Hitchhiking

…Also high on that list would be Roger Waters. What do you suppose it means that 5:01AM The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking contains a verse dedicated to Yoko Ono, and not in a very flattering manner?

An angel on a Harley
Pulls across to greet a fellow rolling stone
Puts his bike up on it’s stand
Leans back and then extends
A scarred and greasy hand…he said
How ya doin bro?…where ya been?…where ya goin’?
Then he takes your hand
In some strange Californian handshake
And breaks the bone
Have a nice day

A housewife from Encino
Whose husband’s on the golf course
With his book of rules
Breaks and makes a ‘U’ and idles back
To take a second look at you
You flex your rod
Fish takes the hook
Sweet vodka and tobacco in her breath
Another number in your little black book

These are the pros and cons of hitchhiking
These are the pros and cons of hitchhiking
Oh babe, I must be dreaming
I’m standing on the leading edge
The Eastern seaboard spread before my eyes
“Jump” says Yoko Ono
“I’m too scared and too good looking” I cried
“Go on”, she says
“Why don’t you give it a try?
Why prolong the agony all men must die”
Do you remember Dick Tracy?
Do you remember Shane?
And mother wants you
Could you see him selling tickets
Where the buzzard circles over
Shane
The body on the plain
Did you understand the music Yoko
Or was it all in vain?
Shane
The bitch said something mystical “Herro”
So I stepped back on the kerb again

These are the pros and cons of hitchhiking
These are the pros and cons of hitchhiking
Oh babe, I must be dreaming again

These are the pros and cons of hitchhiking

There aren’t really very elaborate theories on the overall narrative of Pros and Cons, other than a dream about infidelity. Doesn’t it seem that Yoko here is tempting someone toward infidelity? Which of course, actually took place with John. Then, after referencing Shane (and mother wants you, referencing temptation towards infidelity again) Roger Waters makes an extremely compelling allusion.

Could you see him selling tickets
Where the buzzard circles over

Hmmm…sort of like this?

Seems like he’s sort of implying a punishment for infidelity, which maybe someone understood upfront and his new partner said go ahead (all men must die). In the song, the bitch said something mystical (a japanese hello) and so the character changes his mind about hitchhiking, meaning infidelity. Just riffing here…

Then he asks Yoko if she understood the music, possibly alluding to a message in John’s songs that she may or may not have understood.

There actually is one concrete instance of this exact scenario in a Beatles song; a Beatles video actually.

In the Blue Jay Way segment of Magical Mystery Tour, John sits in a black car (brunette) with a white (blonde) car opposite. On the blonde side (his first wife Cynthia) is a message stating Thank You Very, with a cup. I always saw this in the biblical sense of if this is my cup I’ll learn to drink it. Which kind of fits with doing the right thing after knocking up your girlfriend.

The dark (Yoko) side which is the car John is sitting in, has a message saying 2 wives and kid to support, which is what eventually took place. Interestingly, this visual came quite a few months before John actually took up with Yoko, as far as anyone is aware (but a year after they first met).

It seems as if Roger Waters is saying more than what he’s ever come out and said in this song (and yes I know about the drummer/dream explanation, but there’s probably a good reason he thought that dream would fit in the album.)

By the way, Waters’ band during the recording of Pros and Cons and the subsequent tour, was called the Bleeding Hearts Band.

Read more: http://mysterytramp.proboards.com/thread/2/922?page=33#ixzz579BKEFkc