Store

I agree with a couple of things the people above this post have said but i don't think there has been an accident in the store, i think that the protaganist has had one of his friends commit suicide and he's trying to drown the memories in alcohol so when he goes to the store to buy some booze he passes out in the alcohol section "amidst all of the can and the glass and the chrome" and dreams about them and how he last saw them.

To the link with "Your Belgian Things" I feel that only that line fits with this song as my opinion of that song, which might end up on the comments over there, doesnt follow a suicide. Although following that idea the song still makes sense.

Incredible song. Wether John wrote this one about one of his own experiences or an experience of one of his characters, I don’t know. The protagonist was knocked unconscious by some kind of supermarket accident and in those five minutes of ‘lost time’ he sees a heavenly vision of an old friend.
I think the friend he sees is Tracy, who has been previously mentioned in 'Your Belgian Things' as one of the fellow Methamphetamine addicts, also in which it was implied that Tracy committed suicide. "I saw the mess you left up in the east bedroom, Jesus, what a mess" I wish I had a number to reach you where you are, it's hard with no one here to help me through it"

This song is obviously about someone seeing someone die. In this case, they're in a store. I think they ran into eachother, but if not, they are both knocked out/knocked to the ground at the same time. The narrator is unconscious and sees the woman's soul/body still living, and he tries to save her by closing the hole. I think they might have known eachother, or at least liked eachother as "i saw you with a smile on your radiant face."

The last part is about him watching her die, as the blood flows from her head.

Amazing song, absolutely amazing.

I think the narrator of the song goes into a store and hears a song from an artist that died from a heard wound, (I saw you at the head of the heavenly chorus. and i heard your song ringing all through the store.) and he had some out-of-body expirence. (when i was passed out on the supermarket floor -or- n the five minutes when i was dead to the world, in a place far away from my friends and my home)

Or he could have heard a song that reminded him vividly of a lost friend, and he broke down.

I'm absolutely amazed noone here thinks it's about a rededication of faith – our protagonist has some kind of near or technical death experience and has a vision of the afterlife, with Christ at the head of a heavenly chorus. They're overjoyed to find that the resurrection and assumption were real ("I saw you touch down/you were no longer dead") and naturally they have "lots of questions". The wound in His head is from the crown of thorns, but obviously that's not the only one – hence the emphasis on "blood flowing freely from you", which also suggests His selfless nature.

I'll admit the mention of a hole in their skull is a little problematic for my hyper-literal reading, but maybe John's just intended it as allegory. Either way the jubilant tone of the whole thing suggests that this whole near-death experience has given the narrator a strong sense of meaning that maybe wasn't there before. A neat song anyway!