Last Year's Man

Im not at all certain this is the correct interpretation of this song, but there is a kind of Buddhism/Nihilism going on in the lyrics to this song that a lot of people miss, mostly because they thing the song is "about" someone or something that is perceptible or tangible.

If anything the song is "about" the futility of existence, but being acutely aware of it.

"The rain falls down on last year's man, That's a Jew's harp on the table, That's a crayon in his hand. And the corners of the blueprint are ruined since they rolled Far past the stems of thumbtacks That still throw shadows on the wood."

Last year's man, as in "last year's model;" someone who is no longer relevant, perhaps as perceived by the author in terms of glories past, and very probably a former lover of someone the author pines for, draws "blueprints" with a childs toy, despite appearances that he has a talent and a career to pursue. His blueprints fail because his approach is fundamentally flawed. He uses imprecise implements and does not take care not to fray the edges. The author has been dumped because of his own incompetence.

"And the skylight is like skin for a drum I'll never mend And all the rain falls down amen On the works of last year's man."

The table the implements sit on is indoors. There is a skylight above the author that he has not mended, rain falls down upon the blueprints he inexpertly draws. He neglects to repair the skylight, knowingly. Self sabotage condemns him to a cycle of poor causality.

"I met a lady, she was playing with her soldiers in the dark Oh one by one she had to tell them That her name was Joan of Arc. I was in that army, yes I stayed a little while; I want to thank you, Joan of Arc, For treating me so well.

And though I wear a uniform I was not born to fight; All these wounded boys you lie beside, Goodnight, my friends, goodnight."

Clearly Joan of Arc is a former lover. This entire passage is a metaphor for a past relationship. "And though I wear a uniform, I was not born to fight." Their relationship ended, the first lines of the song taken into consideration, the author was at least partially responsible for the relationship ending.

"I came upon a wedding that old families had contrived; Bethlehem the bridegroom, Babylon the bride. Great Babylon was naked, oh she stood there trembling for me, And Bethlehem inflamed us both Like the shy one at some orgy. And when we fell together all our flesh was like a veil That I had to draw aside to see The serpent eat its tail."

Its unclear if this is an allusion to perhaps a love affair, or an elaborate metaphor about love itself. Either way, the "wedding that old families had contrived" is the love between two people. Babylon is carnality Bethlehem is the sense of spiritual connection that transcends mere acquaintance to actually caring for someone in a real and meaningful way. Carnality "trembles" love "enflames" that feeling. The last literally invokes imagery of Ouroboros, the ancient, circular Gnostic/Alchemical symbol for the universe. Life consuming death to live, yet die, yet live, yet die... etc. The symbol is such an integral part of ancient philosophy and alchemy that there is literally no way these lines amount to the author saying "I saw that love and sex were merely human pursuits, and could not satisfy me spiritually." This is the reason the author will never mend the skylight. It doesn't matter. Nothing matters. If the most important thing humans do is nothing in the face of the endless universal limbo of life and death, there is no point to mend the skylight. It will always be broken at some point. You might as well accept your fate and do the best with the "jews harp" and the "crayon" and the blueprint with the frayed edges.

Some women wait for Jesus, and some women wait for Cain So I hang upon my altar And I hoist my axe again. And I take the one who finds me back to where it all began When Jesus was the honeymoon And Cain was just the man. And we read from pleasant Bibles that are bound in blood and skin That the wilderness is gathering All its children back again.

Another dichotomy of purity and carnality. The best of human intention and the worst. The most important person in the book, and the most vile. The author claims to be a mixture of both who draws back the curtain on the illusion of good and bad absolutes and shows his lovers that Jesus is a "honeymoon" (a vacation before the real work necessary to understand matters of spiritual importance such as the Ouroboros), and Cain was just a man like anyone else, who managed to commit horrific crimes. These stories are those that "we' read from "pleasant" Bibles (books that are supposed to be helpful for humanity), that are filled with images of murder and death ("bound in blood and skin") and foul deeds, and in this the author has come to understand that the "Wilderness is gathering all its children back again," as in; we all die, nature will claim all of our bodies to feed the endless cycle of serpent eating its tail, and no matter how much we tell ourselves about the "honeymoon" jesus and the man who kills his brother, these are just fables and illustrations we might use to guide us briefly before we're reduced to the universal equivalent of "raw material."

The rain falls down on last year's man, An hour has gone by And he has not moved his hand. But everything will happen if he only gives the word; The lovers will rise up And the mountains touch the ground. But the skylight is like skin for a drum I'll never mend And all the rain falls down amen On the works of last year's man.

The author knows that he could mend the skylight "if he only gives the word," in fact, with his "word' he could easily make the "lovers... rise up," but the mountains already do touch the ground (it's where they came from) and he'll never mend the skylight because time moves ever forward, and he is "last years man" like every single one of us will always be.