can cut away from the nonsense of the culture and really live. John Prine's "Spanish Pipedream" tells a hippie version of the tale, undercutting the fantasy with his title and with the song's less than serious version of the dream sung as playful draft protest* in the shadow of a great war. But for Americans the myth is strong and we're still drawn toward an idea of a private life, even if it differs from the one the song's topless waitress pulls out of her sleeve:

• Blow up your TV, throw away your paper

• Move to the country, build you a home

• Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches

• Try and find Jesus on your own

But most any version of that dream is a dangerous one because of how dearly the ones on the inside track like us to slip away into our private lives. They like our silence.

*As the years pass, new listeners may fail to notice that the song's main character is heading to Canada in order to avoid being drafted during the Vietnam war.