Lyric discussion by Chawke 

The narrator is dead. He is going to heaven. A shade is a ghost.

This is the day Of the expanding man That shape is my shade There where I used to stand

He decides he is going to be a jazz saxaphonist. He buys into the lifestyle. He has a certain amount of success. But he gets drunk and dies in a car accident... then narrates the song as his spirit leaves his body, expanding into the universal conciousness. He is a "loser" because he died in a foolish accident.

That shape is my shade There where I used to stand

I think this might be an oblique reference to Hiroshima, where the only thing left of some people were the shaded outlines of their bodies.

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