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Dreaming again of a train track ending at the edge of the sea
(Big black cloud was low and rolling our way)
Dog at the barbed wire barking at my buzz cut friends and me
(Sound of a switchblade shining in the summer rain)
No one on the corner had a quarter for the telephone
Everybody bitching, There's nothing on the radio
Dreaming again of a city full of fathers in their army clothes
(Chattering boys and a chicken at the chopping block)
All of us lost at the crosswalk waiting for the other to go
(Didn't find a friend but, boy, I really bought a lot)
Someone bet a dollar that my daddy wasn't coming home
Everybody bitching, There's nothing on the radio
Dreaming again that it's freezing and my mother's in her flowerbed
(Long dead rows of daffodils and marigolds)
Changing her face like a shadow on the gravel, this is what she said
(Blood on my chin still chewing on a red rose)
No one lives forever and the devil never sleeps alone
Everybody bitching, There's nothing on the radio
(Big black cloud was low and rolling our way)
Dog at the barbed wire barking at my buzz cut friends and me
(Sound of a switchblade shining in the summer rain)
No one on the corner had a quarter for the telephone
Everybody bitching, There's nothing on the radio
Dreaming again of a city full of fathers in their army clothes
(Chattering boys and a chicken at the chopping block)
All of us lost at the crosswalk waiting for the other to go
(Didn't find a friend but, boy, I really bought a lot)
Someone bet a dollar that my daddy wasn't coming home
Everybody bitching, There's nothing on the radio
Dreaming again that it's freezing and my mother's in her flowerbed
(Long dead rows of daffodils and marigolds)
Changing her face like a shadow on the gravel, this is what she said
(Blood on my chin still chewing on a red rose)
No one lives forever and the devil never sleeps alone
Everybody bitching, There's nothing on the radio
Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher
Track duration: 02:07
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The second stanza is about the same boy reminiscing about his own father being off at war, and wondering whether he would come home or not.
The third stanza is the boy's mother telling him that his dad is dead, and reveals her extreme bitterness at the world.
Overall, I think the song is about two generations of soldiers, more likely WWI and WWII than the Iraq War.
There is, similar to the rest of the album, a feeling of frustrated escapist longings: train tracks that run into the sea, a telephone you can't use, a bunch of people too afraid to cross the street, and, of course, nothing on the radio to take one's mind off of what's going on. There's clearly something rudderless about the person talking in this song, and I think it's relatively obvious that, as people have been saying, the radio isn't the real problem. Rather, the problem is our weird belief that radio and other pop media can serve as legitimate substitutes for things like parents. The radio, then, is playing the same stuff it always has been and always will be, but situations like this demonstrate how little that stuff is needed.
I interpreted this song to be about how there is so much going on in our world, but "everyone bitching theres nothing on the radio" Like we are all focusing on the wrong things. There is a war, and kids saying things like "you're dad's not coming home" the mom in the flowerbed, and she seems very upset and distracted and I didn't think she was dead, i think it was more about how she is in her flowerbed while the kids are out and possibly getting into trouble because she has kind of lost all hope.
I think the "No one on the corner had a quarter for the telephone" thing is about how no one helps each other out anymore, and then it kind of continues to paint a picture of a family that is falling apart with the father away, the mother distracted in the flowerbed and the kid out getting into trouble and no one doing anything just giving up with because “No one lives forever and the devil never sleeps alone”
I interpreted this song to be about how there is so much going on in our world, but "everyone bitching theres nothing on the radio" Like we are all focusing on the wrong things. There is a war, and kids saying things like "you're dad's not coming home" the mom in the flowerbed, and she seems very upset and distracted and I didn't think she was dead, i think it was more about how she is in her flowerbed while the kids are out and possibly getting into trouble because she has kind of lost all hope.
I think the "No one on the corner had a quarter for the telephone" thing is about how no one helps each other out anymore, and then it kind of continues to paint a picture of a family that is falling apart with the father away, the mother distracted in the flowerbed and the kid out getting into trouble and no one doing anything just giving up with because “No one lives forever and the devil never sleeps alone”
I interpreted this song to be about how there is so much going on in our world, but "everyone bitching theres nothing on the radio" Like we are all focusing on the wrong things. There is a war, and kids saying things like "you're dad's not coming home" the mom in the flowerbed, and she seems very upset and distracted and I didn't think she was dead, i think it was more about how she is in her flowerbed while the kids are out and possibly getting into trouble because she has kind of lost all hope.
I think the "No one on the corner had a quarter for the telephone" thing is about how no one helps each other out anymore, and then it kind of continues to paint a picture of a family that is falling apart with the father away, the mother distracted in the flowerbed and the kid out getting into trouble and no one doing anything just giving up with because “No one lives forever and the devil never sleeps alone”
I interpreted this song to be about how there is so much going on in our world, but "everyone bitching theres nothing on the radio" Like we are all focusing on the wrong things. There is a war, and kids saying things like "you're dad's not coming home" the mom in the flowerbed, and she seems very upset and distracted and I didn't think she was dead, i think it was more about how she is in her flowerbed while the kids are out and possibly getting into trouble because she has kind of lost all hope.
I think the "No one on the corner had a quarter for the telephone" thing is about how no one helps each other out anymore, and then it kind of continues to paint a picture of a family that is falling apart with the father away, the mother distracted in the flowerbed and the kid out getting into trouble and no one doing anything just giving up with because “No one lives forever and the devil never sleeps alone”
The first line is about impending doom (train going into the sea, black cloud). The buzz cut friends are presumably people in the military. But they might not be, since the "me" in the song seems to be at home. "No one on the corner had a quarter for the telephone." That is, none of the people overseas have a way of telling the people back home about what's really going on. I'm assuming the mother is dead in her "flowerbed." Her line is some sort of condolence for her kid.
Of course, the song might not be about the war or it might have a double meaning (which is probably most likely). A second meaning could be the way our society is now and where it is heading (i.e. doom). The "fathers in their army clothes" could be businessmen neglecting their children. The first stanza, then, could be about kids getting into trouble (dog, switchblade) and having no help (no quarter).
This whole record seems to carry a lot of political imagery, so the idea that he is alluding to the war seems plausible.
Damn would I love to have a beer with this man and pick his brain for an evening. Embrace this one, he's a treasure.