This song could be interpreted as a call for political awareness of the issue of homelessness, or a reminder to be grateful for what you have since there is always someone worse off, but it works very well on another level, as simply a depiction of the sadness and suffering that some areas of modern big cities are so full of. Ian Anderson, in much different kind of song that described a similar kind of setting, described it as "crowded emptiness". There are several very evocative poetic lines in this song, like "yesterday's paper telling yesterday's news" and "the rain cries a little pity". Several people have talked about why we should be kind to other people, as everyone is "fighting their battle". The world is full of suffering people, but they tend to learn how to hide it well in order to live and function in the everyday world. When you see the homeless, you see people in a whole different light.
The final verse has a kind of personal resonance for me. My grandfather was a WWII veteran, severely wounded in the Pacific Theater. He came back with a bunch of medals, but they didn't do much for him. And, although they got him to the hospital at the very end, he lived like the old man in the final verse after he returned from the war, homeless and mostly forgotten, right up until he died.
This song could be interpreted as a call for political awareness of the issue of homelessness, or a reminder to be grateful for what you have since there is always someone worse off, but it works very well on another level, as simply a depiction of the sadness and suffering that some areas of modern big cities are so full of. Ian Anderson, in much different kind of song that described a similar kind of setting, described it as "crowded emptiness". There are several very evocative poetic lines in this song, like "yesterday's paper telling yesterday's news" and "the rain cries a little pity". Several people have talked about why we should be kind to other people, as everyone is "fighting their battle". The world is full of suffering people, but they tend to learn how to hide it well in order to live and function in the everyday world. When you see the homeless, you see people in a whole different light.
The final verse has a kind of personal resonance for me. My grandfather was a WWII veteran, severely wounded in the Pacific Theater. He came back with a bunch of medals, but they didn't do much for him. And, although they got him to the hospital at the very end, he lived like the old man in the final verse after he returned from the war, homeless and mostly forgotten, right up until he died.