Well, all of the verses describe modern situations where a voice would be muffled and distorted (fast food drive thru windows, talking car alarms, the voice box at the door of apartment buildings, etc.), and of course because it's recorded on wax cylinder, the song itself is also muffled and distorted. So I guess it's saying that we have all this high tech audio equipment around, but you still can't understand the guy at the drive-thru window.
Well, all of the verses describe modern situations where a voice would be muffled and distorted (fast food drive thru windows, talking car alarms, the voice box at the door of apartment buildings, etc.), and of course because it's recorded on wax cylinder, the song itself is also muffled and distorted. So I guess it's saying that we have all this high tech audio equipment around, but you still can't understand the guy at the drive-thru window.