Bill

This song shows the consequences of infatuation.

The most sinister song on a sinister album.

I give up. He either did something horrible to her or they did something horrible together. A murder or robbery. But it's a metaphor. He goes from humiliation to love, but there's something very dark on the way . . .

It might be the flip side of "Big Daddy' - that shows the price of superficial possessive lust, this is the real deal.

An alternate theory:

The entire album follows Bill and Ruby Jones - at least tracks 2 ('Mr. Jones'), 4 ('Ruby Dear'), 9 ('Big daddy), and 10 ('Bill). Bıll is Mr. Jones is Big Daddy. Ruby is 'mamma' (in Bıg Daddy) and the 'cute little girl' in Bill. Bill is also formerly square Mr. Jones, who has become a hard-partying busınessman - and has 'gone too far'.

'Bill was a man who grew too big . . .' could be showing that he is the same character in 'Big Daddy'. Which explains why he bought a gun and she fixed her hair - she took a ride 'on a southbound train' to cheat on him, he followed her, and shot her. In this version, you see the relationship once from her cynical perspective in Big Daddy, and again, more idealistically, in Bill, where it lists the things they used to do: '...makin' up religions, dropping out of school/laughing through the summertime . . .'. But he becomes rich, ımportant, and possessive -shown in 'mr Jones' and 'Big Daddy'. She rebels, 'does the dog . . . swimming back and forth when Daddy's not around:' 'One fine day she,ll explode - dont get caught runnıng round, bubbles rise to the top' ends Big Daddy with a warnıng. The other half of this is the cryptic secret about guns in Bill, the lethal consequence of infidelity.

And 'Angels and prostitutes might look the same/and if to Hell we're going, I'll see you there' ties Ruby Dear into this narrative - fitting alongside the 'Angel of God' invoked in 'Bill'.