Melancholy Man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZhDp3zw61o&list=PLgGrd_4x5e7rlcHhJWqsHyjNsHroJf01y&index=14&frags=pl%2Cwn


Melancholy Man is an old song from the 70s.  I've often wondered what the lyrics meant, if anything.  I googled it to see if there was any wisdom on this.  Not particularly.  

So let's see.  I'll write out the lyrics and then tear them apart. 

I'm a melancholy man, that's what I am. 
All the world surrounds me and my feet are on the ground.
I'm a very lonely man, doing what I can, 
All the world astounds me and I think I understand, 
That we're going to keep growing, wait and see. 

When all the stars come falling down, 
Into the sea, and on the ground, 
And angry voices carry in the wind,
A beam of light will fill your head, 
And you'll remember what's been said
By all the good men this world's ever known. 
Another man is what you'll see, 
Who looks like you and looks like me, 
And yet somehow he will not feel the same. 
His life caught up in misery, 
He doesn't think like you and me,
Cause he can't see what you and I can't see.

(repeats)

The first stanza seems to be a description of a person puzzling over life, and drawing some blanks.  Then he says, "I think I understand that we're going to keep growing, wait and see."  Who is the we? It almost sounds like he's referring to a religious or political movement, or else a blend of the two.  Probably the later.  But something new, not traditional.  Finally the aliens come down and tell us everything.  

"When all the stars come falling down..."  Apocalyptic words.  Stars falling can't be good.   This sounds like Biblical prophesy, which is what I think is what it is suggesting.  But I doubt if the writer believed that Biblical prophesy was the complete picture.  

"A beam of light will fill your head, and you'll remember what's been said by all the good men this world's ever known." A beam of light filling your head may be taken literally or figuratively.  Suddenly you see the light, frequently said of getting saved by Christ.  Anyway, basically an awakening of one's spirit to a hazy, unseen world that we can only grasp vaguely.  Remember what's been said by all the good men this world's ever known?  Again, speculating, who did the writer feel were in the league of good men?  Probably the obvious, Jesus, Moses, Abraham, maybe Buddha, and some others of a more religious type.  Leaders, either religious or political.  But how many political leaders have been called good men?  I can't think of any offhand, because it always depends on which side you're one.  So this sounds like the thinking is religious, but not quite in the traditional sense.  

Now, this is the interesting part to me.  The song describes a man, not like the rest of us.  This seems to refer to a Messiah.  "Another man is what you'll see, he looks like you and looks like me, and yet somehow he will not feel the same."  Yes, it's a man, but I would say that the man is otherworldly.  He has a human form, but his inner being came from the world we only seem to sense or feel intuitively.  Is this a good man or an evil man?  The writer seems to me to feel that he is from a different world, like heaven or hell, or another dimension, and suggests that when one sees the light they see him, so he's probably a leader going in the right direction, showing us the way.  But is he?  Is he the Messiah or the Antichrist?  It sounds a lot like either one.  Probably the suggestion is that when the world becomes chaotic, like World War III, or an asteroid hitting us, that a Messianic man will come along and lead us through the abyss.  He doesn't sound good to me, mostly because the music is so spooky.   There are religious undertones, but this isn't a hymn.  Does it even involve God at all?  

So there it is.  I can't make much sense of it.  Well, that's the marvelous thing about poetry, one can allude to something all day, never quite saying it, and then have room to back down and say, "Oh, no, I wasn't saying that."  Emotion has been spent, but nothing has actually happened outside of the semi fantasy land that most people seem to live in.