I know it’s been more than 17 years since the last post but I’ve been listening to this song again and I have some theories to posit.
Each verse is meant to be taken separately. The first verse takes The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” and retells the song from a second-person point of view. The second verse is about WWIII with the town clock’s hands turning backward a reference to the countdown before the nuclear explosion. The chorus describes being in over your head and not knowing it until it’s too late.