The song begins with the beginning of a relationship, when Caroline (the narrator, whose name isn't given in the song but which we know from the rest of the album) sees John boxing at the fair in Richmond, Virginia. But there's a big leap in time and events halfway though, with "But numbers come up". So at some point John was drafted and in Kuala Lumpur (!), and Caroline is singing this from some time far in the future with respect to the beginning of the song. Now the midway itself is gone and it would seem that the memory of John himself is fading. So the song brackets the beginning and the epilogue of a relationship. But what happened? How did John get drafted, how did they lose touch? The song doesn't tell us.
What is left is a memory of a memory, and a pervasive melancholy.
The song begins with the beginning of a relationship, when Caroline (the narrator, whose name isn't given in the song but which we know from the rest of the album) sees John boxing at the fair in Richmond, Virginia. But there's a big leap in time and events halfway though, with "But numbers come up". So at some point John was drafted and in Kuala Lumpur (!), and Caroline is singing this from some time far in the future with respect to the beginning of the song. Now the midway itself is gone and it would seem that the memory of John himself is fading. So the song brackets the beginning and the epilogue of a relationship. But what happened? How did John get drafted, how did they lose touch? The song doesn't tell us.
What is left is a memory of a memory, and a pervasive melancholy.