Shadow Of A Lonely Man Lyrics
Look through my eyes and through the years of lonliness you'll see
And the least of it all was the fortune and the fame
But the dream seemed to end just as soon as it had begun, was I to know?
For the least thing of all that was on my mind, was the close at the
end of the show
The shadow of a lonely man, feels nobody else
In the shadow of a lonely, lonely man
I can see myself
And the jest of it all is I can't recall my name
But I'll cling to a hope till I can't hold on anymore, anymore
And for all the acclaim I am all alone and I see as I look through the door
In the shadow of a lonely, lonely man
I can see myself
It's amazing how time will teach you the meaning of something you might have heard 100 times before, but never fully understood it.
A few minutes ago, I was listening to this song again and I finally 'got' a line - this one:
"But the sounds of the crowds when they come to see me now, is not the same And the jest of it all is I can't recall my name"
Being a performer usually means changing your name. As a musician myself, my own stage name is not my 'real' name, and it's almost alien to hear my own given name on stage or thereabouts. I could see how constant performing causes you to lose your original identity.
For me this song is about a mummy displayed in a museum. It doesn't understand what happens and has only vague memories of the past.
What you are concerned with is dependence, which is a fact, with all its implications. Then there is a deeper fact, which is loneliness, the feeling of being isolated. Feeling lonely, we attach ourselves to people, drink, and all sorts of other escapes. Attachment is an escape from loneliness. Can this loneliness be understood and can one find out for oneself what is beyond it? That is the real question, not what to do about attachment to people or environment. Can this deep sense of loneliness, emptiness, be transcended? Any movement at all away from loneliness strengthens the loneliness, and so there is more need than ever before to get away from it. This makes for attachment which brings its own problems. The problems of attachment occupy the mind so much that one loses sight of the loneliness and disregards it. So we disregard the cause and occupy ourselves with the effect. But the loneliness is acting all the time because there is no difference between cause and effect. There is only what is. It becomes a cause only when it moves away from itself. It is important to understand that this movement away from itself is itself, and therefore it is its own effect. There is, therefore, no cause and effect at all, no movement anywhere at all, but only what is. You don't see what is because you cling to the effect. There is loneliness, and apparent movement away from this loneliness to attachment; then this attachment with all its complications becomes so important, so dominating, that it prevents one from looking at what is. Movement away from what is, is fear, and we try to resolve it by another escape. This is perpetual motion, apparently away from what is, but in actuality there is no movement at all. So it is only the mind which sees what is and doesn't move away from it in any direction that is free of what is. Since this chain of cause and effect is the action of loneliness, it is clear that the only ending of loneliness is the ending of this action.