I think this song is about being on the brink of success, as The Hip were when Gord wrote this song.
This song was written for their first full-length album after getting signed. "New Orleans" is a metaphor for a simpler time of dancing and drinking, back before they got signed into a record deal. That life is now disappearing for them ("sinking") and Gord doesn't want to "swim", or play along with all the crap that's required to succeed in the record industry. That simpler time is getting hard to remember (it's "muddy" and he's "got no picture postcards/souvenirs") and it seems like he was a different person before he was signed (his baby don't know him when he talks about that time in his life).
Colonel Tom, as somebody else said, was Elvis' manager, who basically defined the role of a band manager. This is probably in reference to somebody who Gord things of as being an equally good manager. The Hip (Canadian, and thus from "The Great White North") recorded this album in Memphis ("The South"), and maybe they were thinking of changing their sound to appeal to a broader audience ("tie yourself up for a deal") but their manager told them not to sell out ("you gotta do what you feel is real").
The metaphor "pale as a light bulb hanging on a wire" works on multiple levels. Getting signed and entering this new world that is the music industry has made him very nervous, and thus, very pale; pale, even, as a light bulb (which are known to hang on wires). In fact, he's so very nervous that he's as pale as he would be if he was about to fall to his death and was hanging on to a dangling wire for dear life. Perhaps he's even worried that his music career is going to fall and die.
Part of launching your career in the record industry involved sucking up to the labels, thus, "sucking up to someone just to stoke the fire". He's looking around at the stars in the record industry ("checking out the highlights of the scenery") and he can just barely imagine reaching a fraction of that fame ("saw a little cloud that looked a little like me").
The "river" that he mentions in the first and last verse is my favourite metaphor; it's the fast moving stream of success. He's still anchored to a normal, stable life ("the banks") but he can feel just how fast the river moves.
I think this song is about being on the brink of success, as The Hip were when Gord wrote this song.
This song was written for their first full-length album after getting signed. "New Orleans" is a metaphor for a simpler time of dancing and drinking, back before they got signed into a record deal. That life is now disappearing for them ("sinking") and Gord doesn't want to "swim", or play along with all the crap that's required to succeed in the record industry. That simpler time is getting hard to remember (it's "muddy" and he's "got no picture postcards/souvenirs") and it seems like he was a different person before he was signed (his baby don't know him when he talks about that time in his life).
Colonel Tom, as somebody else said, was Elvis' manager, who basically defined the role of a band manager. This is probably in reference to somebody who Gord things of as being an equally good manager. The Hip (Canadian, and thus from "The Great White North") recorded this album in Memphis ("The South"), and maybe they were thinking of changing their sound to appeal to a broader audience ("tie yourself up for a deal") but their manager told them not to sell out ("you gotta do what you feel is real").
The metaphor "pale as a light bulb hanging on a wire" works on multiple levels. Getting signed and entering this new world that is the music industry has made him very nervous, and thus, very pale; pale, even, as a light bulb (which are known to hang on wires). In fact, he's so very nervous that he's as pale as he would be if he was about to fall to his death and was hanging on to a dangling wire for dear life. Perhaps he's even worried that his music career is going to fall and die.
Part of launching your career in the record industry involved sucking up to the labels, thus, "sucking up to someone just to stoke the fire". He's looking around at the stars in the record industry ("checking out the highlights of the scenery") and he can just barely imagine reaching a fraction of that fame ("saw a little cloud that looked a little like me").
The "river" that he mentions in the first and last verse is my favourite metaphor; it's the fast moving stream of success. He's still anchored to a normal, stable life ("the banks") but he can feel just how fast the river moves.