The song is about the unnamed title character, an aging hippie who uses marijuana, listens to the Woodstock-influenced rock music of the late 1960s, the Murder of John Lennon in 1980, and for years refuses to let go of his lifestyle, despite societal changes around him. It is also explained that, sometime prior to Woodstock, he was drafted to Vietnam and forced to "become a man while he was still a boy." Afterward, he began waiting for something good to happen in his life, before adopting his way of life. Eventually, the man does change, taking up such interests as jogging while staying away from parties and nightclubs.