I like an interpretation I've seen elsewhere on the web (posted by Yakbutter).
"I think this song is about time and references his earlier song of that name. In the lyrics of ‘Time’ is the line ‘he flexes like a whore’. Don’t worry that the fact that the whore is now a ‘she’. Time has no gender. In the second line he writes ‘hold your mad hands’. These are the hands of a clock. The ticking of a clock is represented by the accelrating electronic beat as time goes by faster and begins to draw to his end. I feel that the line ‘that was patrol, this is the war’ contrast his perception of time now compared to how he perceived time when he wrote the earlier song. There is a final clue in the subject of the John Ford play on which the title is based. The central theme of that play is incest which resonates with the famous line from ‘Time’ – ‘incestuous and vain’.
Just to add to that, 'kept my cock' could refer to the loss of the libido and of the cockiness of his youth.
A pity that time has moved on so easily from him and into other's embrace.
I like an interpretation I've seen elsewhere on the web (posted by Yakbutter).
"I think this song is about time and references his earlier song of that name. In the lyrics of ‘Time’ is the line ‘he flexes like a whore’. Don’t worry that the fact that the whore is now a ‘she’. Time has no gender. In the second line he writes ‘hold your mad hands’. These are the hands of a clock. The ticking of a clock is represented by the accelrating electronic beat as time goes by faster and begins to draw to his end. I feel that the line ‘that was patrol, this is the war’ contrast his perception of time now compared to how he perceived time when he wrote the earlier song. There is a final clue in the subject of the John Ford play on which the title is based. The central theme of that play is incest which resonates with the famous line from ‘Time’ – ‘incestuous and vain’.
Just to add to that, 'kept my cock' could refer to the loss of the libido and of the cockiness of his youth.
A pity that time has moved on so easily from him and into other's embrace.