I would be lying if I thought this song was about anything except a mass religious suicide ('We bled inside each other's wounds. We all had caught the same disease." - from the very first time I heard it I have been unable to form any other interpretation. Melanie's dismaying, hypnotic, dirge-like cry depresses the hell out of me every time I hear the song, in the same way you can't stop looking at people trying to escape a flaming car wreck (wasn't that long after the horror of Jayne Mansfield's car crash death as well). The Edwin Hawkins singers' brilliant soaring harmonies and piano are the only things that make it listenable for me. I cannot believe no-one has brought this up before.