In interviews Bob has said that his songwriting is affected by the fact that he taught grade school kids for so many years, so that his lyrics are often akin to "fairy tales for grown-ups". This one falls into that category, I think.
He seems to be in some kind of alternate world or dimension, and then encounters these "freak" personages. It's similar to the song "Big Boring Wedding"--the one where the chorus goes "pass the word the chicks are back," (a line lifted from a very outdated advertisement I think). In BBW he sings "I have entered a shiny new realm, a very different and very spoiled world...Colin, thank you for such delicious pie."
(hmmm, another "pie" reference... Bob is a fanatical record collector. I wonder--given the prior reference to oral sex--whether he mentally associates "pie" with pudenda. I'm thinking of the notorious album cover from the late '60s or early '70s in which a grandmotherly woman is proferring a pie with one slice already cut out -- and if you look closely at the place where the slice is missing, it looks very much like female genitalia. Sorry can't recall the name of the band or LP, but I think the cover was by far the most memorable thing they did, anyway)
I've wondered whether the lines in "Jar of Cardinals" might also refer to oral sex...specificially: "She was high and I was low/Sitting in a bungalow/Eating something wonderful/Never ever getting full" (hmm, this also has that nursery rhyme quality to it)
I don't think there's any deep meaning here. It's surreal and funny. "I will be eternally hateful" is classic. Bob's ease with wordplay ought to be more celebrated, but I'd guess GbV's music was just too weird to ever have gained a mass audience.
In interviews Bob has said that his songwriting is affected by the fact that he taught grade school kids for so many years, so that his lyrics are often akin to "fairy tales for grown-ups". This one falls into that category, I think.
He seems to be in some kind of alternate world or dimension, and then encounters these "freak" personages. It's similar to the song "Big Boring Wedding"--the one where the chorus goes "pass the word the chicks are back," (a line lifted from a very outdated advertisement I think). In BBW he sings "I have entered a shiny new realm, a very different and very spoiled world...Colin, thank you for such delicious pie."
(hmmm, another "pie" reference... Bob is a fanatical record collector. I wonder--given the prior reference to oral sex--whether he mentally associates "pie" with pudenda. I'm thinking of the notorious album cover from the late '60s or early '70s in which a grandmotherly woman is proferring a pie with one slice already cut out -- and if you look closely at the place where the slice is missing, it looks very much like female genitalia. Sorry can't recall the name of the band or LP, but I think the cover was by far the most memorable thing they did, anyway)
I've wondered whether the lines in "Jar of Cardinals" might also refer to oral sex...specificially: "She was high and I was low/Sitting in a bungalow/Eating something wonderful/Never ever getting full" (hmm, this also has that nursery rhyme quality to it)
I don't think there's any deep meaning here. It's surreal and funny. "I will be eternally hateful" is classic. Bob's ease with wordplay ought to be more celebrated, but I'd guess GbV's music was just too weird to ever have gained a mass audience.