God, I could start a thread on JUST Wilco songs. For examples:
“Take off your bandaid cuz I don’t believe in touchdowns”
“His heart’s in a bowl behind the bank”
“I am an American aquarium drinker”
“You fool me with a kiss of kidsmoke from a microscopic home”
I usually like John Lennon’s lyrics but this is just dumb:
“There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done.
Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung.”
from All You Need is Love
Lennon’s got a lot of lines like that. What’s worse, he sounds pretentious as all hell whenever he does it, like there’s some deep meaning going on there. Granted, half the time he was just making up random lines to torque with people who tried to figure out what the songs were “about”.
As for Pink Floyd, I like to think of that line as a clever cry against the declining education system. “We don’t need no education,” once you parse the double negative, becomes “We need education!” It’s a cry for help! And the poor souls can’t even properly express their needs! 
Feelin no pain is (or once was) a euphemism for being drunk. He saying sometimes he thinks it is a shame to sober up.
Oh yeah, I have heard that before now that I think about it.
If he thinks it’s a shame that he’s feeling no pain, the it would mean that he’s ashamed that he gets drunk to feel better. Which does make sense. Thank you.
Here’s my rap…
“Well, I’m Wheresgeorge04 and I’m here to say…”
Joe
Chiquita Banana was a rapper? Who knew?
Thinking about it, I think maybe the word “wound” should be replaced by the word “wind”. I think that maybe what was meant, though got garbled somehow. But that’s just a guess.
On that note, I’ll cite Like a Rollin’ Stone:
Okay, the song is about someone who used to be well-to-do now being down on their luck and dirt broke, and homeless. So the comparisons are about the former good life looking down on the poor, now finding yourself one of those poor and having to reassess your previous beliefs. Fine.
I get most of the metaphors and whatnot, but this one stumps me. I know a “chrome horse” is a motorcycle, but “with your diplomat”? Who carries a Siamese cat on his shoulder?
A cigar? Or a DeSoto?
A cartoon villain?
I’m probably way off, but I assumed a guy who’d cleaned up his act was promising his still-messed-up girlfriend he’d stick around but was no longer sharing her self-destructive pastimes. He’ll be there for her but won’t be joining her.
I like your interpretation of the double negative.
I was so bugged by those lyrics that I re-wrote them for karaoke:
We don’t need their “public schooling.”
We don’t need their thought-control
Indoctrination in the classroom.
Bureaucrats will eat your soul.
State! hammers! square peg in round hole!
What they sell is paving stones for the short road to Hell.
What they sell is paving stones for the short road to Hell.
We don’t need your “public schooling.”
We don’t need your thought-control
Indoctrination in the classroom.
Bureaucrats: Hands off my soul!
Hey, statists–we’ve scoped out your goal!
We can tell, you’re paving stones on the short road to Hell.
We can tell, you’re paving stones on the short road to Hell.
[Spoken on fade-out] If we don’t make people go to school, how will they ever learn anything?
They’ll all be too stupid if they’re not made to learn!
So if I follow this line of thought, Dylan is saying,
“you used to think you were so cool riding around on your motorcycle, smoking cigars (that have a siamese cat as a logo?), but now how do you feel about those cigars when you are broke and have cancer?”
Or something? Because “your diplomat” with “a Siamese cat” is apparently the agent that took from “you” everything that he could steal.
Interesting…
How exactly do you figure that?
The song basically says that bad procedure is par for the course.
chorus; That’s the night the lights went out in georgia
That’s the night that they hung an innocent man
Don’t trust your soul to no back woods southern lawyer
Cause the judge in the towns got bloodstains on his hand
The judge said guilty in a make believe trial
Slapped the sherrif on the back with a smile and said
Suppers waiting at home and I got to get to it
Sounds like justice was pretty haphazard all the time.
I’m pretty sure this song was written about loneliness and masturbation
so, it kinda makes sense.
I’m working on a rewrite for this, update it a bit
Gimme crack whore , and I don’t care
cause I’m so F**kin’ high
Why did the lights go out? Is it a reference to the movie cliché of lights dimming when the electric chair is used?
If so, it’s a strange thing to happen when they hung someone.
I don’t really detect any hint of racism in that song.
What bothers me is “hung” instead of “hanged.”
given the setting and feel of the song, I always assumed this was about a guy in real estate who dreamed of being a novelist.
It depends. I’m one writer among thousands in this town, and there’s a difference between writing to please other writers or the few who might get that reference , and writing for the general public.
If the emotion in the song is strong and other lyrics are strong people will accept something obscure, or something personal they don’t understand. IMO
If it’s just clever for clever’s sake , not so much. I have a couple of songs I think are a hoot , but have to face the fact that the average listener isn’t going to get it or appreciate it unless they’ve heard the song enough and really listened.
First you have to have a song that makes them want to do that.
Hilarious. Also love Kris and that song and never noticed that before.
Looking at the lyrics if he had said
“Letting go of yesterday” etc, it would have made sense, and the listener would have implied this wonderful woman had inspired him to do so. As it is , is is a Huh?? Funny.
I’m thinking you actually did try yesterday Mr.