I wanted to refresh my literary theory experiences, and do my best to at least interpret the lyrics of this offbeat, psychedelic pop song.

This song may be most infamous being heard from the 1969 Academy or Oscar Award movie, “Midnight Cowboy,” that starred Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman. In movie ratings history, “Midnight Cowboy” was rated X, as this was maybe the first movie on the silver screen that showed nudity and sexual situations. In time, maybe a short amount of time, probably the 70s, this movie was bumped from rated X to rated R. You will hear this song in the party scene of this movie.

To interpret this song can be meant or interpreted, maybe, in three ways.
The first way, we can actually be technical in meaning when the singer is referring to a Willow tree that is ages old, maybe dehydrating or dying. It could be the old Willow tree has suffered enough wear and tear from other passer bye or those who lay against his trunk to find shade.

When she sings, “Somewhere there’s an old man willow, weeping all a!one. People laugh at him. Sit and stare everywhere. And he doesn’t care.”
She may be referring to how the old weeping willow needs to have shade for his own and gets tired of being the shade for other people. So , like humans letting themselves go, age away into nothing, etc., trees and plants also begin to look puny, weak, feeble, and the original age of this tree is beginning to show and soon he will fade away. He doesn’t care if anyone is staring at him or laughing at him because he is a tree, not a man. Trees have love and mos humans take their purposes in life for granted.

In the second part of the song she sings “The people don’t know why he sits there and cries. They think he’s got a secret but they don’t realize he’s hot; he’s got a fly on his shoulder. He wants to swat it off, but his limbs have grown o!der. He’s tired and sick and can’t runaway to find some shade that he has made for others on the move.”

We can still refer to the allusion the old man willow is the old willow tree in the neighborhood or wherever the singer is observing. Of course, people don’t know why he sits there and cries because noone can see a tree cry. The only way a tree can assist producing years is through passing the skies rains. So an individual that’s in conscious thought in a hustle and bustle world is not really paying attention, as most people don’t. And this is why they do not know why he sits there and cries. He is hot, needing water, rest, and shade as a tree of his own to provide the same for us humans. But most of us take this kind of thing for granted and automatically don’t pay attention to the aging and health of the old man willow tree.

If we want to take the technical meaning of this song, we can say this woman was a tree-hugger type, no offense, who seems to be the only one who notices the uncomfortable sadness and agony of the willow tree’s aging and state of health being ignored and taken for granted by other people who have or has made contact with the tree.

The second interpretation of this song.
In plain terms, it could be a drunken or drug induced homeless old !an who has issues finding shade or a tree to lay his head. Maybe the reason people laughed at him was because of his offbeat and peculiar behavior being homeless, old, and under the influence of something. Perhaps this old man was making a fool out of himself or cracking bystanders up. Obviously, it is both. Noone understood why he cried is because some thought he was just old, senile, homeless, and either drunk or high on something, maybe both. He could be just a plain, worn out, overheated, homeless, crazed old man.
__________________________________________________________________________The third and last interpretation can be more underneath the skin in meaning than these two mentioned.
Some of us need things to survive. This could be an old man not feeling well, being overheated, fatigued, weak, feeble, and sick. He might be homeless, he may not be. Maybe he likes the old willow tree most people he sees takes for granted and likes to sleep there because of the shade it provides him. Maybe people are laughing or not understanding why he is really crying is mentioned in one way already, see the second paragraph or interpretation. But the laughing and lack of understanding van mean others feeling intimidated to help the old man so backs are turned or some feel freaked out by the reality of the situation.