The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
I have been driving all night
Bathing in fluorescent light
Of a western Tennessee gas station
With a pack of two way action
I'm subsisting on a fraction
And I close my eyes and pretend I'm on vacation
But the lights bleed through
And it's all green blue
There goes my imagination
My returns fill me with dread
Will my houseplants be all dead
My significant be with another
I say OK were was I
But I can't repress a sigh
And I think I'm gonna
Yeah I think I'm gonna call my mother
Let the subject wander
To issues of blonde hair
Or something or other
Like a bad haircut
Or a glass of cold water
Some of the things
You wouldn't ordinarily thought
A will all be lost if you let it in
Maybe I'll never ever feel it again
I have been driving all night
Bathing in fluorescent light
Of a western Tennessee gas station
With a pack of two way action
I'm subsisting on a fraction
Of what used to be a sugar free
Half melted bag of tastations
That hard candy sensation
It's sweeping the nation
And it puts my mind in traction
I'm subsisting on a fraction
And I close my eyes and pretend I'm on vacation
But while it melts in my mouth
I'm still driving south
In a TV nation
Like a bad haircut
Or a glass of cold water
Shouldn't I say what I really shouldn't oughta
You spend half a day in
Some of these places like a flash of white light
That's in front of our faces
A state of peristalsis or a parastatic stasis
And we're off the races
Bathing in fluorescent light
Of a western Tennessee gas station
With a pack of two way action
I'm subsisting on a fraction
And I close my eyes and pretend I'm on vacation
But the lights bleed through
And it's all green blue
There goes my imagination
My returns fill me with dread
Will my houseplants be all dead
My significant be with another
I say OK were was I
But I can't repress a sigh
And I think I'm gonna
Yeah I think I'm gonna call my mother
Let the subject wander
To issues of blonde hair
Or something or other
Like a bad haircut
Or a glass of cold water
Some of the things
You wouldn't ordinarily thought
A will all be lost if you let it in
Maybe I'll never ever feel it again
I have been driving all night
Bathing in fluorescent light
Of a western Tennessee gas station
With a pack of two way action
I'm subsisting on a fraction
Of what used to be a sugar free
Half melted bag of tastations
That hard candy sensation
It's sweeping the nation
And it puts my mind in traction
I'm subsisting on a fraction
And I close my eyes and pretend I'm on vacation
But while it melts in my mouth
I'm still driving south
In a TV nation
Like a bad haircut
Or a glass of cold water
Shouldn't I say what I really shouldn't oughta
You spend half a day in
Some of these places like a flash of white light
That's in front of our faces
A state of peristalsis or a parastatic stasis
And we're off the races
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I think this song is about the grueling nature of touring the country with a band. The narrator is clearly struggling to maintain an inspired, positive and perceptive mentality while subsisting on junk food and being barraged by the physical and spiritual ugliness of the deep south. I think Mr. Bird is attempting to explain what it's like to be an artistically sensitive person who, because of the nature of his career, has to travel through parts of America that do not resemble his own enlightened upbringing whatsoever. The dauntingly uninspiring geography of Tennessee seems to throw the fragility of the narrator's values into relief. I think the idea of building a song around a man experienced a revelation about a world that is largely apathetic to his abstract aesthetic goals is very interesting and also well-executed.
EXPERIENCING a revelation, rather.
I think you're reading your own rather narrow-minded, ugly bigotry towards the South into it. Clearly you've never been to Tennessee, there's nothing "uninspiring" about the geography. Although I do agree that it's about being lonely on the road.