Lyric discussion by morbid morag 

Cover art for Night of the Lotus Eaters lyrics by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

I get the Odyssey references & the general gist of the song, but I don't understand the bit in the middle where the narrator seems to be a merman, or maybe a fake merman, in some kind of fairground show. There's a similar image in 'Midnight Man' where he refers to his dorsal fin. Very strange...