I love this song and it’s a perfect closer for the album. I’ve always puzzled over the opening lines, though. In fact, I’ve had discussions with friends over them. But I’m not talking about the lyrics of the song here. I’m referring to the brief exchange between what I assume are members of the band before the song actually begins. The conversation goes as follows:
Laaaaa, dadadada! cough
Is there an ashtray out here or what?
Can we smoke in here?
Yeah, Eric’s got those pockets.
Specifically, it is this last line that intrigues me. What pockets could he possibly be talking about? They are talking about smoking and ashtrays - and the line about the pockets is in response to the query about whether there is an ashtray present. Therefore, I’m compelled to believe that what Eric has are some kind of pockets that can be used as ashtrays.
This completely baffles me. Is he referring to pockets in an article of clothing? If so, it would be very bizarre to ash cigarettes into someone’s pants or shirt pockets.
I’m considering a second possibility. The garage of my mother’s house has, on the wall, a big canvas tool-storage thing, which is basically a series of pockets. Heavy-duty canvas with mesh webbing, very durable and solid. Very much like the thing on the side of this bag, but obviously larger. What I am thinking, is that the band is rehearsing in a garage studio, and that there actually is one of those things on the wall, and the band members are ashing their cigarettes into it. Could that be it?
This whole scenario has puzzled me for the longest time. What do you all think?
