I read this song as all the complex emotions involved in returning to the place where you grew up after a long absence. It's where the record needle started playing the song you've been living ever since. A lot has changed, but you can send the needle back to the beginning and realize that it's still the same song as it was way back when ("When you left me at the Greyhound the year I moved away").
I definitely think it's her hometown based on the fact that she "moved away" so long ago that you'd remember it only by the year. Then, in the second verse, she's explaining why she "never comes back here," indicating that she burned a lot of bridges, pissed off a lot of people before she left. Specifically, I think there was a tumultuous love affair that made her notorious in her town, and maybe even forced her move away in the first place.
The guy's subsequent girlfriends have all hated her, deterring her from returning. They have been superficially moral and virtuous, probably painting her as some kind of evil harlot who screwed up everyone's life, even while they themselves are straying from the idea of Christian forgiveness by harboring so much hate for her. Thus, they've "clawed up the Bible" (waved it around, abused it, destroyed it) in their efforts to keep her away from town.
I don't really have anything about the eagle swooping down, the sharp/shark-toothed freighters, and so on. I'd be interested to hear what people have for those lines!
I read this song as all the complex emotions involved in returning to the place where you grew up after a long absence. It's where the record needle started playing the song you've been living ever since. A lot has changed, but you can send the needle back to the beginning and realize that it's still the same song as it was way back when ("When you left me at the Greyhound the year I moved away").
I definitely think it's her hometown based on the fact that she "moved away" so long ago that you'd remember it only by the year. Then, in the second verse, she's explaining why she "never comes back here," indicating that she burned a lot of bridges, pissed off a lot of people before she left. Specifically, I think there was a tumultuous love affair that made her notorious in her town, and maybe even forced her move away in the first place.
The guy's subsequent girlfriends have all hated her, deterring her from returning. They have been superficially moral and virtuous, probably painting her as some kind of evil harlot who screwed up everyone's life, even while they themselves are straying from the idea of Christian forgiveness by harboring so much hate for her. Thus, they've "clawed up the Bible" (waved it around, abused it, destroyed it) in their efforts to keep her away from town.
I don't really have anything about the eagle swooping down, the sharp/shark-toothed freighters, and so on. I'd be interested to hear what people have for those lines!