This is a prototypical Eno song, upbeat tune, very sinister lyrics. Though the "Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch" refers to an actual person (an African-American from Paw Paw, Michigan with alleged pyrokinetic abilities), the "Paw Paw" is also Dadaistic and allows Eno to make his narrator seem very angry, on the edge of unreason.
The third stanza can be taken either as a description of the narrator setting his lost love and her paramour ("the paw paw negro blowtorch") afire in their love bed, or of the paramour's intense but inept love-making
("He's breathing like a furnace so I'll
See you later, alligator
He'll set the sheets on fire
Mmm, quite a burning lover
Now he'll barbecue your kitten
Just another learner lover")
The "Now he'll barbecue your kitten" is almost certainly meant to be an ambiguous reference to his love's pudendum ("kitty" being a cognate in English with "pussy").
"Just another learner lover" is a parting shot at the girl he's talking to... that the man she's seeing instead of him is inexperienced, all physical passion, no substance.
An early case of Eno taking a meme (like "the paw paw negro blowtorch") and using it for his own ends to make a song euphonious while adding emotional depth unrelated to the original meaning of the meme. `
This is a prototypical Eno song, upbeat tune, very sinister lyrics. Though the "Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch" refers to an actual person (an African-American from Paw Paw, Michigan with alleged pyrokinetic abilities), the "Paw Paw" is also Dadaistic and allows Eno to make his narrator seem very angry, on the edge of unreason.
The third stanza can be taken either as a description of the narrator setting his lost love and her paramour ("the paw paw negro blowtorch") afire in their love bed, or of the paramour's intense but inept love-making
("He's breathing like a furnace so I'll See you later, alligator He'll set the sheets on fire Mmm, quite a burning lover Now he'll barbecue your kitten Just another learner lover")
The "Now he'll barbecue your kitten" is almost certainly meant to be an ambiguous reference to his love's pudendum ("kitty" being a cognate in English with "pussy").
"Just another learner lover" is a parting shot at the girl he's talking to... that the man she's seeing instead of him is inexperienced, all physical passion, no substance.
An early case of Eno taking a meme (like "the paw paw negro blowtorch") and using it for his own ends to make a song euphonious while adding emotional depth unrelated to the original meaning of the meme. `