I read this song as being about a guy who has gotten by on his looks and bought into that whole model-type lifestyle with all its attractions. Methinks the boy was so in love with his own reflection and thought he would be young and handsome forever (the "classical virtue"), and therefore lived his life in a narcissistic, decadent sort of way, preferring surface over substance and depth. Perhaps compliments on his looks encouraged him to just cultivate the aspect of his being and forget about the more important things.
Some very wise person (heh) had warned him to "watch his head about it" but he didn't listen so now he's "drunk and wearing flip-flops on Fifth Avenue". Now that he's older he probably hates the skin he's in, because his attitude and those "poses" are "no longer boyish" and therefore instead of being endearing as they were in the past, they make him look like a pathetic figure.
I read this song as being about a guy who has gotten by on his looks and bought into that whole model-type lifestyle with all its attractions. Methinks the boy was so in love with his own reflection and thought he would be young and handsome forever (the "classical virtue"), and therefore lived his life in a narcissistic, decadent sort of way, preferring surface over substance and depth. Perhaps compliments on his looks encouraged him to just cultivate the aspect of his being and forget about the more important things.
Some very wise person (heh) had warned him to "watch his head about it" but he didn't listen so now he's "drunk and wearing flip-flops on Fifth Avenue". Now that he's older he probably hates the skin he's in, because his attitude and those "poses" are "no longer boyish" and therefore instead of being endearing as they were in the past, they make him look like a pathetic figure.