Lyric discussion by lemgruber 

Cover art for Ashtray Heart lyrics by Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band

I agree with Malkmusianon. Considering the time when this song was written, in which Don's music quality was decreasing immensely for years and he felt obligated to write more conventional music because of his crushing commercial failure in the past, obviously he was feeling very angry and frustrated with his art, his public and himself. In my opinion this album is the best of his later phase, this song in particular is amazing.