Peter Hammill - Not The Man Lyrics

There are so many questions,
There are so many doubts -
This is auto suggestion
Your spirit is giving out.
If I offered my reasons
Would you give me a break?
Now it's all open season,
No sense of give and take.

You see I'm not the man I was...

But if I'm not the man
That you took me to be
Do I fade from your dreams,
Disappear from your memory?
Look at me:
If I'm not the man I was
Then who was he?

There can be no returning
To the scene of the crime...
For perfection you're yearning -
Some romance, some foreign clime!
Is the memory explicit
Under strict rule of thumb?
It was always implicit,
This character I've become.

But if I'm not the man
That you took me to be
Do I fade from your dreams,
Disappear from your memory?
I remember it well,
I can guess what went wrong...
You believed all those words
In the popular songs...
But, if I'm not the man
That you took me to be,
Did I walk in your dreams?
I've no idea who that person could be.

Look at me:
If I'm not the man I was, then who is he?