When it comes to Styx and time, most people think of their hit song Too Much Time on My Hands, and
while it was very successful for the band, to me, it doesn’t say something profound about time. The
song revolves around a person with nothing to do. To me the best line in the song is “I’ve got nowhere
to go and all night to get there.” All told, the comedy rap song titled I’m Bored by Sudden Death is
much more entertaining while addressing the topic of nothing-to-do.
I think the Styx song Man in the Wilderness says more about time than their song Too Much Time.
In the Wilderness song, the singer is stepping out of time and looking back while pensively
contemplating his own existence. Consider the first verse, “Another year has passed me by. Still
I look at myself and cry. What kind of man have I become?” Later during the chorus, you get a sense
of hopelessness as a man often feels while embracing his own mortality in the light of time.
Personally, I cannot tell you how many, many times over the past 40 years I have silently
sung this song’s first verse to myself.
Here is #7 in my Time in Song countdown - Styx - Man in Wilderness
Man in the Wilderness – Styx Circa 1977
Another year has passed me by
Still I look a myself and cry
What kind of man have I become?
All of the years I've spent in search of myself
And I'm still in the dark
'Cause I can't seem to find the light alone
Sometimes I feel like a man in the wilderness
I'm a lonely soldier off to war
Sent away to die - never quite knowing why
Sometimes it makes no sense at all
Ten Thousand people look my way
But they can't see the way that I feel
Nobody even cares to try
I spend my life and sell my soul on the road
And I'm still in the dark
'Cause I can't seem to find the light alone
Sometimes I feel like a man in the wilderness
I'm a lonely sailor lost at sea
Drifting with the tide
Never quite knowing why
Sometimes it makes no sense at all
(I'm alive)
Looking for love I'm a man with emotion
(And my heart's on fire)
I'm dying of thirst in the middle of the ocean
I'm alive!
Sometimes I feel like a man in the wilderness
I'm a lonely soldier off to war
Sent away to die - never quite knowing why
Sometimes it makes no sense
Sometimes it makes no sense
Sometimes it makes no sense at all
Makes no sense at all
At all...
