To all:
The poetry and consideration you have given this song is surely thoughtful and thought provoking. Much applause.
My view is a little different, only because I see a different conceit at work.
Greg Lake often allowed lyrics live their own lives. He would invest in a line a concept, then find the poetry he felt would express it, and establish the tone of what was to follow. It's not just us who meets Jeremy Bender in the first couplet: Greg does too. So he follows him. He marries that first couplet to lyrics that have a relative feel in common as well as an aesthetic flow that jibes with Jeremy's (perhaps literal) devil-may-care attitude. And in doing so we get a plot more aimless than linear, that gives us scenes and pictures of Jeremy's dalliances but no clear story, just hints that are up to us to flesh out- and there are many tendrils to those lyrical bends. These have been well explored by the intrepid adventurers on this page and my personal take would add little. In the end, Jeremy ends this particular diversion (whatever the listener has decided that might have been) and gets on with his journey.
To all: The poetry and consideration you have given this song is surely thoughtful and thought provoking. Much applause.
My view is a little different, only because I see a different conceit at work.
Greg Lake often allowed lyrics live their own lives. He would invest in a line a concept, then find the poetry he felt would express it, and establish the tone of what was to follow. It's not just us who meets Jeremy Bender in the first couplet: Greg does too. So he follows him. He marries that first couplet to lyrics that have a relative feel in common as well as an aesthetic flow that jibes with Jeremy's (perhaps literal) devil-may-care attitude. And in doing so we get a plot more aimless than linear, that gives us scenes and pictures of Jeremy's dalliances but no clear story, just hints that are up to us to flesh out- and there are many tendrils to those lyrical bends. These have been well explored by the intrepid adventurers on this page and my personal take would add little. In the end, Jeremy ends this particular diversion (whatever the listener has decided that might have been) and gets on with his journey.