As witty as those lines are, as much as they sound like they must add up to something, they really don't.
Roddy told the story of this song many times in interviews in the late 80s. I can't find any of the print interviews available online, although a video at https://youtu.be/_X1-h8vWHpc?t=238 gives the one-line version.
After two years of singles that got critical praise but no airplay (even after John Peel tried to break them), he wanted to get on Top of the Pops, so he wrote a "light, straightforward pop song".
The lyrics may seem too clever for a "light, straightforward pop song", but then so are complex jazz chords set to a samba beat, and yet it all worked as intended. Most of the lines came from unrelated notes in Roddy's notebook, and he didn't make any attempt to fit them together into a coherent story or theme, as long as they sounded good. Which they do—the hook is catchy as hell, but without the lyrics it wouldn't be nearly as memorable. Even if they don't mean anything.
Anyway, they had to release the single twice, but the second time, it hit the top 20, they got to appear on Top of the Pops, and then Roddy got to spend the next 5 years trying to shed the "pop boy" image it got him, but that's another story.
As witty as those lines are, as much as they sound like they must add up to something, they really don't.
Roddy told the story of this song many times in interviews in the late 80s. I can't find any of the print interviews available online, although a video at https://youtu.be/_X1-h8vWHpc?t=238 gives the one-line version.
After two years of singles that got critical praise but no airplay (even after John Peel tried to break them), he wanted to get on Top of the Pops, so he wrote a "light, straightforward pop song".
The lyrics may seem too clever for a "light, straightforward pop song", but then so are complex jazz chords set to a samba beat, and yet it all worked as intended. Most of the lines came from unrelated notes in Roddy's notebook, and he didn't make any attempt to fit them together into a coherent story or theme, as long as they sounded good. Which they do—the hook is catchy as hell, but without the lyrics it wouldn't be nearly as memorable. Even if they don't mean anything.
Anyway, they had to release the single twice, but the second time, it hit the top 20, they got to appear on Top of the Pops, and then Roddy got to spend the next 5 years trying to shed the "pop boy" image it got him, but that's another story.