"Somewhere in this song a little clue to something"
Bob sings this line with almost precisely the same melody as a line in an older song, "Poison Years" from his solo album Workbook:
"Treason is the reason for my poison years"
And this, apparently, is a clue. To what?
"Poison Years" (which includes a straightforward reference to death by hanging) is--at least, in part--about Husker Du manager David Savoy's suicide.
Then the bitterly angry "JC Auto" (so it sounds to me) has the line, "You'll be sorry when I'm gone"
Obviously (in retrospect) Bob didn't go through with it...but one guesses that a follow-up was on his mind. A lot.
"I can't let go/Short of the long holiday/I think you know what I've been saying"
The title is short for "jesus christ autobiography" I would think. The Bob-as-Christ-figure symbolism is all over Beaster, including the title and cover art. and the song does have a kind of autobiographical feel, as if he's making a gigantic effort to exorcise a lifetime's worth of demon's in a few minutes.
"Somewhere in this song a little clue to something"
Bob sings this line with almost precisely the same melody as a line in an older song, "Poison Years" from his solo album Workbook:
"Treason is the reason for my poison years"
And this, apparently, is a clue. To what?
"Poison Years" (which includes a straightforward reference to death by hanging) is--at least, in part--about Husker Du manager David Savoy's suicide.
Then the bitterly angry "JC Auto" (so it sounds to me) has the line, "You'll be sorry when I'm gone"
Obviously (in retrospect) Bob didn't go through with it...but one guesses that a follow-up was on his mind. A lot.
"I can't let go/Short of the long holiday/I think you know what I've been saying"
The title is short for "jesus christ autobiography" I would think. The Bob-as-Christ-figure symbolism is all over Beaster, including the title and cover art. and the song does have a kind of autobiographical feel, as if he's making a gigantic effort to exorcise a lifetime's worth of demon's in a few minutes.