The Light

This is my favorite song of all time. I get the idea that "The Light" itself, is a metaphor for most "Gods" that are associated with different religions. "The Dream" is about a prophet dreaming about the Light. "One Man", is the Light itself, saying everything that it is, and what it represents. "Garden People" is the group of people that the Light is introduced to. "Looking straight into the Light" is the Garden People actually receiving the gift of the Light. "Man in the mountain" is a man who discovered The Light on his deathbed, maybe (This one I'm still not sure on the definite meaning). "Senor Valasco's Mystical Voodoo Love Dance" is about an ethnic character who had his home and land taken from him, but he still won't give up because he has faith in the Light. "Return of the horrible catfish man" is about an antagonist (as there is in most religion stories), and the Light fighting him off. The Dream(Reprise) is just closing the story off. Because he says "Yes! This is alright." at the end, whereas at the beginning he says "No! This is not right." It seems to say that it's not right for the "Garden People" to have no light to turn to

All that being said, This song kicks mega ass, whatever it means.

The first time I heard this song, Part VI. caught my attention. This is an amazing song. Neal Morse is simply magnificent.

Very good song.

I read on iTunes that there in the section "One Man" there was a reference to King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man"... If anyone knows Crimson and foudn the allusion please let me know...

Maybe there's just the allusion in the whole "Man" idea of it. 21st Century Schizoid Man is more or less about modern man, and how dangerous he could potentially be. There may be some more references to Vietnam, because the song came out around then. The second line seems to support that statement, and the third line really cements it there with the line "He's got nothing he really needs." The Light seems to possibly represent modern man also, like a light in the "Dark times", let's say.

It might also just have to do with how it was sung, the same high energy with the same filter over the vocals.

This is one of my favorite songs as well, and im_a_pirate's explanation makes a lot of sense. When I first heard the song though, I took something completely different from it, so I thought I'd share that:

Suppose "the light" is the light of happiness, and the song is about one man trying to figure out who he is and who he needs to be. He's going through phases where he's trying to be an average joe (critical masses), a person of influence (centerfold), a stoner (garden people), a loner (man in the mountain), a daily party-goer who lives in the moment (senor velasco) and a punk who doesn't care what people think (catfish man). Then finally he asks, which is the path in life that will lead me to true happiness? ("where is that straight line that I can hold up to the light?")

It's more of a reach I guess, and probably influenced by my own experiences, but then that's kind of the point. Anyway, I'm not saying it's the right or best explanation, just an alternate one to think about.

I bought this soon after seeing Spock\'s Beard at Progfest in 1997. I did not really listen to the lyrics that well, but it got me to thinking about the Goiânia incident.