I've always thought the song starts with "About a lucky man who made the GRAVE" which made the first verse be about suicide. The narrator reads the news about a man who had shot himself in a car while perhaps he hadn't noticed that his terrible situation had changed (to what the traffic light might allude to) and thus the situation is ironic/funny – the man shot himself too early to realize things have resolved already. The shot makes his face unrecognizable and so people stand and stare out of shock, wondering if he is ‘famous’.
The narrator continues to tell about a movie that he saw and while people couldn’t bear to watch it, his interest was deeper and he continued till the end. This sets him apart from “crowd of people” once again. The line “I’d love to turn you on”, is what lies underneath all this distancing from the “crowd”, the man is in love and all the news/books/movies are just a façade of interests beneath which are the thoughts about the girl he wants.
The song switches to another narrator who is more upbeat and whose life is more structured and a little more stressful who does not have time to think about either a woman he might love or the news. His life revolves around the mundane activities of life.
The song switches back to the first narrator where he continues to leaf through the newspaper where he notices a peculiar story that he finds funny. But once again, beneath it all are the thoughts about the girl.
I've always thought the song starts with "About a lucky man who made the GRAVE" which made the first verse be about suicide. The narrator reads the news about a man who had shot himself in a car while perhaps he hadn't noticed that his terrible situation had changed (to what the traffic light might allude to) and thus the situation is ironic/funny – the man shot himself too early to realize things have resolved already. The shot makes his face unrecognizable and so people stand and stare out of shock, wondering if he is ‘famous’. The narrator continues to tell about a movie that he saw and while people couldn’t bear to watch it, his interest was deeper and he continued till the end. This sets him apart from “crowd of people” once again. The line “I’d love to turn you on”, is what lies underneath all this distancing from the “crowd”, the man is in love and all the news/books/movies are just a façade of interests beneath which are the thoughts about the girl he wants. The song switches to another narrator who is more upbeat and whose life is more structured and a little more stressful who does not have time to think about either a woman he might love or the news. His life revolves around the mundane activities of life. The song switches back to the first narrator where he continues to leaf through the newspaper where he notices a peculiar story that he finds funny. But once again, beneath it all are the thoughts about the girl.